Update: 8/7/12  The posting of my material that was copied from here on I hate Dialysis.com about “Dialysis and the Money” has been removed.  “Team IHateDialysis” said in an email that they removed the posting.  Thank you. 

Update: I’m going to leave this posting up another day or so.  I’ve not heard from “okarol” at IHateDialysis.com and my article is still up without permission at her site. I took a look and she seems to do that with a lot of sources in her “news” section.  I’m not sure how she gets away without a lot of legal entanglements but perhaps there’s not enough traffic through her site to warrant complaints from the sources.  I don’t think I’m being petty about this.  I just don’t appreciate someone doing a cut and paste job on my work.  It’s rude. 

I was checking out my blog postings yesterday and clicked on a new link from my blog that really made me angry.  You see, the control panel for WordPress contains references for where my readers come from so that I might know what websites are linking to my site.  Usually it’s a reference to one of my posts in someone else’s posting like when someone posts a link in Twitter to another site. In this case it was nothing of the kind.  Someone literally cut and pasted my article “Dialysis and the Money” into their website forum and the only reference to me as the author was because they kept the link they used to steal it.  But that link was not to my website here but to Davita.com where I posted about the article on this website.

The offender was “Okarol”, the owner of IHateDialysis.com, and here is a link to her cut and paste of my article. You’ll note she doesn’t reference me as the author. Instead she seems to be trying to claim authorship herself.   Way at the bottom is the link to Davit.com forums where I posted about the article.  So, indirectly, it does contain a link to my site which I appreciate, but she didn’t ask for permission to cut and paste the entire post.  She could easily have just made a comment about the matter and provided a link to my work.  That’s what most posters do. It’s the appropriate way.  But in this case, she lifted the entire post without my permission and consent.

I spend a lot of time and effort writing and editing this blog.  It’s a labor of love because I don’t make much money from it, actually nothing at all. I plan to get some revenue in the future as I build a large enough following.  But in the meantime, this is my work and I don’t appreciate it when someone feels they can just steal it.

I sent a Cease and Desist letter to Okaol of IHateDialysis.com and specified the date of 15 August 2012 for her to have removed the  contents of my work from her site.  I also offered to give her the right to post my article but I’d like to be referenced as the author and , rather than a cut and paste, to simply have a link to my material.  You see, I often revise and update material as things might change and  having people link to the article gives the ability to do that.

So, if any readers are members of IHateDialysis.com, please let Okarol know that I sent her an email and letter to Admin@IHateDialysis.com so she’ll make sure she reads it.  I’d like to get this matter cleared up and protect my copyrights.  For future reference, please don’t cut and paste my work without my permission!

Devon

© 2012 DevonTexas