Auntie Shari's Cyber "Suggestions": Don't Steal, from Solopreneurial Tendencies

Auntie Shari's Cyber "Suggestions": Don't Steal

March 28, 2007

It's hard to create a definitive list of rules for a medium that evolves as rapidly as the web. One thing holds true, however: if it's good practice on dry land, then it (or its web equivalent) is probably a sound idea online as well.

Like stealing...people who would never consider lifting a candy bar think nothing of using online images, ideas, layouts, or even content from someone else's web site. Some folks are so clueless that they will steal images directly from the owner's server, so they are not only ripping of their intellectual property but stealing bandwidth as well.

I've dealt with that issue several times by replacing a prominent graphic with something that gets the message across...instead displaying a stolen graphic from my server, I have (more than once) replaced that graphic with one of the same size that has a message for the thief. And the thief's site visitors. It's fun to see how long it takes them to figure out what's up.

And that is where today's story begins:

Someone on John McCain's staff thought they'd follow all cool ~~kids~~ candidates and set up a MySpace page for him. Ok, fair enough.

This same person, probably some pimply-faced college intern, found a layout that suited the campaign's purpose. Except this layout belonged to Mike Davidson of open source news community Newsvine. And no credit was given to Mike (which was all that was requested for use of the layout).

So Mike did what any self-respecting developer would do when he saw his design was being ripped off, and his bandwidth stolen: he changed a single graphic to reflect a side of John McCain we did not know existed. Freakin' brilliant!

Looks like it was up for at least a day before someone in the McCain camp discovered it.

Alas, it looks like that same intern can't spell either.

Story from Radar Online.
Screen capture and evil-genius-level brilliance from Mike D. at Newsvine.

filed under: Beyond Stupid, How Not to Do Business, Now You Just Stop That!