Our network is being plagued by cut and paste content! So today we hired a new team member. Let me introduce you to Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader'.
We are a community of PROFESSIONALS! 99% of you understand that. Harlen has been brought on to ensure that the 1% who are bringing the rest of us down are dealt with. He has assured us that his relentless pursuit of justice for the holders of copyright protection will be unmatched. He has guaranteed to crush copyright infringement in 30 days or we don't have to pay him (can't beat that). How you might ask? well............
Every time you submit a post on Activerain you see this:
Some of you choose to ignore it. Some of you think that since you have gotten away with it before, you will continue to get away with it. You will not. Today, on his first day on the job, Harlen suspended the accounts of four members who had previously been warned about this type of behavior. One member had over 150,000 points. That's a lot of time wasted copying content and trying to pass it off as your own. Please, Harlen implores you, do not be the next person this happens to. He will be hunting content to the far and wide reaches of the network and running that content in Google to find the original author.
If you see someone copying content, leave a link to this post in their comment section. Warn them about Harlen and his 'Copyright Crusade'. Because if Harlen sees it before it's pulled down, the first offense will be a two week suspension. No questions asked. (Harlen thinks this is really lenient. Read that image above again.......it says "Posting copyrighted material without permission WILL result in being removed from ActiveRain")
The second time will be a ban from the network. Harlen has guaranteed this garbage will STOP!!! Plagiarism is polluting a network that thousands of people have poured their heart and soul in to making stellar. Harlen promises you that plagiarizers will no longer leave their mark on ActiveRain.
We have something very special here at ActiveRain. Your participation here is not a right, it is a privilege. By abusing that priviledge you are making yourself, and more importantly, the rest of ActiveRain look very unprofessional. Our community guidelines say: ActiveRain is a place where real estate professionals can network with their peers and discuss industry insider topics. It is also a public forum where consumers can pull back the curtain and see what the real estate industry is really about.
Do we really want consumers pulling back that curtain and seeing plagiarism, stealing and dishonest gaming? Harlen does not!!! Harlen believes that we all learned about plagiarism in elementary school. He remembers his fifth grade teacher Mrs. Robinson sending him to the principals office when he copied a passage from Marcus Valerius Martial without citing it:
"Why, simpleton, do you mix your verses with mine? What have you to do, foolish man, with writings that convict you of theft? Why do you attempt to associate foxes with lions, and make owls pass for eagles? Though you had one of Ladas's legs, you would not be able, blockhead, to run with the other leg of wood." - Marcus Valerius Martial
Here is a great resource for what you can and can't do: The wise advice of Lenn Harley
(This is not a joke, even though it is kind of funny)
Dude, Harlen is rather hardcore...just like the other person mentioned, Ms. Harley
Dude, you are soooo right about that (LOL). I love Lenn. I'm working on her outside blog review right now. I also e-mailed her to ask which picture she wanted me to use for the project. Didn't want to snag it and have me get whacked for a copyright violation (LMAO). We had some nice e-mail banter going back and forth about it and the Minion O.B. project. :-)
Harlan's kind of a scary looking guy. Just imagine how much if he put on a mask. Good idea though.
Haaaa! Big Mike, too funny! C. ;-)
I thought it was one of the guys from WWE....LOL...seriously...rock on Harlen! :) I imagine he is going to be very busy.
Midori, I imagine he is. Poor Harlen... :-)
I don't like the looks of this guy, he could be trouble.
JL, depends upon which side of the fence you are sitting on (LOL).
Yay! Bye bye bad guys. My only concern is if I have any post from about 2 years ago tat might have copyright images in them. That's the time when I started blogging, and I honestly didn't know that when you click the "images" button on a Google search, you couldn't just use them. I still don't understand why that buttn is there, when we can't use the images.
C , Thanks for reposting Bob's article.
Harlen will be very busy with this kind of promise: "He has guaranteed to crush copyright infringement in 30 days or we don't have to pay him " Hey guys, isn't this the way most agents work? I f the listing does not sell, we don't get paid.
Lisa, do yourself a favor, go back to the very beginning of your blogging and delete all pictures you find questionable. I would rather you have a picture-less post or two or thirty than to not have you. Seriously! I may not comment all the time, but I read you and love your blog. I would go into withdrawal if you and Susan were not here. Please go edit your blog...
HEY GUYS: YOU GUYS HAVE GOT TO DEVOTE TIME TO DO THIS. NO EXCUSES!!! I wouldn't be fussing like this if I didn't care about you all. I had to revisit over 300 posts of my own. I had to edit myself! It took a couple of hours. I deleted stuff. I'm behind in my work because of it. Active Rain is important to me. You guys are important to me. Please avoid what can only be trouble down the road if you do not take Harlen seriously.
