Ouch. I’m wounded, and need to howl a little.

An ostensible VA, whose name I will not reveal though perhaps I ought to, took multiple posts from my blog and pasted them on her site, without permission or attribution of any kind.

This theft came to my attention when the pingbacks were emailed to me.

I experienced all the usual creepy feeling that accompanies being ripped off. The revulsion, the indignity, the pure yuckiness of knowing someone else has your stuff.

Of course, the contact information on the burglar’s site didn’t go through. I used whois to grab...Click here to read the rest of this post at the Virtual Assistance and You Blog.

The Virtual Assistance and You Blog is authored by VAF member Mary of Virtual Writing and Communications Solutions.


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Great "howl," Mary. I sure do feel your angst, and I am sending up a chorus of howls in harmony with you. Perhaps as this is brought more to the forefront of our consciousness, we will all be more mindful when "tempted" to take what is not ours - and also as a lesson to help others realize how often this does happen (it has happened to me). Your post was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - WordPress Customization & XHTML/CSS Web Sites

Thanks Jules! The person responded very promptly to me, and complied with my wishes, so I really can't complain. I know others have had a harder time getting through to the offenders.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Glad they responded right away and complied with your wishes, but they shouldn't have taken the contact to begin with. At least not without linking back to your site and giving you the credit you deserve.

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

Mary, it never feels good to find your own content on someone else's site. It's something you worked on and you're acting as a REAL business owner, an entrepreneur who has skill and talent to make it and make it on her own. Along comes someone else, who can only pretend to be as professional as you, and only then in the literal use of your hard work portrayed as her own.

BTW, when you find someone like that who has false info listed in WhoIs you can (and always should) report them to ICANN here: http://wdprs.internic.net/

Every time I have to file a DMCA and find someone who has falsified their contact info (like I did today... *sigh*), or, giving them the benefit of the doubt... has just forgotten to keep it current, I make sure to report it.

Service providers who do not act above-board either by stealing content or other types of work and/or by not providing correct contact information are the types of service providers who contribute to giving our industry a bad name and I for one just can't stand for it.

I do want to add though, that I have come to a place of total detachment from the 'feelings' that go along with finding my content or designs have been stolen and repurposed. The 'bad energy' that comes from engaging in that wavelength is just not worth it.

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