Wednesday, August 13, 2008

on a public service announcement...

So, on a very odd note, someone has apparently been plagiarizing my entries. Although I should perhaps be flattered in some weird, twisted sort of way, I checked out this person's blog and found they are claiming my words as their own, yet they even have a specific section explaining their "copyright". Let's just take a gander:

All posts and content on this weblog that is composed by "CC Farber" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

What the heck? Wha? How? I'm sorry, I'm confused. Because some of your content seems to be a bit less than original. This looks a wee bit familiar, no? And this seems to sound a whole lot like something I wrote about a week ago, does it not - except that she switched around some of the words to fit her life?

Thank you to one of my lovely blogging ladies for giving me the heads up on this. It's terribly frustrating and I'm not sure what to do except for contact the blog owner (which I've done) and warn anyone else about it (which I'm presently doing).

It's one thing to link to an entry of mine that you may have enjoyed. But taking my words and calling them your own? Now, that's a horse of a different color. (Or something to that effect.)

Any advice is appreciated.

labels:

51 wrote me a note:

  1. what???? OK, that's just insane. I can't believe someone would do that!!! Those entries of hers were almost word for word YOURS. I could hardly believe it. I am so sorry that someone is doing this to your wonderful blogs. GRRRR.
    Unfortunately, I don't have any advice for you, but I certainly hope there is some way to put a stop to it. Even if all of us devoted readers of yours have to go over there and leave her less-than-gracious comments telling her to stop. (I'm kidding.... but seriously, we could... :))
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  2. um, how ironic: she has a whole blog post titled "where do you consistently find inspiration?" Hmmm, I wonder, now.... :)
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  3. that's messed up! Plus she's on Twenty Something Bloggers. I took down my public blog a couple of days ago because somebody from work found me and I don't know if I like that. Hope you don't resort to that!
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  4. Ah, that is insane and incredibly lame of her. I too noticed that "Where Do You Consistently Find Inspiration" post. I hope you can get this worked out quickly and with little discomfort. Perhaps there's a forum on 20SB, or you could start one, that could offer up some good advice?

    The one thing I can say is that you should probably get a copyright warning of some kind up on your site. I just skimmed and didn't see one already, so sorry if I missed one. But that could make things a little easier because you'll have something that states what should be obvious about other people not taking your [awesome] material and might help you in the long run.
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  5. Oh my gosh! that is so horrible. I hope something gts worked out, because that is why we all love you so much, your voice, YOUR voice and all your super sweet insightful posts. What a loon! I am so mad, and it isn't even happening to me!!
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  6. That's completely messed up! I just flicked through her blog and it is definitely similar to yours.
    It's so weird and twisted to be using your words and then having a creative commons??!!

    I do hope you get this all worked out and it doesn't cause u anymore discomfort.

    Let us know how it all goes....(anyway your's is much better written!)
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  7. Wow. That is all I can say, just Wow. I am completely floored that someone would do something like that. Makes me wonder how much of her blog is actually original and how much belongs to other people who just aren't aware yet. I really hope this is resolved nicely and that it doesn't make you want to take your blog down. I just recently stumbled across your blog and have enjoyed reading it very much. Good luck!
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  8. shes on 20SB, twitter and shes back on wordpress... and she comments my blog like i DONT KNOW WHO SHE IS. she had an entire blog dedicated to stealing my posts... she was even doing it under confessions of a jersey girl for a while. talk about making my blood boil. i've just been ignoring her comments and what not, trying to be the bigger person.

    i'm not gonna lie, i've been checking her blog pretty regularly to see if she's stealing anything of mine... i guess she found someone's work she liked better!

    truth be told, if she's anything like last time, she's going to realize she got caught and take down her sorry excuse for a blog... only to pop up under the guise of another name and just keep on being an unoriginal thief.

    i seriously stressed myself out about this beyond words, so i know how you feel. especially since she took an entry that's so personal to you... this girl has no heart.

    she'll run away soon enough, don't worry.

    if you go back to late feb/early march in my blog you'll see what i dealt with when she stole MY blog. ugh. i'm mad FOR you girl.
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  9. what is WITH people? my best friend just had this happen to her - a lady was copying the letters she was writing to her son word for word!

    it is so stupid. write your own words. inspiration is one thing, plagerism is another.
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  10. Creeeeepy. This chick needs to get a life.
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  11. this happened to me so i know how you feel... i was so weirded out by it! on one hand, you DO kind of feel like you should be flattered... but then it's just SO wrong...

    my post on what happened to me is here if you want to read about it... i never contacted the person directly, but they obviously saw it when reading my blog. so she just took her posts down. WEIRD.
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  12. This girl has NO class. What's the point of blogging if not to share your OWN thoughts and writing? WTF? I just don't understand what gets into people...
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  13. People are ridiculous.

