Wednesday, June 29, 2011

On Blogging and Intellectual Property

Despite being a blogger, in some capacity, for more than five years now, I don't think a lot about "intellectual property." I link to my sources and credit other bloggers whose content influenced my own. I know ideas don't develop in a vacuum, and many times within blogging circles, you'll see many posts on a similar topic. There have been times, however, when I'll opt out of publishing a post I've already drafted because if I see that a more senior blogger has written a similar post.

I bring this up because something like this happened between two bloggers I follow on Tumblr. I'm curious what other writers do in this situation: would you confront someone if you thought she was "stealing your ideas" (a dubious claim by itself), but no evidence of actual plagiarism? I'm not a lawyer, and I have close to zero clout in the blogosphere, so usually I let something slide even when it feels a little iffy. I'm not a lawyer, so I often don't know whose side the law falls on, though I do know of one case where a blogger who had trademarked the title of her blog slapped another blogger with a cease and desist order because her title was too similar. The key is the first blogger had trademarked her blog title, effectively "branding" herself and her content. Even when there is no legal recourse, there are the obvious bad feelings and the sting of betrayal in close-nit online circles.

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