Words and Links

Here’s a great idea for anyone who posts any type of original content on their blog. 

Blog Copy is a website that will track your visitor’s use of the copy command when selecting and copying your text or pictures.

You just have to add a short piece of code to the body of your site, and Blog Copy will track the users who are taking your content via cut and paste.  It is probably not significant copyright violations you will find (although there might be some), but it is nice to know how far and wide your words are traveling.

In the past we used Google to search for such things.  And we had to type in complex search strings.  But this only caught some of our scraped content because it wasn’t all published or indexed.  Blog Copy lets you know from the start when people are borrowing.

The analytics generated, the price (FREE!), and the fact that everyone’s privacy is respected add up to a worthwhile test of this service for your blog.

The Manhattan Supreme Court has required Google, the host of the blog “Skanks in NYC”, to release the personal information of the blogger behind the blog to Liskula Cohen.  Cohen is a fashion model who was referred to in the blog with the line “How old is this skank? 40 something? She’s a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank”.  At best this is needlessly offensive and at worst slanderous.

But is the court justified in forcing the identity of the formerly anonymous blogger to become public knowledge?  Absolutely!  While being able to be hidden behind blogs and posts has encouraged people to express themselves to a far greater degree than anything else in modern times, these people do need to take responsibility and be held accountable for what they say.  If you craft your words you can avoid civil penalties and still make your point, no matter how offensive.

Freedom of speech should in no way be confused with a freedom to remain anonymous.