It’s been a busy week for me. In fact, it’s been a busy few weeks. I’ve had lots of time to enjoy NetApp Insight, Cloud Field Day, and Storage Field Day. I’ve also been doing my best to post interesting thoughts and ideas. Whether it’s taking on the CCIE program or keynote speakers, I feel like I owe a debt to the community and my readers to talk about topics that are important to them, or at least should be. Which is why I’m irritated right now about those ideas being stolen.

Beg, Borrow, and Steal

A large part of my current job is finding people that are writing great things and shining a spotlight on them. I like reading interesting ideas. And I like sharing those ideas with people. But when I share those ideas with people, I make absolutely sure that everyone knows where those ideas came from originally. And if I use those ideas for writing my own content, I make special care to point out where they came from and try to provide the context for the original statement in the first place.

What annoys me to no end is when people take ideas as their own and try to use them for their own ends. It’s not all that difficult. You can use weasel words like “sources” or “I heard once” or even “I read this article”. Those are usually good signs that content is going to be appropriated for some purpose. It’s also a sign that research isn’t being done or attributed properly. It’s lazy journalism at best.

What really grinds my gears is when my ideas are specifically taken and used elsewhere without attribution. Luckily, I haven’t had to deal with it much so far. I have a fairly liberal policy about sharing my work. I just want people to recognize the original author. But when my words end up in someone else’s mouth, that’s when the problems start.

Credit Where It Is Due

Taking ideas given freely without offering a clue as to where they come from is theft. Plain and simple. It takes the hard work that someone has put in to thinking through an issue and wraps it up in a cloudy mess. Now, who is to say (beyond dates) who was the originator of the idea? It’s just as easy to say that someone else came up with it. That’s what makes the tracing the origin of things so difficult. Proper attribution for ideas is important in a society where knowledge carries so much weight.

I don’t expect to make millions of dollars from my ideas. I have opinions. I have thoughts. Sometimes people agree with them. Just as often, people disagree. The point is not to be right or wrong or rich. The true point is to make sure that the thoughts and ideas of a person are placed where they belong when the threads are all unwound.

Honestly, I don’t even really want a ton of credit. It does me little good to have someone shouting from the rooftops that I was the first person to talk about something. Or that I was right when everyone else was wrong. But when the butcher’s bill comes due, I’d at least like to have my name attached to my thoughts.

Tom’s Take

I’ve luckily been able to have most of my appropriated content taken down. Some have used it as fuel for a link bait scheme to get paid. Others have used it as a way to build a blog for readership for some strange purpose. Thankfully, I’ve never run into anyone that was vocally taking credit for my writing and passing it off as their own. If you are a smart person and willing to writing things down, do the best you can with what you have. You don’t need to take something else that someone has written and attempt to make it you own. That just tarnishes what you’re trying to do and makes all your writing suspect. Be the best you can be and no one will ever question who you are.