    Seriously.
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  14. Holy Crap! That's creepy, wierd, and kinda sad....
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  15. How WEIRD! I'm so sorry! What a crazy this person is. I can't believe someone would do that. I never imagined people stealing blog entries... they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when it's a complete stranger making her life look like yours, that's just nuts.
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  16. OK, let's review the case. It's no wonder she is trying to be/sound like someone else. She posts about her major depression, her issues with the people at her church, where to find inspiration (duh, stealing isn't inspiration) and starts her own fan club. I'd just let her know you are on to her and ignore her pathetic existence.

    It's not right. But OBVIOUSLY this woman (girl) is not well. Don't take it personally...unless you can be flattered.

    We all know that you are an incredible blogger and so many people find fun, smiles and LOL's in reading your blog. Please don't stop or edit yourself. :-)
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  17. Oh my gosh, that is ridiculous! Sadly, there seems to be a lot of plagiarizing going around the internet lately. I'm sorry this happened to you, as I imagine it's incredibly frustrating and infuriating.
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  18. That is creepy. I love your blog and would hate to see anyone ruin it for us readers. Hope she replies!
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  19. Ewww. That gives me the heeby-jeebies. It's weird to read your words in someone else's context. It seems like a mocking of you.

    That's just so terribly wrong, you know!?

    Are there blog police? Becuase I have no idea how you get justice for this sort of thing. Good luck!
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  20. We live by a code as bloggers, and that implicitly means that WE DON'T STEAL EACH OTHER'S STUFF!

    Not cool.
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  21. That's just wrong!! I'm sorry you have to go through this.
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  22. Get your own damn writing, says I. Frickin' idiot. I had somebody copy my eBay description of a jacket. Yeah, kind of flattered, but seriously, do it yourself!
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  23. wow wow wow, she copied like everything!, word for word.
    ew! it's a little creepy & eeeery.

    I'm sorry friend, that just stinks.

    I would read up some stuff here:
    http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

    Have you heard of this site: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/
    people just post a bunch of copied stuff.

    I mean, I've heard of how we draw inspiration from everywhere so in a sense everyone sort of 'copies' everyone but she just blatantly outright copied you. Maybe she honestly doesn't think it's wrong. but how could you not know? it's pretty ridiculous.

    I had someone copy my shop a couple weeks ago - the order form, the concept for buying stuff, my design banners, even the pictures were taken in the same 'style' as mine - I simply emailed the girl and she denied it (I hope espresso girl doesn't deny yours!) but she still removed the similar elements in her shop. (obviously cause she knew she DID copy me!) I was not flattered. it made me upset! haha.

    Hopefully we see her posts removed. It is kind of sad in a sense -- that she has no originality or creativity whatsoever.

    Good luck, let us know how it turns out!
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  24. I loooove how you labeled this one What the Frick, lol. I was just looking through that girl's entries (or yours, should I say), and I started cracking up when I saw how she changed one line to "Enrique, you own my life", hahaha. Oh yeah, change one word and it doesn't make it plagiarism. Good job, smarty pants.

    I really don't know what advice to give, but this girl definitely has some issues. At least it doesn't look like she has many readers... It would be really irritating if people were commenting, thinking it actually was about her. I'm sorry! Let me know if she starts talking about being 25 weeks pregnant. lol
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  25. I was reading the thief's about me just now..

    "My name is CC Farber, and I am sole the author of this blog."

    It's like she's trying so hard to convince everyone that she writes these things. Clearly, she doesn't.
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  26. Well she has readers NOW, doesn't she.

    Cali was so nice. I know I knock it but I truly enjoyed it. ;)

    I owe you an email response! Promising that very soon.
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  27. This is insane!! I can't believe somebody who do that... and what makes it even more weird is that she tries really hard to make it sound like she wrote it herself. I was going to mention what Stephanie just mentioned... in her "About Me" she wrote that she's the sole author of the blog. Trying too hard much??

    Not certain what she expects to get out of copying somebody else's posts... but its sad and pathetic if you ask me.

    What creeps me out is that she copied really personal posts of yours... words that were from your heart and for your husband. Soooooo creepy!
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  28. Wow, that's the height of patheticness, let me tell you.

    I say we comment on her blog, letting her know we know her words aren't authentic, that they are STOLEN!!

    I mean good heavens! Why on earth would you take someone else's words and claim them as yours? It's very creepy...gosh!

    Perhaps you can also contact wordpress.com and see if they'll shut down her blog. What she's doing is wrong and should be stopped.
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  29. Oh hell no.

    I had a slightly similar experience. I had a poem published in Teen once as a sophomore in high school. They printed it with a typo which totally pissed me off... but once in college I googled myself out of boredom.

