Less than 24 hours ago, I saw one of my most widely read and referenced farm business ideas articles (titled “Producing Good Catfish is Important, But Finding Good Buyers is Imperative!”) subjected to a more malicious level of abuse than I’ve ever seen. Naughty people periodically use other writers’ works without giving credit. When found out, many quickly make amends.I’ve experienced this with some of my articles. But yesterday’s was a new experience!
Before I tell you what happened, let me provide some background.
I’ve Been Writing on Farm Business for Over a Decade
Yesterday 3rd July 2013, was my brother’s birthday. At about 10.38 a.m I arrived in a client’s office in Cotonou, for a Web Marketing Systems development project review meeting.
But just before we started, I pleaded his indulgence to let me call my brother in Abuja, Nigeria, to wish him happy birthday.
We had not spoken since I left Nigeria 3 months before. By the time I was done, I’d learned my new report titled “10 Fruits You Eat, That Leave Useful Peels/Skins Behind” (featuring ideas on using pineapple peels to produce fermented and non-fermented drinks), emailed to him a month ago never arrived.
So I promised to re-send it.
You see, writing on Cost-Saving Farm Business ideas and providing best practice support to farm business owners has been my passion since 2003. And it’s earned me considerable name recognition and credibility. Indeed today, I enjoy the serious attention of farm business owners, and others aspiring, as subscribers to my newsletter, website visitors, and buyers.
Developing Solutions Of Different Kinds to Help Farmers
The challenge many farmers face in finding buyers for their market ready farm products –especially livestock and perishables – has always intrigued me.
For years while in Nigeria, I actively interacted with many farm owners to get an idea of unique challenges they faced, and solutions that could be evolved.
My Feed Formulation Handbook was meant to help farmers acquire the know-how to compound their own rations for their animals. This was in light of the compromised integrity of commercial livestock feed that some found themselves buying.
I got feedback from buyers who expressed the desire avoid manually doing the Pearson square computation for feed formulation.
So I developed an MS Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator software. Both have become quite popular.
The Menace of Content Thieves and Intellectual Property Abusers
In 2009, I wrote the above mentioned article, that attracted serious attention and interest locally and internationally. Various blogs, and websites linked to, or referenced that article via Ezinearticles.com where I published it.
Many such articles have generated pre-qualified sales leads for me. A good number result(ed) in sales of my products, and services (e.g. consultancy).
But as is common with intellectual works, I have found people using my works picked up from Ezinarticles.com without abiding by the terms.
Content publishers know Ezinearticles.com requires that they retain an author’s byine in any article they choose to republish on their website or newsletter.
That’s where we authors post short “marketing” blurbs containing one or two links leading to relevant pages on our websites. It is the small payoff authors gets for sharing their expert knowledge at no charge.
This is meant to be a symbiotic relationship. Sadly, some people – and I’ve seen this a lot in the farm business “category” – prefer to take without giving.
I’ve periodically found my articles reproduced verbatim from Ezinearticles.com, with ONLY my name retained. My entire byline is removed, including any links I added back to my website.
These people feel my work is good enough to be used on their website, and/or social media pages. But they refuse to let me get what is due to me, preferring instead to use my work to generate benefits for themselves alone.
It’s nothing new. Other authors/writers have similar experiences. We do what we can. Sometimes I’ve succeeded in getting abusers to make changes or simply take my work off their websites. Recently, I simply decided to ignore them.
Discovering a More Malicious Form of Intellectual Property Abuse
However yesterday, I encountered a more malicious dimension of abuse.
To generate sales leads based on my expertise on the subject, I had inserted (in line with a Burt Dubin tip) my mobile phone number in the last paragraph of the article.
That simple gimmick led to many people calling to consult me on how to apply the ideas in the article. Then at a point, those phone enquiries fizzled out. They just stopped coming. I didn’t know what to think.
Eventually I put it down to the reduced search engine visibility of article directories, following Google’s repeated algorithm changes.
Then yesterday afternoon, I saw that article reproduced verbatim on a blog run by a young Nigerian chap. As usual, my name was on it, but my byline was not.
However I got really ticked off when I saw that he’d replaced my phone number with his. Exactly where it appeared in the last paragraph of my article!
Less alert readers would naturally assume that that was my number!
Not believing my eyes, I called the number. Sure enough I found myself speaking to a young guy, who identified himself as the website owner.
I casually enquired about the service he was offering, and he readily asked “Do you need help with marketing your farm produce?”(he did not know it was me i.e. author of the article he’d used).
In other words, just what I aimed to do, he was now doing using my write-up – effectively denying me any benefit from my intellectual creation!
Young People Must Be Taught To Treat Intellectual Property With Respect It Deserves
All over the world we have people who steal content and abuse copyright privileges. But only in Nigeria have I consistently found people doing it so callously, with absolute disregard for the damage they do.
I say this without apology. It’s an indisputable FACT.
They abuse a system that encourages competent experts to offer such valuable works in the Internet space at no cost. Failing to see that their actions threaten the continued willingness of such people to share what they know!
This is why today, I write much fewer farm business articles for article marketing online.
Instead, I offer information products for sale to my subscribers and interested website visitors.
My probing questions soon unsettled my young friend. He said:
“There’s too much noise here. Let me call you back later.”
That was 4p.m yesterday. It’s already 10a.m today. And I know I will not be hearing from him.
However I do intend to get him to do the right thing.
If he does not, I WILL put up links to his website here on my blog, along with his name and phone number. Then I’ll inform his website host and Ezinearticles.com via a formal complaint email.
Next, each week that the abused version of my work remains on his website, I will post about it on my Facebook and Twitter profiles, and share widely.
Keeping Quiet Only Emboldens These Cheats and Other Dishonest Individuals
Saying nothing emboldens people who do these things. I refuse to be a silent victim. Anyone who abuses my work in that manner will have me to deal with, if I find out..
Our young people must be taught to develop serious respect for intellectual property.
Many learnt not to do so, from what they saw some irresponsible adults do.
The onus is on us to help them realize that they have within them the capacity, and capability, to produce original ideas and writing.
That will make them discover it’s a more dignifying and fulfilling approach.