I am like a hawk when it comes to news feeds. While I don't have thousands of feeds to monitor, I do manage to keep an eye on the big players. What does this have to do with anything? Well, it is a prelude to the fact that after I see something from a paper like The New York Times, I also end up seeing similar content from blogs. Most likely those blogs are using that very story. This is a natural progression of many blogs—especially technology, political, culture, gaming, and financial blogs; among others. However, I do have an issue when these blogs fail to do something that keeps things honest.
This means that, reluctantly, I have to point out the fact that many bloggers—even some of the more respected amongst us (I won't disclose names)—fail to give proper credit to their sources of content. I also notice blogs only crediting other blogs for sources. This all becomes a giant problem as we must ask ourselves a few questions—where exactly did this content originate from?
Now, is most of what the blogosphere doing illegal? Absolutely not, and I don't believe it should be, but I do think there needs to be some sort of standard set for things like this. I want the professional blogging industry to keep things honest and fair.
This is why I urge all bloggers to give credit (in the form of a link; even a simple text link at the end of a post is sufficient—in my opinion) when posting content that originates elsewhere. There are also other scenarios where you should give credit for content that is being used under fair use laws. Read the rest of this entry
