An open letter to Line56

Managing Editor

Line56

Dear Sir,

You oversee a seemingly professional online technology magazine named Line56. I was intrigued today to see on your home page a link to an article called “Is Web 2.0 Enterprise Ready?,” which happens to be the same title as a recent post I wrote for this blog. I clicked on the link and landed on another page on your site where I found that not only was the title the same as my post’s but that the article was, in fact, the post that I had written. You reprinted on your commercial site, beside advertisements, an article written by me, in its entirety, without my permission. You did not even bother to provide any link back to my site or even to mention the name of my site. Yes, you listed my name as the “source,” but when you click on my name you are directed to a generic Line56 “editorial feedback” form.

I’m just curious. Are you under the impression that copyright laws somehow do not apply to blogs and that you can freely pilfer another person’s writing and republish it on your own site at your pleasure? Are you, in other words, a scoundrel by trade or merely by ignorance?

Awaiting your reply with great interest,

I remain (apparently) your humble servant,

Nicholas Carr

POSTSCRIPT: The site has removed my article.

POSTSCRIPT 2: I have removed the name of the managing editor from this post, as it was appearing near the top of Google searches on his name, which seemed unfair now that many months have gone by.

17 thoughts on “An open letter to Line56”

  3. vinnie mirchandani

    Dear Mr. Carr:

    “Mr. Carr you should feel privileged we bother to read your stuff and choose to provide you wider circulation. We were under the impression your blog was something about vanity. We did try to be fair and share with you at the rate of $ .0001 for every hit we have received for your article. Since that comes to 40c, your Amazon honor system would not take a contribution less than a dollar. As a fellow scoundrel you know it is diffcult o trust people over the web – if you can arrange a transfer of 60c, we will happily contribute $ 1 there.”

    Nick, it is shitty but they did credit you. I have seen blogs outright lifted without attribution.

    Any thoughts on solutions.

  5. Steve Duplessie

    Nick, you just made $50,000. If they are even remotely real, you have an uncontestable lawsuit that should net you $50k – and all costs if you need to pursue it. I’ve been able to get that when companies have only internally distributed some of my copyrighted materials without the right – on two different occasions – it seems to be the number. If they are a scam it may be tough, but then you can probably put them out of business. A former collegue who runs TechTarget formally had a business called Reliability Ratings – and the same thing occurred to him on several occasions, always leading to a handsome payout. Be aggressive if you are right, screw the pirates.

  7. Kim Klaver

    Hi Nicholas:

    I was appalled to read they’d be so careless or cavalier about your work, which I love madly and which helps me move my own brain out of neutral…anyway I left a comment on their site, and just got this back:

    —

    From: john@line56.com

    Subject: RE: L56 Article Feedback: Is Web 2.0 Enterprise Ready?

    Date: April 28, 2006 1:44:17 PM CDT

    To: Kim@bananamarketing.com

    Hi Kim,

    That’s exactly what our editors are supposed to do, I’m not sure where the

    mistake happened, I’ve written our managing editor and he should be taking

    care of it…

    thanks for your feedback,

    John Akin

    Business and IT Manager

    Line56 Media

    —

    So maybe just scoundrel out of ignorance. Giving them the benefit of the doubt feels better.

    Kim

    http://kimklaverblogs.com

  8. Dion Hinchcliffe

    I’m sure it’s already occurred to Mr. Carr that he’s bringing them far more attention that they deserve.

    I too have had my blog writing recopied onto so many spam blogs that sometimes I can’t submit to Pingoat.com because it has identified my (original!) blog as a splogger.

    Worse, sometimes the spam blogs come up first in Google, way before mine, presumably due to the SEO that they do.

    Folks like Numly are trying to fix the problem with serial number schemes but I fear that it’s going to be a long road before bloggers get their due (hear about the guy in Maine being sued for $1,000,000 for exercising political free speech?)

    Dion

  9. Bob McIlree

    Makes one wonder how many other folks’ work they’re ripping off. That’s the nice thing about feeds – you can catch them quicker…:)

    I add my vote to those favoring a ruthless response to this.

  11. Arnie McKinnis

    Nick –

    I believe that’s the dark side of user created media – how easy it is take some one’s thoughts and make them your own. So, I would say that Line56 and their editors are both – types of scoundrels – but I attribute the ignorant part to the fact that they stole your article – instead of looking for an eloquent, yet obscure blogger to steal from. But maybe that’s how they get all their other content!!

  13. David Brake

    … but just to be on the safe side isn’t it time you used a creative commons license instead of just saying you are “giving it away”? A commercial organization could argue (disingenously) that since you claim to be giving it away what they do with it afterwards is none of your business!

  14. Dharmesh Shah

    I have had precisely the same issue with one of my articles (different violator though).

    Basically, they took a word for word copy of my original article on startup hiring, with nothing more than my name provided as the “source”.

    It seems the business model here is to steal copyrighted content and monetize traffic with advertising. To add insult to injury, a search on “startup hiring” ranks the offender higher than the original article on my site (onstartups.com).

    If anyone has ideas of what to do about this, they would be appreciated.

  17. Nick Carr

    Vinnie,

    Death threats aren’t just way over the top, they’re criminal, and I hope that if he considered them genuine he reported them to the police. Needless to say, I deplore any death threats and the idiots or creeps who send them, and Mr. Barlas has my sincere sympathies in that regard.

    That doesn’t excuse his action, though, in reprinting a substantial piece of my writing (a complete 750-word article), without permission or compensation (or even a link, fot that matter), in a professional, profit-making publication. That’s a very, very serious error for a professional editor to make. I do thank him for promptly removing my article, however, and for ceasing the practice of using other writers’ material without their permission. I wish him and Line 56 the best.

    I do not think it’s wrong to hold online publications to the same standards as I would hold print publications.

    Nick

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