    I found the poem on a few people's web sites, attributed to me. My friend told me to google part of the poem to see if anyone was using it without attribution... and ta da! Some one had submitted it to a love poetry web site under their own name. I raised hell. The poem was taken down.
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  30. Just found you through Big Time Fancy, and that sucks! It's also very sad that this person apparently doesn't believe that her life is of interest, so that she has to go and steal from yours. Sad.
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  31. whatever. this is reality. it happens all the time. fuck off bitch.
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  32. oh. my. goddddd. who is the okayyyeah? betting on our good friend CC Farber, she said pretty much the same thing to me. :o)
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  33. wow. she's sweet, eh? haha. Charlene is now CC, and she has attitude. But, regardless, she did delete the entries you linked to... though, I don't know how many others there are.
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  35. okay so i know i already commented but seriously it's ridiculous. i'm surprised she hasn't just deleted her whole blog by now. and she's on 20SB, sheesh. don't steal people's stuff, it's lame.

    and sorry i posted that other one, signed in on the wrong one :)
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  36. This totally sucks and I'm sorry it happened. I tried to post a comment before, but apparently, since I'm not logged in to Wordpress, it won't let me.

    Anyway.

    This same thing happened to another blogger I read regularly. I think she emailed Blogger to report it and the blog was deleted. I don't know if you can do something similar with Wordpress, but it's worth a shot.

    You could also go private.

    Honestly, it's pretty sad that people can't think up their own blog content and have to steal snippets from others' lives. If you don't have anything worth writing about then you shouldn't have a blog to begin with.

    Please don't stop writing. Your 23-year-old voice is a breath of fresh air for an old 29-year-old like me :)
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  37. Remember when Monica Gellar had a little stalker too? I think she took dance classes in Moncia's name. No advice here. You could make your blog private, but then utter strangers would have no idea how good it is.
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  38. And the links don't work anymore. Shocking.

    Take action. Stealing is stealing.
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  39. The links don't work, but I'll take your word for it. ;/

    Girl... if that happened to me, I'd be all over that girl like white on rice. I'm not kidding; it absolutely infuriates me when things like this happened. & it happened to me once, a long time ago. & I ripped into this person bad... I think she got scared.

    There are many things I am protective over. But I am OVER protective of my family, my dog & my writing.

    I'm sure she learned her lesson. Although... I hate that she gives "depressed" people a bad name. I just want to tell you that I am on Zoloft, too, deary... but I would never still your shit er... I mean stuff. :]
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  40. Yea, I don't know what y'all are talking about. I have never been to this blog. These posts are by no means on my blog. I live by a moral code, more so than most people. You should all be ashamed of your slanderous remarks.
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  41. First time commenting.

    Ew! Who would do such a thing?

    I saw the posts earlier when I was at work but didn't have time to comment here, that is just plain awful. I'm glad they've been taken down now but I am just dumbfounded that a person would be so brazen. Hopefully this doesn't happen again.
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  42. Ohmygosh! First of all, I seriously cannot believe this -- but now, even more surprising is that this robber - cc farber-- (ha! it almost rhymes!) just commented on your blog to say that she didn't do it because she "lives by a moral code, more so than most people." WTF?! That girl is nutz!!! And then she told us "You should all be ashamed of your slanderous remarks." Man... I feel sorry for that girl, she sounds really sad and alone -- I mean, why else would she do this?! It's mind boggling! I mean, I don't condone plagiarizing on a school paper but at least I get why you would do that - to get a good grade. Why is she doing this?! So freakin weird! Well, Keri, I'm so sorry this happened to you -- I guess you can only see it as a compliment?! Man. Sooo crazy. Crazy copycat robber cc farber!
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  43. No, I am not. What y'all talkin' about?
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  44. It's clear that someone just wanted attention. Why else would she (or he, who knows in this crazy internet world) link to you in her blogroll and then steal it? Sadly we've given her just what she wanted as she gloats over her increased page views and attention.

    Things happen. but we all love you kerri and my advice is to let it blow over and ignore her. Because you have so many regular readers who love you
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  45. I just don't get it. Can't people just write their own stuff? I've found that if I go on technorati and check out who's linking to my blog that people will repost my posts under another name, which is weird as well. I haven't really thought anything of it until now but I probably will.
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  46. wow. i foud your blog through a bunch of twitterfolk and think that that's just so pathetic. Seriously, if you can't write anything original then don't write anything at all.

    I'm so sorry you have to deal with crap like that - i just came across your blog today but it's a great blog and i'm def. adding it to my reader :)
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  47. That's RIDICULOUS!
    The good news? She's probably ridiculously embarassed now that EVERYONE knows shes a fraud.
    Sorry you had to go through that!
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  48. I just had to laugh.. I found a Russian blogger who was blatantly posting someone else's photographs without attribution so I had a big rant in my blog about it and caused quite a stir among my 'beloved' readers.. now copying text is something else isn't it? the example I had was merely a lack of acknowledgement but this is beyond!

    obviously the 'copied' posts have been pulled off. that guy should be banned from blogging..

    wonder if he learned his lesson. if you don't have something to talk about in your own voice! don't bother with it!.. wouldn't you agree?
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  49. ok i just looked at her site and read her comments to you on here. sooo retarded. needs to get a life for sure! I'm so sorry this happened to you.
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  50. I wish at least you retract my full name so as to prtoect me and my family's privacy and use my pseudonym instead.
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  51. Uh? Am I the only one concerned that she recently defended herself, even though when I click to her blog, your posts are still up?
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