Is This Ethical???

[Purrkins24]

I have stumbled on a blog in a niche that I enjoy reading about. However, the owner of the blog does no original work other than a few sentences. This person is posting links to other people's blog posts along with one of their pictures. I don't know if the other bloggers are aware that their posts are appearing on this blog. I mean, I guess they are receiving traffic to their blog this way, but is it right? Some of the links are from 2007. This person posts several entries a day. I just don't see how this person is contacting all these different blog owners for permission. The blog is also overly monetized in my opinion. I have linked to others work once in a while, but with full disclosure that it is not my idea and giving full credit to the other blogger. So, what is the etiquette in a situation like this?

[ErinHill226]

I'm not an expert, but if the person is just linking to other blogs...I don't see what the issue is. It sounds like a boring blog to visit, but as long as the person isn't saying he wrote the posts he's linking to, I don't know why it would be unethical?

[Kiernansmom]

It's called content curation, and lots of blogs do it. Without looking at the blog, I couldn't say for sure if the person is doing it "right" (there are lots of basic rules for the best results) but I don't think it's unethical since they are giving credit to the author.

[jwinter]

I've had a company use blogs I wrote for a private client before on their site. Well, not use. They link to them and gave not only the site credit, but me credit as well. It is pretty common.

I agree with the previous post that without seeing the site it is hard to say if what they are doing is ethical or not. I would say if they are giving credit where credit it is due then so be it. If they are paying you or other writers, the pay is on time, and they are not using the work as their own content then...hey paycheck.

My view may come from the fact that I have had clients in the past two years that have paid very well, but their business practices are not necessarily what I would do. However, they aren't doing anything illegal, unethical or immoral. They are just not following the trends in blog and content creation and marching to their own beat. I've had to stop, think about the pay and think about the fact that I get credit for what I want credit for (i.e. Press Releases that mention my name as a lead writer/content manager/ and reason the site RSS subscriptions increased). Once I took that into account it no longer mattered what the client did with what I gave him as long as it wasn't illegal.

[Del S]

If the blogger is only linking, or if he/she posts an opening sentence or two of the other bloggers' work, then that's okay and also "fair use." About the pictures, though -- I'm not sure since I know some bloggers specifically have copyright language on their sites that specifies someone has to ask permission before using any of their photos. Even if they're stock photos, if the original blogger bought the rights to them, I don't think anyone can just lift them and use them without permission.

It's confusing because with one of my gigs, we can post thumbnail images (from other sources) on our Facebook pages as long as we post it manually and not through an RSS feed -- same picture but how we post it makes it legal or not. Plus, the size of the picture matters. Thumbnails are fine, bigger ones require permission.

Since this blogger only posts one photo, it sounds like it *might* be fine since plenty of bloggers are okay with someone only using one picture as long as it's credited. But with all that content, I agree it sounds like it'd be hard to get all the necessary permissions. You'd have to see what each blogger's copyright says (some don't post it) and who has time for that?

[Purrkins24]

Originally Posted by Kiernansmom

It's called content curation, and lots of blogs do it. Without looking at the blog, I couldn't say for sure if the person is doing it "right" (there are lots of basic rules for the best results) but I don't think it's unethical since they are giving credit to the author.

Hmmm...interesting. I've never heard that term before. I don't recall seeing any particular credit given to the author, just a link to their post. I can see where it would be beneficial to both parties. It just kind of made me wonder if something like this was right. There is really no original content, just links and pictures of other posts.

[Kiernansmom]

Yeah, it seems odd to me, too, but apparently content curation is a legit tactic used by many bloggers these days. It's kind of new; I only know about it because I had to write a few articles about it months ago. Around that same time, another client asked me to start doing this for his blog so I guess it's catching on, lol.

[SuzieQueue]

My understanding is that industry standard for content "curation" is 50 words or less and a "read more" link to the original article. Curating someone else's images and embedding them on your own site still seems like a no-no to me.

[Del S]

Originally Posted by SuzieQueue

My understanding is that industry standard for content "curation" is 50 words or less and a "read more" link to the original article. Curating someone else's images and embedding them on your own site still seems like a no-no to me.

That's my understanding, too. There's a poster on the blogger forum, though, who says he and other bloggers use some type of curating service. I can't recall the name of the site but it's somewhere where people post articles that anyone can use. ??? I guess by putting an article there, it's free to use for anyone.

It doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm not trying to monetize a blog or post content all the time, either. But this situation that the OP brought up doesn't sound like a curating service; it sounds like the blogger is just randomly posting links and pictures (legally obtained or not, I don't know) in order to have fresh content all the time.