Love it? Then protect It.

My friend MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher fame has recently been dealing with theft of articles from her website. I post a link to this message because I agree entirely with her righteous anger. I've noticed a proliferation of theft from my own site and blog this past month: whole entire posts or huge sections of posts without any link back or acknowledgement that I wrote it --and no way for the reader to go back to the original to find out.

Links are what drive internet traffic and traffic is what drives ad rates and general awareness. Awareness is a big deal. It leads to larger readerships and freelance and career opportunities for writers whose work you enjoy. I don't know why people lift articles without credit but it's bottom feeder behavior. Sometimes the thievery is baffling: recently I found a stolen post of mine "to the boyfriend on his birthday" that would make no damn sense anywhere but right here. And even then it wouldn't be of much or any interest to a non-regular. If you see my stuff elsewhere --without attribution or linkbacks. It's definitely OK to quote stuff and linkback -- please call people on their shit and notify me. I have to send nasty e-mails and monitor the thieves and alert the other people they're stealing from (usually if they steal from one site they steal from others). Should you happen to chance upon stolen items, please notify me. It'll make my life easier.