To Whom It May Concern

The blogosphere is a strange kind of place when it comes to intellectual property. Bloggers (well most of 'em at any rate) place their cunningly crafted, finely honed pearls of wisdom into the public domain day in, day out. And once they're out there, they're out there. The blogger is left to trust that these words (or these thoughts) are not misrepresented or misappropriated.

Sometimes you might find your posts being picked out by one or more blog portals or aggregators and, in effect, re-broadcast to a wider community. And this is 'A Good Thing'. I am delighted that this blog has been picked up by a few such sites. Personally, it gives me great encouragement and pleasure to know that I am not just writing these words for myself, and that others (even if only a few) are entertained by my sometimes tortuous meanderings. In each case, the site concerned makes clear and unambigous attribution to Ambling in Second Life - and that's all that I ask.
[ OK... cash would be nice... but attribution is just fine. ]

I was therefore somewhat dismayed to come across a site today - one I had never encountered before, and with whom I have had no discussion or prior contact - who have taken one of my posts and simply re-broadcast it, word for word, with someone else's name as the author! I may be easy-going, but this is going too far.

I daresay this is the result of a poorly designed aggregation script that has simply inserted "Written by: so-and-so" - and I acknowledge that the article header (if one thinks to check) actually does link to here. Nevertheless, the article gives the distinct impression that it was written by someone else.

What am I saying - "gives the distinct impression"? It baldly states that it has been written by someone who did not write it! Whether intentional or not, this shows a cavalier disregard for my intellectual property. Furthermore, I am unlikely to be the only blogger affected by this.

You will understand why I choose not to name the site - I see no point in providing free advertising to a site that gives every impression, not of plagiarism, but of wholesale plundering.

So... to whom it may concern... I should be grateful if you would take appropriate steps to rectify your error and either remove reference to this blog henceforth or, in the interests of the wider blogger community, ensure that all aggregated feeds receive clear and unambiguous attribution.

Thinks: I wonder if this will show up as a news item there in a day or two's time?