I asked help from my deviantart community to take this site done, friends from Adobe as well , but it was still there. Someone told me , maybe you’re getting popular , lol.

You might also want to check the jon engle vs. stockart story >

http://www.thelogofactory.com/logo_blog/index.php/anti-spec-work-parable/

In my case, I’ve done well in all circumstances. I’ve managed to get all stolen content taken down, by various means. I even wrote a blog entry about it all, with suggestions on how to track content and what to do if it’s stolen (it’s on my blog in the ‘free stuff’ list).

What really drives me nuts is the wholesale theft. I mean, it’s not as if I’d mind people using something I wrote – frequently for free – if they’d just ASK first and provide me with a backlink and a byline! But they don’t bother. They just take it. Again, I say – how stupid are these people?

I for one always do private registrations because a) identity theft is a real crime and yes, it can happen to you too, especially if you’re ignorant enough to go posting your private contact info. for the entire world of criminals to freely access. The exception here being legitimate businesses, who naturally will input their business contact information (which is not the same as registering as a private individual). b) It is my legitimate right to protect my privacy online.

Thanks for jumping into the conversation.

As for your question about fair use, as I understand it there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all answer. There are so many different types of copyrighted material (of all different lengths) out there. To be safe, when in doubt contact the author and ask permission to use the material.

The U.S. Copyright Office addresses fair use here: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107 (section 107),

For more information you can also look at other informative sources on copyright issues, such as Jonathon Bailey’s excellent Plagiarism Today site (see his earlier comment).

“I even went through WhoIs.net and the site owner’s contact info was marked private, which indicates to me that they know they’re not totally above board.”

not necessarily true. as a single woman living alone and working from her home, my domain registration info by default contains my phone and home address. phone number not such a big deal as it is on my web site. but the address i do my best to seriously protect. i don’t want even the possibility of someone–or more sinisterly, some bot–managing to extract it from whois or anywhere else.

for what it’s worth, my hosting service forwards and correspondence to the actual registrant. i would expect this be standard business practice for any hosting service providing anonymous registrations.

having said all that, i am diligent about plagiarism education and awareness and constantly remind my web design students they must give credit for any and all text and images they use in their projects; including credit to themselves if it is original work.

the discussion usually contains points like:

–it’s a matter of respect, for yourself, your work, and the work of others;

–citing and crediting lets you piggyback on the expertise of others; when you cite you indicate you are part of a larger community of thought which enhances your own credibility

–as a creator of intellectual property, you expect credit for your own work when it is used by others–what goes around comes around.

@ Laura Spenser (and others), question for you…assuming all proper credit and a link back to the original composition is given, how much excerpting is too much in your eyes?

You’ve added a lot of valuable insights to the post.

Hopefully, if we make enough noise about this problem we can at least make a few content thieves think twice before they use material that isn’t theirs.