aggregation is a very grey area of on-line news presentation. If you make your RSS feed available to the public to read in the reader of their choice, why is it illegal for a site like HuffPo to offer themselves as the "reader of choice?" If you don't want your stuff lifted by news aggregators, there's a simple solution: publish the RSS feed for your site as a "summary-only" feed.

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No, Huffington post is practicing classic black hat plagiarism. Plain and simple. I had this happen to me on a site I run where another local site was lifting verbatim the whole work of others so that it was very vague and downplayed where the source was and the link to that source was also downplayed. It is fairly standard copyright infringement at this point (and has been proven in courts) is certainly a major and very standard internet protocol NO NO. It's also certainly a way to make major enemies online. Huffington Post needs to cut that crap out. Pronto.

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I agree with you 100% Mr. Kev. In this modern age of all too easy digital piracy, we have an entire generation that doesn't know and doesn't care about intellectual property rights. And since so many twenty-somethings are guilty themselves of copying music, words and pictures without permission and beyond the limits of fair use, sadly I think you're going to find it hard to rally much collective outrage from the online community. Not trying to discourage you, just making sure you know what you're up against. Peace, Tim

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I love it when you get angry, Kevin. Damn. I had no idea the HP was essentially a scraper blog.

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yeah, because Google is all high-minded and would never put someone else's ads next to your content while I'm reading your RSS feed, right? call the wahhhambulance! Like I said, you want to stop the hijackers? Stop whining and use the technology to your advantage.

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First let me say that no, HumidCity does not pay its bloggers, but then we also do not make a penny of of these bloggers like Huffington does. As a matter of fact the hosting and other costs are borne entirely by my personal bank account in order to provide it as a platform for important voices here in NOLA. This is the big reason I do not bother with the Huf Post, it is basically a scam as far as I can see. An opportunity to make money off of the works of others who do not get paid. As a writer and web content producer I find it offensive and lacking in business ethics. This model was something that turned my stomach even before the plague of job loss our recession brought to the table. Now as I see many of my journalist friends suddenly without income it is intolerable. I applaud the Gambit for taking a stance on this issues when few if any have had the intestinal fortitude to do other than sing Ms. Huffington's praises. This a brave stance to take and one that I will back you on in any way I possibly can.

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It seems a pretty open and shut case of copyright infringement. I'm surprised no one has sued yet. The penalties are pretty stiff, including all profits - just ask RIAA or MPAA. I recall AP was trying to sell 10 word quotes for about $20 per use recently.

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Just to inform the debate, here are the four factors viewed to determine fair use ("quoted" from Standford.edu): 1) the purpose and character of your use (to generate page hits) 2) the nature of the copyrighted work (to generate page hits and push copies of the physical publication with its advertising) 3) the amount and substantiality of the portion taken (the whole f'ing thing), and 4) the effect of the use upon the potential market (who wants to go and read all these other sites when I can read it all here?) No waaaaambulance required. I think it's also doubtful that HuffPo only steals RSS'd content with that specious reasoning in mind. Yeah, I can publish my thoughts in a book, but does that open it up for "aggregation?" In my case, no. My thoughts are way too angry and bitter (right David?), but still...

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Amen, Kevin!

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Google as far as I know provides links to the original content, with a brief "tease". Huffington is taking the whole article , reformatting it to fit their site and providing a teenie weenie link in the form of a byline. Not the same thing at all.

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Yes, Mominem, it's called scraping and is unethical and is also potential illegal copyright infringement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping Regardless, Huffingtonpost are proving themselves as a**hats in this.

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I don't think its potential infringement at all. It's a slam dunk.

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I don't mind if someone lifts my posts, but I do mind if there are ads associated with it. I've run a few sites over these last 8 years, and I never have ads. Same goes for my Blog. These are my things and I refuse to cheap myself out. It costs me about $200/year, but its all mine.

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I publish my blog under a CC license, noncommercial attributed. If you want to repost the whole thing simply give me credit and I'm good. Just don't try to make money off it.

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I have to admit Kevin that until the day you asked me to write something for this website for money I would have never thought to worry about getting paid for anyone posting something I wrote on my own blog. I guess because I always did it for the love of writing and never had any plans for financial gain. I know you take a strong stance on this issue and I respect that. I have to admit that the first time I opened the envelope and saw a check for words I created I felt such an accomplishment. It didn't matter how much it was. After that I saw your point in writers being paid for their words. If by some chance anything I write makes it to the Huffington Post please remind me to be upset. I would be so excited to see my words on that national site that I will forget that they should have paid me. Bloggers that think like I do are probably why they have been doing this so long without bigger problems.

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Great post, Kevin. Ariana is a parasitical trend hopper as well as (to use a term she'd understand) a malaka.

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Rock and Roll, Kevin! Ummm errrah, we ok, eh? The Ladder loves Gambit no lie. Salami Salami...ya'knowit ya'knowit. I call it stitch'hiking. Did I say we love Gambit? Yeessssss... Money is as honeydoo! Editilla We're ok though right?

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I'm wit'Gentilly. No Ads Boooo'rah! That said, we don'doo ad revenue either on the Ladder. Just gets in the way really and when you need to bloody some nose it's good to not have that in the way. By the way... We do hang people's ads though. Lift'em right off'a their site. I love these people. If any you'z gimme a call they gone.. but it is an honor for me at least. Kevin, did I tell you how much we love Gambit? Anyway, also Craft Mafia, Dirty Coast, Ashley Morris... Because I want people to go and give them money. Hell,you don't have to pay me for that. I go and give'em my own money. I've paid to read Kevin Allman, Clancy and the lot. (oh brudha how I paid:) But... Cliff, I'd pay to read you in a heartbeat. Nola writers are so badass. But Arianna can suck my toe. Toe'suckin's free, right? Ummm, ya'know we love Gambit, right? Editilla

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In the near future, everyone will either have to own his or her own business and solicit funds from foundations, etc. or a nonprofit, or you'll never work at all past age 35. And your business or nonprofit will employ only those younger than 35, or hire unpaid interns or AmericaCorps volunteers. It'll be one big Ponzi scheme--lamentable, but at least with tasty multi-level marketing snacks, a la the kind a former neighbor involved in some Amway-ish company gave me before moving a couple of years ago, who I regularly talked to despite the sales pitches because she was hotter than she had any clue about. Sorry for the run-on sentence, but I wasn't getting paid for that. Anyway, we can stop this near-certain future, but only via eternal vigilance, smarty pants mocking of those leading the way, etc.

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Make that under or over 35 rule also attendant upon whether one is willing to be complicit in or is ignorant of one's own beyond-the-pale level of exploitation.

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"...bathing in koala milk." That is f'ing hilarious. And agreed, wholeheartedly, with the rest of your post Kevin.

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HuffPost provides a link to the original article, and there are no laws in place that outlaw such a practice or require seeking permission. Bloggers do it, as do other online news sites who can't afford investigative reporters of their own. The HuffPost also solicit their own advertisers and use ad revenue to help pay their small staff.... just like the Gambit Daily online. So why single out Arianna Huffington? Probably because you read it in another publication and you are not an investigative reporter who has the time or skill to locate original stories. I also noticed the ads surrounding your blogs. I assume that just like Arianna Huffington, the revenue from those ads does not go into one person’s pocket, but instead goes toward the maintenance and salaries that keep the publication going. The problem with blogs of this sort is that they are not impartial. They are usually highly opinionated and impassioned, and rarely are they centered on their own original intellectual property.

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