My Blog Content Theft Shock was Actually an Astonishingly Valuable Learning Experience

The Recruitment Ad Job: Case Reopened

On 11th January at 2.16pm Eastern Standard Time, I had a gut-wrenching, heart-squeezing, fury-inducing, incredulous-out-of-body experience.This is what caused it.I was checking the search ranking of some of my business blogging.I discovered that an article I originally published on 26th July 2015 here in The HR Rabbit Hole titled;

“Use This Steal-Worthy Persuasive Writing Technique And Convert Browsers into Quality Applicants

The Great Copywriter Heist: The Recruitment Ad Job”

…which I also shared on Recruiting Blogs on 12th October 2015 had been blatantly copied.The blog post title had been stolen.The content was butchered in a few places in a shoddy attempt to hide the theft.The faux post was published by the impostor on 14th October 2015.Critically, no permission was sought and neither was it granted to this company / author to ‘appropriate’ my blog post and content.Worse, they had made a lame and disingenuous attempt to attribute Aquarius Human Resources Consulting / The HR Rabbit Hole blog.Why disingenuous? The link to Aquarius HR’s company website was improperly embedded in the copy. This meant that if you were to click on it, it would not connect to the official site and original article in The HR Rabbit Hole blog. (oops!)The irony that the post was my riff and play on a 'Heist' and 'steal-worthy' ideas has not escaped me!"Imitation is the highest form of flattery”. No it is not. But it does signal that my 'swaggerific' style has appeal.Perhaps this was a case of “kleptomnesia” – accidentally remembering the ideas of others as your own? No it was not.Before we go any further, let’s pause for quick refresher.Heist: [hahyst] Slang. noun1.a robbery or holdup:Four men were involved in the armoured car heist.verb (used with object)2.to take unlawfully, especially in a robbery or holdup; steal:to heist a million dollars' worth of jewels.3.to rob or hold up.Forget a Heist! My blog post has been stolen and the content tampered with!When I launched my blog in February 2015, I was ready for the possibility of trolls – well as ready as you can ever be.I understood that to survive and thrive on the internet; you must never, ever feed the trolls.It is a widely accepted truth that no matter how much you feed them, they are never ever satisfied.Vi Hart’s Guide to Comments via the very excellent Brainpickings article, counselled me through any potential existential angst I may (or may not) have had about hitting publish. Check it out for yourself.[embed]https://youtu.be/7IJyRAUxtAQ[/embed]I hit publish.The HR Rabbit Hole blog is not for everyone – and that’s OK.I approached my craft with the Marmite Principle in mind, determined to serve my readers – my niche.The HR Rabbit Hole blog is where you go for a fresh perspective on your traditional, and sadly often disappointing HR experience. It doesn’t conform to the status quo.The blog is part of an audacious grizzly-sized mission to transform HR’s relevance and to creatively craft meaningful success through human value.A journey down the rabbit hole explores a different take on the usual, makes uncommon connections and shares tips stolen from other creative disciplines and offers sneak peeks of ‘original’ Creative HR work in progress.

By original I subscribe to Adam Grant’s definition. “Originality involves introducing and advancing an idea that’s relatively unusual within a particular domain, and that has the potential to improve it.”

But blog boosting? Blatant theft? That's another matter entirely.In today’s super connected world; if you must ‘steal’, follow Austin Kleon’s advice and do it with savoir faire and some style - “Steal Like An Artist”.In today’s sharing economy there is definitely value in ‘stealing’. Heck, even Seth Godin wants you to steal his ideas. But there is a catch.Actually there are a few.Here are some of them to get you started.

“There is, of course, a difference between stealing and passing off. When you pretend that those taken words are your words, you’re no longer taking an idea — you’re taking an implementation. When you pretend that you are the originator, the original source, and you’re not, you’ve corrupted your work by claiming authorship, when you are merely contributing synthesis. This hurts your reputation as well as the person you stole from, because our society values authorship and origination.

The amazing thing about giving credit, though, is you never run out. Like ideas, the more credit is shared, the more it can be worth, to the giver and to the recipient.”

The power to 'steal' granted by the internet comes with great responsibility. To learn how to wield this power responsibly, you really should read Seth Godin's full TED Guest Author post – “Why I want you to steal my ideas.”

From Shocker to a Valuable Learning Experience

Here is what I learnt from my experience of content theft so far.

Intellectual Property Protection: I got a crash course in the importance of being diligent in protecting your original work.

My first step was to sort out an appropriate Creative Commons License (CCL) for the kind of work I create and share. CCLs are a pre-written set of intellectual property agreements that are based on similar principles to open source software.

You can choose the way you allow others to use your content for commercial gain (or not) and how you enforce attribution and sharing terms. This is not a theft-blocker, but a sensible framework to guide sharing content and information respectfully and ethically.

“CC is more a fit for the reality of zero-cost copying that is the reality of the digital world.” – thanks Matt Ballantine for the digital world reality check.

Untamed Frontier: The internet is vast and immense like space or the depths of the ocean.The digital landscape is compelling and untamed – a place of wild possibilities and immense opportunities.

It is frontier territory – populated by angels, pirates, guardians, mercenaries, inventors, browsers, curious bohemians, techies, end-users, and artists.

Now I see the internet as a morally neutral zone, neither good nor evil. A place where there are neither rules nor guiding values.

Those rules and values can only come from us - the humans who choose to use, pass through, share, rent, sublet, or own property on the internet.

Undeterred: My blog posts are and will continue to be a willful and purposeful tumble down the rabbit hole; regularly serving up HR how my readers like it – creatively fresh and steeped in curious wit, uncommon connections and now-world usefulness.

Authentic Voice: People can tell the same story but not quite like me or you. It is like knowing the difference between an authentic Hermès bag and an authentic fake.

Keep telling your story in your own unique style. This is what will make you unmistakable and, with value injected, ultimately remarkable.

My blogging journey as a citizen of the internet continues to be an astonishingly valuable learning experience.As I collect lessons and adventures, this means I gain more topics and ideas to explore and share with you. And for this, I am grateful.Thank you for stopping by. If you have enjoyed this post, please share so that other readers can enjoy it too.Before you go can you let me know;

What experience have you had with content theft?
What do you do to protect your content whilst still sharing your ideas?

I would love to learn about your experience and any tips you are willing to share in the comments.Until we meet again next week down the HR Rabbit Hole…