My war against the thieves

In the past few months I’ve had three instances where people around the world (two in USA and one in Nigeria) on the internet, used my writing without my permission. They, mostly, credited me, but they took my writing (two short stories and a blog post) and put it on their website so that their website would have content.

Despite what some people believe, things on the internet are not free for the taking. Someone told me about a website in Botswana that had a section for news. This person asked the website owner who would be going out collecting news and writing the articles. The website owner said that they would just go to websites like Mmegi’s and copy the article and paste it on their website. The person owning the website said that that was how people did things on the internet. But that person was lying. Taking someone else’s writing is theft.

We all know that as soon as we write something down it’s copyrighted to us. We do not have to put a warning that we own the copyright — if you wrote it down, you own the copyright. Full. Stop. Immediately. No warning, no registration anywhere required. And that copyright is worldwide thanks to the Berne Convention.  But what I’ve realised there are grey areas in this copyright world. In one of the instances with my work, the person was attempting to make a list of writers from every country in the world, to give the chosen writers ‘exposure’ (how much do I hate this word, let me count the ways…).  They put a complete short story of mine on their website.  I told them I didn’t like that. The guy told me I was an idiot because he was trying to get my name out for me.  I said I’m cool with my name being exactly where it is and he should take me off of his list and remove my short story.  He responded with one more email telling me he would never try to assist me again. (Did I ask you to, Mister?).

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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