Copyright Infringement
Something I’ve never been able to understand is why people get upset if a blogger or website displays a picture from their website or article along with a link to their article/website. I mean, isn’t that what the web is all about? Personally, I would be ecstatic if someone wrote an article on one of my websites or blog posts. I wouldn’t care what image they used from my site, so long as they provided a link to my site. What can I say, I love free advertising.
The reason this has been on my mind lately is because I’ve gone to several news websites and noticed copyright notices left and right. They even want to charge if you use the article regardless of where you use it. My first thought was ‘Oh, they don’t want people copying the article for their own use.’ Well, I was right and wrong. Not only do they not want people copying the entire article, but they don’t want people to use even a snippet without paying for it. If you’re really that desperate to make a little money, why not try unobtrusive advertising? Get people to pay to advertise in one of the side columns. You’ll begin pulling in money in no time, especially if you have a commonly used website.
That brings me to another topic. Advertising. Have you ever been to a site where the content is pushed down so far you can’t see it without scrolling? Or maybe you can see it, but it’s only half as wide as it could be because someone decided to stick one of those grand AdSense squares inline with the content? Sadly, that’s what advertising has come to nowadays. Those, along with pop-up and pop-under ads, are the cause of ad blocking software. Someone decided to get greedy and force their users into staring directly at their advertisement and now every website owner has to suffer because of it. I refuse to get an ad blocking program for the simple fact that I realize that’s how many websites continue to run. I also encourage you to do the same. I’m not asking you to turn off your pop-up blocker (Obtrusive ads are annoying and useless, I know), but I am asking you to turn off any other ad blocking program you may have. Sites like Google would never be as successful and willing to provide free services (search, maps, translator, etc) if they didn’t use advertising.
Tags: AdSense, advertising, copyright, copyright infringement, Google, unobtrusive advertising
October 16th, 2009 at 10:19 am
[...] mentioned unobtrusive advertising last year when I was ranting about copyright complaints by blog owners, but I believe a bit more of an explanation (and rant) is needed. Let the world know how you feel [...]