Sincerest form of flattery?

I recently found (through my daily automatic Google search) that some of my blog posts were appearing on another website.  In fact lots of my blog posts (some very old and some very recent) and plenty from other people.  The person who stole then has kept the titles the same but translated the body of the posts into another language and then back into English.  I am assuming this is in an attempt to disguise the work.  Whilst I'm really cross that my blogs have been used by someone else I'm also vaguely amused by some of the translations; "kill dual birds with the single stone" and my description of Madgex as "job house as well as CV poke as well as compare software".

Of course what I'm most interested in is whether this lazy individual will take this post and how it will turn out!

Comments

[Andy Headworth]

Louise,

It is a shame that they couldn't just link to it and give you the due credit - that is just lame!

Maybe what you need is to find an author with 1.5million twitter followers to help your case - http://bit.ly/cVq3HV

Alternatively, you could just out them?

Or post some blogs, with some deliberate titles to see how much fun you could have with them! LOL

Andy

[Luke]

oh dear.......

http://executiverecruiteronline.com/

I think it has happened already!

[twitter.com/Alconcalcia]

Recently on Twitter I read a piece that sounded vaguely familiar to me so I did a search and sure enough, it was an almost word for word rehash of an article I myself had read a few months ago.

I tweeted the person concerned and said that I thought I had seen the article before and they may want to be wary of being accused of plagiarism.

I got a reply back thanking me for spotting it and saying that they had commissioned a freelance writer to write an original piece and were not aware that the article they had provided - and charged for - was in fact a cut and paste off the web!

I believe the freelancer concerned was the subject of a sacking. I didn't mean for anyone to lose their job, but it just goes to show that there are some chancers out there who are not only too lazy to create their own content but cheeky enough to charge for a rehash!

[Stephen O'Donnell]

"Whilst I'm unequivocally cranky"
That translation is an outrage. You are the least cranky person I know (in recruitment).

[Louise Triance]

@Andy - The only reason I didn't name them was I didn't want to send them any more traffic.

But @Luke I don't mind you doing it - as it does make rather amusing reading!

And @Stephen I have to admit this has made me pretty cranky. Perhaps he is psychic as well as a lazy rip off artist!

[Luke]

@louise
personally I think the more people that see it - the more people will see what numpties they are!
However, you nature must tender towards the kinder version of the humans than mine (I used their translator - good eh?)

[Matt Burney (Sussexmatt)]

As we discussed at TRULondon, I've had a similar experience with a US blogger stealing some of my work on social media, she's not happy I spotted it but I am in the process of getting all the links (some from very well read sites) removed or redirected to the original material on my site.
WE all know the net breeds plagarism but it does not mean we have to put up with it.

[Julian Felstead]

Hi Louise,

I really think you are missing the point.

This is really useful information about translation tools. The guy has already translated your blog again.

For instance you said:

"Of course what I'm most interested in is whether this lazy individual will take this post and how it will turn out!"

this translated to:

"Of March what I'm many meddlesome in is either this quiescent particular will take this post as good as how it will spin out!"

This guy, some may say "genius"... hmm... that just translated to "dicktwat"... may have got the idea from the famous Monty Python 'Hungarian Phrase Book' sketch.

Anyway, personally my Hovercraft is still full of eels... and I hope yours is too.

If you want to see what I talking about go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao