Perhaps you couldn’t tell from the title (with its terrible pun), but it is actually something that I feel strongly about: someone stealing other people’s articles to make a quick buck. Especially if they’re my articles.

First, the Internet made it extremely easy for writers –talented or otherwise– to get published; then AdSense provided them with a simple way to monetize their words.

But what if your desire for Money is far more developed than your creative ability –what if you couldn’t write a coherent sentence if your life depended on it? Why, in that case you can always rip off a few people who were foolish enough to… put texts online.

It has happened to me on many occasions (and if you’ve published more than just a handful of articles, it has likely happened to you).

Sometimes, I find “snippets” of my work on Made For Adsense (MFA) sites that claim “fair use” to stay out of copyright trouble. Sometimes, the culprits don’t even bother to pretend, e.g. in the case of Lenen voor beginners and Autoverzekering voor beginners, two Dutch sites (about financial topics) that have been copied verbatim on more than one occasion. But invariably, I’m greatly upset when I find that my words have been used without my permission.

I certainly don’t claim to be the World’s Greatest Living Author; but if you want to make some money with words, go write your own!

Tags: copyright, intellectual property, adsense