Please don’t reprint entire CIDU (or Crimeweek) posts on your blog

Cidu Bill on Mar 7th 2009

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Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Crimeweek | 11 responses so far

11 Responses to “Please don’t reprint entire CIDU (or Crimeweek) posts on your blog”

  1. Annie Benson Mar 8th 2009 at 12:41 am 1

    Is it me? Oh god, I hope it isn’t me! *Checks blog* Ok, no, I appear to just post about my onw inane life. Yay! Not me!

  2. Jestempies Mar 8th 2009 at 06:55 am 2

    I think people can republish as much as you post in your RSS feed, generally speaking, as long as they attribute it to your site.

    I mean, even Google Reader does it. Here’s my public shared items page which publishes content from posts I mark as “Share” or “Share with note” in Google Reader — http://www.google.com/reader/shared/12114834408142898199 . If I shared one of your posts, it would appear on that page.

    Of course I understand that there’s a fine line.

  3. Jestempies Mar 8th 2009 at 07:00 am 3

    I suggest you put ads in your RSS feed.

  4. Cidu Bill Mar 8th 2009 at 12:56 pm 4

    Jestempies, I doubt the RSS feed is the entire post. And if an RSS feed happens to be an entire post, I have to wonder why anybody would think it’s the right thing to do.

    Also, linking directly to a graphic on somebody else’s server is and always has been wrong.

    As far as putting ads in my RSS feed… I don’t even know how to SET UP an RSS feed.

  5. Arvy Mar 8th 2009 at 02:18 pm 5

    Bill, you already have an RSS feed:

    http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/feed/

  6. CIDU Bill Mar 8th 2009 at 02:28 pm 6

    I know, Arvy. Apparently it got set up automatically by the WordPress software. I don’t have the first clue how to set one up myself, though, let alone how to customize one in any way.

  7. Lost in A**2 Mar 9th 2009 at 09:30 pm 7

    Bill, your comment on linking directly to the image on the
    originating server makes me curious. Why do you think
    it wrong? It’s always seemed to me the best (and easiest)
    way to avoid copyright infringement.

  8. Cidu Bill Mar 9th 2009 at 09:55 pm 8

    Lost, it’s always been considered unacceptable, and this is why: If somebody links directly to a graphic on my site, in other words has the graphic appear on their site using http://www.comicsidontunderstand.com/whatever.gif, they’re using server space I’m paying for without giving me any benefit in return (such as having people visit my site, having people see ads I choose to post, etc). They could instead simply post a link to my post (http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/2009/03/07/please-dont-reprint-entire-cidu-or-crimeweek-posts-on-your-blog/#comments), which in fact is what the majority of people do.

  9. Lola Mar 9th 2009 at 10:54 pm 9

    I was so excited to see Crimweek mentioned. That was how I found this site lo those many years ago. Surely this meant that it was being updated again. But, no, I just checked and it’s not.

    I’m curious, which came first? And why has Crimeweek become the unloved stepchild?

  10. Lost in A**2 Mar 10th 2009 at 12:29 pm 10

    Thanks, Bill.

  11. Cidu Bill Mar 23rd 2009 at 01:57 pm 11

    Lola, CIDU came first, in 1994. I created the crime site for About.com in 1997, and one day the following year I decided to add a link for CIDU to th crime site. That very day, as it turned out, Yahoo (I think it was Yahoo) listed CIDU as their Site of the Day, and both sites ended up with huge leaps in traffic.

    A few years later, About.com decided they could save money by replacing many high-performing writers, so I continued the site on my own as Crimeweek. The plan now is to merge Crimeweek into the blog for the magazine I work for (Crime, Justice and America) — but since that’s on hold right now, I decided to take a break from the daily crime-writing grind. Considering I’d barely missed a day in more than 11 years, I figured it was about time.

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