I scrapped this post. As Beautifully Invisible pointed out, even though you can’t right-click on your site, you can still copy the content with a simple Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V.
Bummer.
Instead of deleting this post entirely (because I didn’t want to delete people’s comments), I’ll ask this question instead:
What steps do you take to find out if someone has stolen your reviews?
There used to be a great service called FairShare that is unfortunately no longer around. Google Alerts really don’t work for me; I hardly get any alerts. Copying and Pasting snippets of my review and doing an online search is tedious.
Is there a better way?
I had to try it (clicking on your blog), and cool. Still do I want it on my blog? Yes and no. What if I have some post about freebies and someone want to copy it. But then again that would be the only case
ReplyDeleteDefinitely something to think about. I'm trying it out for a while; not sure if I'll keep it disabled or not.
DeleteThanks for sharing! My only problem with this is what if someone is trying to copy your email address to contact you for a review or something? It just becomes a pain to copy/paste your email address. Then they might not want to bother. Just a thought. But a good idea nonetheless, especially with all the draaaaaaaaaaaama going on right now.
ReplyDeleteI use a contact form so I hadn't thought of this. Good point though!
DeleteThe downside is publishers and authors can no longer use snippets of your reviews on their websites etc. I guess they can take a screen shot and retype it, but then so can plagiarists. Or I guess publishers and authors could email you to request a snippet, but I'm not sure how many would.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't they ask for permission beforehand? Then you could send them the snippet to use...
DeleteNone of the FVBR quotes that have appeared in books have been been requested. They just quote us. Much like we take quotes from books I guess.
DeleteThis is so awesomely kickass - fantastic info and thank you so much for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I have to say 'nay'
DeleteI just feel like it is too limiting. What if someone wants to quote you? Or as Sophia said, publishers like to use snippets. I just feel like this limits blogs. Just my opinion though :)
If someone wanted to quote you, wouldn't they ask for your permission first? Then you could email them the snippet and they could copy and paste from that.
DeleteWhen it comes to snippets, the Fair Use Law allows anyone to quote content so long as it educational in nature, which it would be if a publisher or author wants to educate readers on your opinion of their book. It does, however, have to be credited and not passed off as that publisher's or author's own words.
DeleteI think it will eliminate the lazy plagiarists. But if they really want to take your stuff, they will. Like Sophia said, they can just retype it.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me laugh, because you're right. It'll stop a lazy plagiarist. But isn't that what plagiarists are - lazy? Too lazy to write their own content.
DeleteIt reminds me of the cheater who writes down the answers down on a piece of paper. Then they try to write it smaller. And then smaller. Then before they realize it, they won't need their 'cheat sheet' because they've memorized the material. They went through all that trouble just to learn the material anyways. In regards to plagiarists, if they're going to go through the trouble of typing out someone's review, they might as well (and it would probably be easier) just to type out their own thoughts.
No, I think plagiarism goes beyond laziness. You know that 40% of MBA students have admitted to cheating? Business grad students are people I wouldn't classify as lazy.
Deletehave you ever had to read a pre-med students paper?? i did and realized the guy had pretty much recreated five different A student papers as his own, including mine. I was the TA and I was pissed, you going into med school and your cheating on basic info???
Delete@Amanda - that's sad!
DeleteAt first glance I liked the idea, but I agree with the people above me. If someone wants to copy my content they will, I don’t think this will deter them in any way (they may be lazy to create their own original post but not when it comes to stealing it), especially in my case since I also post reviews on Goodreads. But it is a great tutorial and useful info, thank you so much for doing this. How crappy that we have to go to all this trouble to protect our content from people that have no respect for all the hard work we put into our blogs.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I get what you're saying. And it is sad that we're constantly worrying if someone is going to steal our stuff :/
DeleteHi there... I think it's great that you posted this and are offering people some advice on how to prevent what happened to myself an grit and glamour. I do want to make you aware, however, that even though you cant right-click on your site, you can still copy your content with a simple Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V. You may want to check out this post (http://www.gritandglamour.com/2012/01/31/bitch-stole-my-content-plagiarism/) by grit and glamour because at the bottom she offers some tips on how to copyright your content.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the truth of the matter is if someone wants to copy your content they will, no matter what you do. There are ways around just about everything.
OMG you're right! You can still copy by doing Ctrl+C. Well that defeats the point of this post! LOL Thanks for pointing that out.
DeleteNo problem - I am sorry I had to point it out - it would be nice if the method you used prevented that as well!
DeleteI'm really glad you did. I don't know how long it would have taken me to realize that otherwise.
DeleteDuh! Thanks!! I've updated. I use wordpress & found a simple plug-in WP-Protect. It works wonderfully & yo have options
ReplyDeleteThe WP plugins might be different but with Blogger, even though you can't right-click to copy, you can still use the Ctrl+C option. I think you caught this post right before I changed it ;)
DeleteI am curious - what kind of options do you have with the WP plugin? Which plugin is it?
Thanks for the post, even though you changed it. And another thing, I am subscribed to your blog by email, so I can just safe the email if I think, hmm that is interesting, lets keep that for future use. Don't even have to visit your blog to read it, or copy it. I can do almost anything with the email.
ReplyDeleteSince last monday, I typ a copyright sentence under my reviews, not sure if it has any affect at all though.
Good point! Another thing I had not consider. People can still copy from email (if they sub) or on their RSS reader.
DeleteI think the only option is learning how to use Google Analytics and pay attention, like the ladies over at Beautiful Invisible and Grit and Glamour did. This should be a great tutorial BTW, since I have no idea how to even install GA on my blog. I use free Sitemeter but it's not the same...
ReplyDeleteI saw that BI and G&G used PMetrics. I am wondering if that's something I should look into...
DeleteOh pooh :/
ReplyDeleteChecking my reviws? Nope, like you say, it takes too long nad I do nto get any google alerts either
I rarely get any and when I do, they're mostly my own posts.
DeleteI actually think disabling right click does more harm than good! Right click doesn't have to be for copy-pasting. I use it A LOT for highlight text, most commonly a book title/author and clicking the "Search Google" Also, it's for saving images & viewing them. But even if you can disable right click & ctrl. C & V, there is a way to view the HTML format of posts and it has the content there. There is also sites like internet archive that has archives of like every post ever made (or something along those lines :p) and I'm pretty sure you can copy-paste there too. It's a sad truth but when you put stuff on the internet, there is a chance you will be plagiarized, there are ways to prevent that but I don't believe disabling right click is even remotely a positive thing & the only thing I know of is Google Alerts; it sucks you don't find it useful//:
ReplyDeleteRacquel @ The Book Barbies♥
-thank you&come again.
I absolutely hate when people disable right click. I know that hate is a strong word, but it's like putting in a fix that affects everyone when there's only one or two bad apples. I like to explore sites by opening pages in new tabs. I also can't copy/paste people's buttons to put on my page. When I can't interact with a page the way I need to, I just leave.
ReplyDeleteBut on your question. I use google alerts but for the most part, I feel like if people want to copy they will, and I don't stress out about it. But I always feel like bad things have a way to coming to light and you'll likely stumble across it. Or the one post you highlight text for and search will be the one where you find the copier.
I think there are ways to protect yourself though if it is really important to you. For me, I just have to ask myself whether it is worth the extra time and effort in my already crazy life.
P.S. This in no way encourages people who read this comment across the blogosphere to think I'm the person to plagiarize off of... Lol. Please don't Haha (don't wan to come across as an easy mark!)