Friday, June 1, 2012

I uncopyright thee ... fly free

I found a blog the other day which had a fantastic concept (and I'm so bad that I didn't even keep the URL) The thing is her principle stuck with me. This blogger has uncopyrighted her content.

She's given open and free access to her blog content with a request that while a link back to her would be appreciated, it's not essential. The reason why this concept made so much sense to me is because of the amount of social media forums which exist.
Source
You've probably seen this picture floating in the cyber world somewhere recently, it shows how complicated the social media world is, not that much of it makes sense. My boss forwarded it to me by email, but then I found it somewhere else today on another site. Numerous people are sharing it, posting it, emailing it. Does anyone really know where it originated from?
 
The reality is that because of the amount of social media outlets and how people share things, copyright has become a joke. You share something that someone wrote and it goes down the chain and eventually you lose sight of who the original owner was.

Are you with me so far on this train of thought?
 
So it makes sense to me to uncopyright things - sure I also appreciate a link back but the reality is that those who are going to 'steal' your words are going to do it regardless of whether you have a copyright note on your blog or not.
 
Try googling 'uncopyright' - which I did after I thought about writing this post - and there's a pile of posts about uncopywritten content. (Google anything for that matter and there's a pile of posts about it)
 
Like me you'll probably be amazed by who else actually does this, I thought it was a great concept but it's obviously not as original as I thought. Is anything in the blogging world truly original any more? Leo from Zen Habits and Steve Pavlina explain why they've also done it.
 
You'll probably all come back and tell me you knew this already and that's okay too because somewhere out there will be another me who didn't know about this concept yet.
 
So go your hardest people - all my content is now uncopyrighted.
 
Cheers, Fi

A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable. ~ H.L. Mencken

2 comments:

  1. Many of us I think try and be original and if not at least give reference to the source which I often do with pictures that I have not taken. But I get it that with everything how can one even figure out if your material was used elsewhere. I don't fret about it, not that I have anything worth stealing. LOL. BTW, I finally sent that little package out to you that I think I promised you a couple weeks ago. Better late than never? Have an awesome weekend!

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    Replies
    1. Not sure that I have much worth stealing either Jenn. I look forward to the arrival of my little 'package' with bated breath

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