Thursday, October 11, 2012

A modest (gunblogging) proposal

Linoge provides a service to the world, documenting the long history of copyright infringement at the site The Truth About Guns (no link, sorry - I only link to original sources).

It made me wonder what the community might do.  Offered as a modest proposal to reduce the amount of thievery is this suggestion: every gunblogger swipe one of his posts, once each week.  Just tag it in the category "Robert Farago and The Truth About Guns swipes content and infringes copyright".  A half dozen or dozen folks doing this will give a regular diet of swipery aimed back at him.

There are two benefits to this strategy, both of which will make the Internet a nicer place.

1. Mr. Farago will find that sauce for the goose is just as tasty when applied to the gander.  In particular it will give him a visceral understanding of the meaning of the expression if it's on the net it's fair game.

2. Google is very likely to start recognizing the HTML metadata Robert Farago and The Truth About Guns swipes content and infringes copyright.  Interesting search results might be forthcoming.

It is a modest proposal, as I said.  Doubtless the plan could be improved.  So get improving.

5 comments:

Home on the Range said...

I too have had the "courtesy of Home on the Range" on his blog where there was no such courtesy as I never gave him permission.

I like your idea, except I don't think he HAS any original content.

He's the gunblogging community version of "Roseanne Barr for President",

Rick C said...

Why are people not filing DMCA takedown notices?

Tango said...

Because the website administrator is the one that has to honor the DMCA takedowns and that's him.

Broken Andy said...

Stealing content that is not yours is not right even if he's done it to you. It also gives him good grounds for legal action, and while you may prevail doing so could be monetarily and emotionally costly.

Now, getting gunbloggers to use their platforms to seed Google with "Robert Farago is a d-bag" or similar content sounds like an excellent idea.

Linoge said...

Brigid - Could you email me (linoge (at) wallsofthecity (dot) net) with the particulars of your Faragosis encounter? I would love to add it to the list...

[break]

While Robert does appear to have given everyone permission to steal his work without the courtesy of even so much as a link-back or recognition of where it came from, I will pass on sinking to his level. A far more devious mind than mine had this idea, though - everyone add "The Truth About Guns" to their blogrolls, but have the link point to my expose, rather than their site.

:)