FeedWordPress: Content Theft with Consequences

Today, while searching for a different WordPress plugin, I ran across this troubling post from John TP from last week:

My blog posts have been reblogged a few times in Splogs in the past and that too directly from my feeds. After switching to partial feeds, I never faced this problem until recently a few splogs like http://weblog-pla.net have started it again. This raised my curosity as to how they do this and that too automated…I found two WordPress Plugins that these spammers use- Autoblog and FeedWordPress….I highly recommend that you do not use these WordPress Plugins. Earning money through these methods is not safe and can get you banned by the Adsense team.

John’s discussion of these plugins is ambiguous at best. In fact, given the space he devotes to their features and functions, one might even think his goal is to encourage their use without being overtly encouraging. If John really didn’t want to encourage their use, he should be stronger in his condemnation of them.

In addition to “I highly recommend that you do not use these WordPress Plugins. Earning money through these methods is not safe and can get you banned by the Adsense team” John should note that losing out on Google Adsense advertising revenue the least potential consequence.

RSS feeds are published for individual, private consumption; they are not a blanket license to, or waiver of, reprint rights. Taking and republshing content–no matter how much or how little–without the original author’s permission is a violation of U.S. and international Copyright laws. There are exceptions, of course, detailed in the Fair Use doctrine, but such exceptions are very specific and do not apply to the vast majority of sites using FeedWordPress, Autoblog, and the like. In fact, Charles Johnson, the creator of FeedWordPress is in constant and frequent violation of copyright law because the apparent majority of his blog’s content is stolen without the original authors’ permission.

This entry, for example, does meet Fair Use criteria because I have quoted John TP’s content as part of a critical discussion in which I respond to John’s work instead of republishing it as if it were a native part of my blog. In over-simplified terms for those newbie bloggers: blockquote = has a chance of being okay adding complete RSS/Atom feed items to your blog without permission = definitely not okay.

Calling a site “an aggregator” does not exempt it from the laws or prosecution to enforce the laws protecting other content creators and owners.

Anyone contemplating “splogging” or even just pulling others’ related content into their blogs should know that, for each and every post or excerpt incorporated without the original author’s permission, U.S. federal law allows for a fine of up to US$50,000 plus potential damages to be awarded to the victim of the theft. In addition to the monetary cost, each post stolen could earn the thief a year in a federal penitary–and that’s if he can pay; if he can’t, the amount of potential prison time increases.

Contrary to popular Internet misinformation, copyright infringement is prosecutable regardless of any or all of: one’s ignorance of the laws, one’s intents, or whether one actually makes money from the theft. Stealing a blog post and reprinting it on a site without ads can net you a $50,000 fine and a year as Bubba’s wife as easily as reprinting onto a site with ads.

Losing Adsense eligibility will seem like a very insignificant consequence while defending against a $5 million lawsuit in a far away state.

How likely is it that someone will actually sue if his article winds up reprinted on you blog? Well, it depends on whose work you steal. A professional content site like the ones I publish will sue to protect its intellectual property–in fact, I have sued for that very reason and prevailed. Under the law, content creators/owners are obligated to aggressively protect their intellectual property, up to, and including, prosecution.

While the average content thief (a classification that includes “splogs” but also any blog or Website using content not of its own creation without permission) may steal from hundreds of other content creators and see no suit or other consequences, the difference is not the thief–it’s the content creator. Every victim of content theft has the right and obligation to go after the thief. More and more creators are learning this, which means the odds of content thieves being sued–even by the average Joe blogger–are increasing. One may steal one hundred RSS feeds with no reaction, but that one-hundred-and-first could put the thief into an orange jumpsuit and with a lein against his wages for the next fifty years.

If you use FeedWordPress, Autoblog, or any other automatic content republisher, employ it only with the permission of those who own the content you want to use. It’s a simple process: Go to the blog you like, find a contact e-mail address or form, and ask: “I have a blog at http://yoursite.com, which covers this, this, and this. I’ve been really impressed with your content and know my readers would like it, too. Could I get your permission to reprint your RSS feed content within my blog as individual posts–with links back to your blog, of course?”

As always, I am not a bar-certified lawyer, nor was I educated as an attorney. Do not believe me. Do not believe any claims about copyright or other intellectual property law you find on the Internet–from anyone. Do your own research into the subject. Google is not a research tool on copyright law and do’s and dont’s; there is so much confusion, misinformation, and, occassionally, disinformation that the truth is buried too far down in Google’s results. Go to the source for copyright law information, the United States Copyright Office. It’s free to get the information you need to protect yourself and remain legal.

If you have more specific questions about copyright, buy an hour of a intellectual property lawyer’s time; you’ll find them listed in your local Yellow Pages under the heading of “Patent & Trademark Attorneys” (copyright, trademark, and patents are all intellectual property law served by the same attorneys).