Common Craft Blog
Our RSS Video - Hijacked on YouTube
By leelefever on July 27, 2007 - 5:28pm
Check this out... someone uploaded a bullshit version of our RSS in Plain English video to YouTube with a crappy ad on it.
I would love it if you could help me rectify this situation by reporting it to YouTube as inappropriate and/or leaving a comment on the video about it being a fake.
Update: After a handful of you good people left comments, the user has now removed the offending video. I think this was, in part, a cross-cultural misunderstanding - he is Malaysian. His comment to me showed that he saw no problem with the ad - he thought I was upset that he was getting credit for my work. I was impressed that he responded at all.
<edited>
Updated: This is another one that isn't as bad, but still a pain. This person uploaded one half of the Wiki in Plain English video. Since the video is branded as Common Craft, these incomplete versions make a bad impression.
I really, really hope that I'm not going to have to fight this fight every day in the future.
On sharing ideas
Hi Lee,
it's a bit of a weird one I'm wrestling with myself (in a different way). Here's a general response:
We have ideas; we wish to share them; it's part of our personalities and hopefully a useful business tool for everyone involved. Ideas get better when they are shared, remixed, etc. So we put them out.
But when you see other people purloining your ideas and re-presenting them as their own, it makes you feel a bit funny.
It's kind of like people saying thank you when you do them a favour; you don't do the favour to be told thank you, but when they don't, it's a little irksome.
And then you feel a bit weird for feeling that.
I know it's not excatly the same thing, but it's in there somewhere. We want to share because we believe it helps everyone, but when others don't play by those rules, it kind of removes the point...
Sharing ideas
Hi Ed,
Great to hear from you - we're in agreement, though it makes me fell a bot more than funny or irked. I think there are a couple of issues, if you're speaking about the subject of this blog post.
As a rule, I'm free with my creations. I want people to display and re-use my photos and videos for instance. However, there are a couple of things I'm dealing with right now that go beyond sharing.
First, the picture above is from someone who placed an ad on my video. I disagree with this for a couple of reasons:
1. He is hurting the common craft brand. Some people may assume that we choose to put that ad on the video.
2. He is making money on my work. I hate to boil it down to money, but it's a free ride and I think it's unethical and dishonorable.
The second is Mr. Matt Sletto of Canada. He uploaded a partial version of the Wiki video and refuses to take it down. This also hurts the common craft brand because it appears that we put up a video that is obviously not of high quality.
So, in summary, I'd say that I'm all for sharing of ideas, so long as people choose to play by some basic rules.