Welcome to my world since 1995 when I started my first website that dealt with Long Hair. Shortly after that was HairBoutique.com. The first website had the original HairTalk forum which you are all visiting now (well a version of it because we have upgraded software 1-2x a year since the 1995 original software.
I am going to close this topic now because I am sure everyone has pretty much had their say.
However, I wanted to let all of you know that on an average day, HairBoutique.com receives many hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world. Which explains all the obnoxious spam from China trying to sell shoes. UGH. I spend so much time deleting their crap it. You guys have no idea how much I catch that you all never even see.
Even if 300 people are logged into HairTalk, there may even be another 1,000 lurking...as they call it. There are millions of people that have come through HairTalk since 1995 when we first put up HairTalk. Some hang around and participate, some just get answers and leave forever and some pop in from time to time. I watch the logs religiously on a daily basis to understand what is happening with our traffic.
On on another note........since the mid 1990s I have written over 2,500 new articles about hair. When we recently purchased software to check on copyright theft, which is happening so much, on my top 25 articles, there were over 1,000 instances of either the complete or partial sections of those articles cut and pasted completely into other websites. Most of the time there was no linkback or credit given to me or HairBoutique.com. In those instances, depending on the severity, we had our lawyers go after the sites.
The Internet is like the Wild West, most of the time, without police. We have had everything "borrowed" from here including our images - which we pay for, my articles - which I have spent 10 years of my life developing and writing, our tips, our Glossary of Term...you name it.
So yes, I appreciate the fact that a lot of hard work was put into the Newbies info. I appreciate that it is here and it is an excellent way to help others, which is the good part of the Web. People in the know give of their information.
Even though it has made me furious when I see people copying my stuff w/out even links back, I take it as a compliment. It is a pain in the ass because I took the time to develop it in the first place and if they are violating copyright, I will go after them with my lawyer.
But in the case of the forums, here and all over the web, it is people sharing with other people.
Should this woman have used Sexi's info without asking? No..probably not. It would have been nice if she would have asked if she could add a link or let her know she loved her info, which is awesome (thank you Sexi). In reality, she was giving Sexi a huge compliment by saying that Sexi's info was the BEST for getting started. That is awesome praise. But yes, she might have gone about it a little differently.
Did anyone here post the info or give it to the EBay lady? I seriously doubt it. Why? I see references to HairBoutique.com or HairTalk in magazines, books...etc., Goggle News and MySpace news often pick up HB and HairTalk info in their daily news. No, they never ask me. Yes, I am very complimented that they value the info to use it. It brings more people here to share their knowledge, which we all need.
People copy from HB and HairTalk postings because there is a wealth of hair and beauty related info that has been growing since 1995 provided by real people with real hair and beauty issues.
Yes, it may seem bad and there are elements that are upsetting. I understand. It happens to me all the time but it is also a compliment to Sexi and all of you here with your superb knowledge and williness to help each other with a topic so near and dear to your heart.
It could have been worse. The woman could have taken Sexi's Newbie info, rewrote it just enough that she could not have been sued for copying and then posted it as her own rather than putting a link to the original info.
The Internet is both good and bad. We can take the good and enjoy it and get value from it and try to minimize the bad.
I am glad that Sexi is happy with the outcome and she should be very complimented.
Thanks for all your feedback.
------------- That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger or drives you totally insane. :-)
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