Don’t Rip Off Other Writer’s Work for Your “Advice” Articles

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ot fair use. <b>This is fucking plagiarism.</b> You’ve used his name, his reputation and his work for 99% of your article, then you’ve slapped your name on it. That alone disgusts me enough. Even more egregious is the fact that you’re now the one earning money for the people who read this writer’s tips, not him.</p><p id="709a">No doubt the counter is <i>“but I packaged up the best bits so people didn’t have to go looking for it!”</i></p><p id="9809">If that’s the rationale, it’s even worse. Now you’re not only making money off another writer’s work (someone who has actually done the hard yards and built an audience), but you’re offering people a shortcut so they don’t even need to read the original author’s articles to get the good bits. You’re trying to lift yourself up by using his face as a stepping stone.</p><p id="e75e">I saw another one of these articles in my feed today. At least the subject of this one was an author who isn’t on Medium, but what really disgusted me about this and the previous one is that they were both published in <i>major</i> publications. I can’t believe that this kind of behaviour is actually being rewarded, and it makes me seriously question, if, I ever want to submit anything to either of those publications in the future.</p><p id="69dc">Personally, I feel like it’s highly disingenuous to be about the improvement of writing and the community while at the same time rewarding this kind of behaviour with publication. Writing is hard enough without shitty hacks coming in and ripping off other people’s work.</p><p id="c285">I don’t think I’m alone in my opinion here. If you agree, I urge you, don’t ever click on these articles. If you do want to give the author a piece of your mind, scroll straight to the bottom so at least they don’t earn money off the read time. I’m all for the concept of “live and let live”, but I’m even more for the concept of earning your way to where you want to be and not bei

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ng a parasite who steals the rightful rewards from those who have actually earned them.</p><p id="212b">Related:</p><div id="a046" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/reality-check-making-big-on-medium-is-way-harder-than-it-looks-a106d0b6c6e0"> <div> <div> <h2>Enough with the bullshit advice on making money with Medium</h2> <div><h3>Don’t get swept up in all the hype posts</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*dg-CEFVxCtizENgbVoLbBA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="3550" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/dont-pin-all-your-hopes-on-getting-curated-d4baadc49b0f"> <div> <div> <h2>Don’t Pin All Your Hopes on Getting Curated</h2> <div><h3>Or major publications for that matter</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*PW8qoQJTIhhrM_0_Hzl5PQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div> <figure id="134f"> <div> <div> <img class="ratio" src="http://placehold.it/16x9"> <iframe class="" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fupscri.be%2F27f2b2%3Fas_embed%3Dtrue&dntp=1&display_name=Upscribe&url=https%3A%2F%2Fupscri.be%2F27f2b2&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=upscri" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" width="800"> </div> </div> </figure></iframe></div></div></figure></article></body>

It’s nothing more than using someone else’s platform for your own gain

I recently wrote a piece titled 8 Current Writing Trends That Make Me Want to Claw My Eyes Out which, by the reactions of many readers, felt very cathartic. One of the things I called out was giving life lessons based on things you don’t even know about, like being a Navy SEAL. I thought that this piece said all that needed to be said on these trends, but after seeing yet another pop up just yesterday, man, it really set me off.

I’m not going to publicly shame the author or the subject of the article, but it was something along the lines of 13 Lessons from <Medium top writer>. It wasn’t a list of lessons that the author had learned as a result of coaching with the top writer, or a phone conversation, or even things he’d gleaned from reading this top writer’s work. Nope, the author just provides a bunch of quotes from said Medium top writer about writing, without offering any insight beyond a simple sentence saying something like “that’s so true, isn’t it?”

I’m going to call this out for what it really is. I’ve talked about repackaging other people’s stuff into your own crappier version, but this is far worse. This is not fair use. This is fucking plagiarism. You’ve used his name, his reputation and his work for 99% of your article, then you’ve slapped your name on it. That alone disgusts me enough. Even more egregious is the fact that you’re now the one earning money for the people who read this writer’s tips, not him.

No doubt the counter is “but I packaged up the best bits so people didn’t have to go looking for it!”

If that’s the rationale, it’s even worse. Now you’re not only making money off another writer’s work (someone who has actually done the hard yards and built an audience), but you’re offering people a shortcut so they don’t even need to read the original author’s articles to get the good bits. You’re trying to lift yourself up by using his face as a stepping stone.

I saw another one of these articles in my feed today. At least the subject of this one was an author who isn’t on Medium, but what really disgusted me about this and the previous one is that they were both published in major publications. I can’t believe that this kind of behaviour is actually being rewarded, and it makes me seriously question, if, I ever want to submit anything to either of those publications in the future.

Personally, I feel like it’s highly disingenuous to be about the improvement of writing and the community while at the same time rewarding this kind of behaviour with publication. Writing is hard enough without shitty hacks coming in and ripping off other people’s work.

I don’t think I’m alone in my opinion here. If you agree, I urge you, don’t ever click on these articles. If you do want to give the author a piece of your mind, scroll straight to the bottom so at least they don’t earn money off the read time. I’m all for the concept of “live and let live”, but I’m even more for the concept of earning your way to where you want to be and not being a parasite who steals the rightful rewards from those who have actually earned them.