I got real serious the moment I read Bob's post. I know a lot of nice people with syndicated cartoons and Internet jokes that I laughed with and about... You want to have a bald post with your friends comments still there and saved, fine. That's better than having your account suspended or revoked... You can always update the post with a fifty word blurb joking about why you had to remove the original stuff that was there and the fact that you are leaving the conversational thread if (a) you are point crazy or (b) sentimental about what your friends said... What ever works for you. Just edit the blogs if they need to be. Please...
Margaret, when someone says I'll get it done or don't pay me, I have reasonable cause to believe they will get it done. (LOL)
Thank gaud! Your appreciated!
LOL @ Christina. Thank you and you are welcome. :-)
Harlan is a pretty good looking crusader, go clean it up man go.............
DeAndrea, I hope everything works out well for the community. So many people truly don't understand and it sometimes is a lot easier than people believe to get into serious trouble. A lot of people mean well and want to share so many experiences... now the little things that have brightened so many people's days are scaring them. I keep wondering if there is something that I missed or something else I should be doing because I have been getting a lot of off forum e-mails about this. People are really in a panic. There are a lot of jokes floating around that need to be taken down...
Hi Carolyn - I think I'm OK but will check anyway. I'm glad you posted with a link, never saw this post. I'm still trying to keep busy with real estate, but it's getting to be a challenge. Have a super weekend.
p.s. OMG what about the emails that fly around with pictures in them that we then store in our jpeg or gif files...hmmmm...it could be very difficult tracking the source of some items. Could we possibly get more clarification. Don't some of these creators want distribution, and shouldn't some of the onus be placed on them to tell us which they do or don't want circulating!!! And what about the Statute of Limitation (just kidding;-) Thanks
Gail, too funny!
Carolyn, I am seeing some very very high profile people here on the rain imbed videos of Martin Luther King, and other famous people. I am wondering why they are still doing this.....I wrote a blog about this and I noticed yours only received about 20 comments which is low for your other blogs. IOT this post of yours does not seem to be given the attention it derseved....What gives?
Carolyn, it is amazingly uncanny how I often see the same blog here on AR posted various times of the day. It is about time that bloggers quit being lazy and developed their own material. There is so much blog fodder out there...
Jane, the view stats are high, so I am happy. They are reading, they have been warned and they don't have to comment as long as they realize we all need to make some adjustments to what we are going to keep or modify regarding our blogging habits. :-)
Michael, "quit being lazy" gives me reasonable cause to believe you have missed the point entirely. The people re-blogging this are helping ActiveRain spread some very important news. Had you bothered to read my other "original posts" connected to and linking back to this re-blog, then I do not believe you would have posted such a comment here. I'm disappointed that you felt the need to do so.
Bad hair day? (LOL) ;-)
10/30/2008 ActiveRain New Hire - Welcome Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader' (23 comments, 588 views, 149 clicks)
10/30/2008 WARNING: I Love You Guys So I Need You All To Go Self-Audit Your Sites RIGHT NOW ( 55 comments, 467 views, 172 clicks)
11/01/2008 Good Morning All: Just A Little Note About Deleting A Few Comments (27 comments, 334 views, 118 clicks)
Jane and Michael, there you have it. Views are more important than comments, although comments are nice. :-)
BTW, comments are not always the goal or even important when you are trying to spread the news. My peers are re-blogging it too because we want our friends to know in case they missed the original AR post that Harlen is working solely on this project. We're telling our friends to go clean up their posts that need editing before accounts get suspended or deactivated for copyright violations.
Michael, I also e-mailed every single CC member because I thought it was important that I not lose a single person. Creating original material is not always on the agenda (but I did create 2 original posts). :-)
Holy cats, this post is funny. I know its not supposed to be funny..but its funny. If you cant come up with your own stuff...then you deserve to get banned. Good grief.
Thanks Carolyn for the detailed explantion. I am glad people are getting the message through views!!! I get it!!! Have a great day!
Carolyn -Perhaps Michael should clarify,,,does he mean the same exact post because if he means the same exact post then the person who re-blogs does not get any points for doing thatanyway so that would make them sincere about re-bloging for the benefit of the readers like you suggested.
If he means the same topic then he may be talking about me because I took your topic however added where to get legitimate pictures because I thought that information was helpful....
Or maybe he was just having a bad hair day like you suggested.
Jane, I would love to have Michael clarify because I was really puzzled when I read his comment. Geez... still a bit unsettled. Wondered if I should run and fire off some more original content right away (LOL). I did mini-rant and post a photo link, just in care it was a hint to get back to work (LMAO). Just teasing Michael... please help me understand where I went wrong with your point. :-)
LOL @ Clint.