Summary

The undefined website discusses the unexpected dissemination of articles from Medium to other sites, like Mirror Medium, without writers' explicit consent, impacting copyright, read counts, and monetization.

Abstract

The content raises concerns about the unauthorized reproduction of Medium articles on sites like Mirror Medium, which duplicates content without explicit permission from the original authors. Despite owning the copyright to their work, writers are unaware that their stories are being reposted elsewhere, leading to issues with visibility and compensation. The author highlights the existence of Mirror Medium, a website that scrapes content from Medium to circumvent Egyptian censorship, which, while noble in intention, lacks transparency and can mislead readers, affecting the original authors' metrics and income. The article suggests a potential partnership between Medium and Mirror Medium to respect the paywall and integrate read data, providing a solution that supports both writers' rights and the fight against censorship.

Opinions

The author believes that every word published under a writer's name is owned by the writer, and Medium serves only as a hosting platform.
There is a sense of betrayal or unease about publications potentially claiming rights to authors' work, even if this is a misunderstanding.
The author values the personal significance of written content and emphasizes the importance of knowing where and how it is distributed.
The author sees web crawlers and fair use instances as acceptable, albeit limited, exceptions to copyright control.
There is admiration for the noble intent behind Mirror Medium to combat censorship in Egypt, yet concern about the lack of affiliation disclosure and the impact on the original authors.
The author criticizes the lack of transparency from Mirror Medium for not directing readers to Medium if they are not in Egypt, leading to uncounted reads and a skewed algorithm.
The article expresses a desire for a collaborative solution where Medium could affiliate with Mirror Medium, giving writers control over their content's distribution and full visibility into their readership metrics.
The author advocates for the protection of writers' interests while also supporting the fight against censorship.

Your Stories Are Posted Elsewhere

And you don’t get a say in it

Posting to Medium feels safe, right? As if your carefully crafted words are lovingly protected by the publication, or writing community you’ve found here. The lengthy usage agreement you’ve made with Medium feels comfortable, too. The law keeps those words safe and sound exactly where you left them.

Except, that’s not what’s happening. Your articles are all over the damn place, and you don’t even realize it.

You Own Your Copyrights

Every word published under your name is owned by you. Medium hosts the space, much like a website provider. But everything you place here is completely yours. This is an important understanding, because it means you can do whatever you want with it.

When I first started here, I thought publications owned the article. At least, for a time. I asked the couple of pubs I was in how long they retained my work — because I intended to use the articles to create books later on. Most of them agreed on a month; one said they preferred a year!

But they don’t really get a say. Five minutes or five years, it’s all up to you.

While I can’t say that every word I write is valuable objectively, I think most people would agree that what we write has value to us. Our articles are sacred, right? And if people are reading them — wherever that happens to be on the internet — that’s our business. If our words appear somewhere we didn’t intend, that feels like a problem, right? We own them, and have every right to know where they appear, when they’re appearing, with the option to pull them at any point.

Except For The Exceptions

We all know that webcrawlers take bits of our work for search results. Medium accounts for this in the settings — you can change how it appears and everything. Also, there are “fair use” instances, where other writers have some leeway. Ok, fine. We all understand that there are some exceptions to the rule, and it’s all out in the open for everyone to see.

But sometimes the exception isn’t acceptable. Sometimes it’s not an exception at all, but rather a clever mirror site distracting readers and stealing views. What would you do if you found out that your stories weren’t limited to just Medium?

A Mirror Of Medium

There is a website called Mirror Medium — and it’s exactly what it sounds like. The main page lets you input a link to any page on Medium, and it will scrape all the data from Medium’s page to post on theirs.

Scary, huh?

Don’t click away just yet — hear me out. The site seems to be an attempt to thwart Egyptian censorship, which personally I think is fairly noble. Censorship is abhorrent in my eyes, and is worth fighting against. However, there are so many questions about this site. The main issue here is that people have come across this site thinking that it’s Medium-affilited, and it isn’t. And that right there causes a lot of trouble in of itself.

But Let’s Reflect For A Moment

It’s 2017, and Egypt is banning websites left and right. Medium is targeted, causing small groups of the internet to explode in justified outrage. Silencing people feels like the introduction to a future atrocity, right? It’s bad, man. Very bad.

Fast forward to 2021. An Egyptian man decides he’s going to route a website through Iceland to mirror Medium’s articles for Egyptian people. A Robin Hood of information, allowing this small sect of Medium readers to glimpse part of the outside world. Admirable, right?

And I get it. He only mirrors what you’d read for free already, so it’s gone under the radar for the past 3 years. Plus, it’s not quite as visually appealing anyway — the coding is a bit off. That’s not the important part, anyway. What’s important is delivering information from the world to Egyptians, and it does that very well.

It also delivers that information to everyone else on the internet, though. And that’s where the problems start.

The Mirror Is A Lie

Here’s the thing — nowhere on the site does it try to point you back to Medium if you aren’t in Egypt. Why would it? He designed it only for Egypt, and perhaps he never imagined anyone outside of the censored areas would bother. But for people that think it’s an affiliated site, they have no idea their reads aren’t counted.

And when reads aren’t counted, the algorithm doesn’t update. Those reads didn’t exist as far as the algo is concerned; your stories being published elsewhere waters down the audience. When that’s something you can opt into, it’s a calculated risk you take willingly. Something we all do when we publish on our own sites or on Substack.

When it’s something happening behind our back, it feels like sabotage. As if our efforts are being undermined behind the scenes — and the lack of information about reads and views through the mirror makes it all the more upsetting.

But in this problem lies the solution — one that might benefit everyone.

Respect The Paywall

Every “members-only” story has this little blurb at the bottom of the freely available text:

Image by author, from https://mirror-medium.com/

Clearly Magdoub is considering some way to link to Medium memberships so that the articles can be displayed beyond the paywall. What if Medium partnered with them in some way? They could add an opt in/out option in settings for us, and incorporate the read/view data to reflect the full picture. A match made in heaven — and in return, this guy gets to be the front line fighting for the uncensoring of Medium in Egypt. Win-win, right?

We all know better. That’s not how it’ll work out, but it’s certainly nice to dream. At best, Medium will investigate the site and find it to be insignificant. That not enough people even frequent to warrant legal action. Worst case, it’s shut down and the people of Egypt are back to dealing with their government’s censorship head on.

Still, I choose to root for the improbable. Medium, make this an alliance. Affiliate with the mirror, and give us the option to be in or out. The only ones that lose are bigots in Egypt, and I won’t lose any sleep over that. What do you say?

Until next time, remember to follow yourself, always!