Copyright

      I received an email this evening asking that I remove a comment from my blog. The anonymous commenter had quoted extensively from another blog, which is copyrighted. The owner of the material asked that I remove the material. I did so immediately.
      I was curious about how the owner knew the material was on my blog so quickly since it had only been posted this evening. He replied that the "borrower" had sent him an email telling that he was going to borrow it. The borrower didn't ask permission, simply informed the owner of what he was doing.
      The owner uses his blog to make money. He draws people to his blog by having exclusive material. He has advertisers. So he wants to protect his material. He said that a link would have been okay, but not this outright "theft of my words."
      I certainly agree with him on that. (I didn't agree with the quoted material at all.) There is a strange notion on the Net that if it's posted, then it's fair game. That's not how it works. Copyright is copyright is copyright. Just because the commenter attributed the words to the owner, did not make the stealing okay. It's one thing to interview a person and then quote them. It's quite another to steal their words from their writing.
      The owner wants to make money from his blog. His content is his product. The commenter stole the owner's product, thus lessening the worth of the owner's blog. It's a money thing. But even if it wasn't, stealing other people's images, words and other content is wrong. And as a writer myself, I'm always going to side with the creator.
      For people who have trouble with this: If you paint a picture or build a chair or sew a jacket, is it okay for me to steal those items from your house? If so, please send me your address as soon as possible. I need a few things.