After discovering the New England Lighthouses blog via MyBlogLog Sunday, I was a bit taken aback to learn that the author is calling it a day. She is fed up doing work that others are copying and taking the credit for.

I can understand how demoralising it must be to compile an article that requires research and creativity, only to see some robot take the credit for it elsewhere on the splog-a-net. It isn't right. The only consolation I can offer is that splogged bloggers, or sploggees, are in good company. Shakespeare copied Sir Francis Bacon, if you believe the historians.

On the plus side, if it is good enough to copy, it s good material! (Not my words by the way, I have few original thoughts in my head this morning.)

Protection from copyright thieves

So what can be done to avoid wholesale theft of original material?

Don't publish work on a publicly available platform. (How demoralising, to write a literary gem, only to have to lock it in your drawers for posterity. And how stressful to die in the hope that the people who discover your words after your death, attribute the work correctly. Being plagiarised in the grave is not a pretty prospect.)

Write your work in code and distribute the key to discerning readers. (That counts me out, I can't even de-code the numbers indicating which check-out desk is open at the supermarket.)

Start a Name and Shame website. (Debbie has a great blueprint. )

"Name and shame" could be one way to solve this problem using a unique site called "B.A.N. - Blogger Alert Network" or some catchy name where every blogger spotlights the "protected by B.A.N." link.

The B.A.N. Hall of Shame site would list any site using feeds and content without the author's permission or sites changing the name of the author.

She doesn't know how to set up and administer such a site, but maybe you do?

Get rid of copyright laws An ITH journalist champions the Dutch ideas on copyright. They say, ban copyright and instantly prevent corporate copyright holders from charging for access to culturally important entities. The Dutch say that important works should be available to the people at no cost. Hear, hear. (This is an easy thesis for a journalist to endorse, when your salary is paid by the newspaper publishing this sort of thesis!)

If you don't understand copyright laws, try this for size. And if you want to check if an article has been copied elsewhere, run it through - I can't find the site right now. HELP!!!!

And feel free to copy this article, it is linked to The Pisstakers!