Usage Question

[airwolfe777]

I sold an article for full rights called "Make Extra Money Doing Focus Groups" a few weeks ago. I searched this string of words in quotations on google and I found a few websites with my exact article. This person is reselling my article on a download site with his name as the author. I have no problem with this - I believe he is allowed to do this, correct? My question is - how do I know that this is the same person who actually bought the article and not someone who just copied and pasted it from CC? (I put my full articles in the sample - so my customers know what they are getting.)

Thanks in advance for your help...

MJ

[DSWaltenburg]

I don't think there is any way to be certain, unless there are dates of publication that can be checked. Regardless, since it sold for full rights, it's out of your hands. If the customer were to investigate and discover that it had been stolen before they purchased it, they would have to come back to CC to file a complaint, and resolve the issue.

And, yes, since they purchased full rights, the article now belongs to them, and they can put whatever name they wish on it.

Deborah

[cgardener]

Unfortunately, this is something that is done every day on the web, especially with sites like FindAFreelancer.com, where you can get articles for $1 each. I'm sure some of the articles being sold on here are actually bought from those sites, and resold here.

Not everyone is as honest as we are, you know. On the other hand, it's a great way to make money without having to do a lot of work.

[DSWaltenburg]

I'm too cheap to go pay a buck for something and stick my name on it. :) I'd rather sit here for hours on end, wracking my last brain cell, to come up with 600 words on my own, and get paid way more than that buck! Apart from which, even if it sells, and my name's never on it again, I still know that I was the one who put the effort into it. I am also too lazy to go look for ways to make a quick buck by being lazy! :)

Maybe, if I was LESS lazy.....I'd get MORE writing done!

Let the bottomfeeders buy their cheapie articles......we'll be swimming over top of them!

[cgardener]

If I did the $1 an article thing, I'd end up editing it anyway, because if it was sold somewhere else, my name would be on it, and I wouldn't want it reflecting on me. So I'd end up putting another 30 minutes to an hour into it, so why not just write it myself?

On a forum I used to frequent, there were constantly people selling huge packages of articles for $2 an article. I think these people got them written for $1. I was actually told there that I should buy articles for $1 and sell them to Associated Content for whatever amount they would give me. Still, it's my name on it, so I don't know.

I've been told I'm overly conscientious.

[DSWaltenburg]

Being overly-conscientious is a bad thing? Nah....

Just means there are still a few of us who don't have the moral fibre to be scam artistes :)

[Ed]

This type of practice also exploits an underpaid workforce. What circumstances makes someone so desperate to sell work for $1?

[DSWaltenburg]

It's hard to say. While I know I offer some of my stuff (recipes) for as little as $5 for usage, I still can't see inputting the hours and effort to write a well informed piece just to sell it for pennies.....Maybe it's the ignorance of the writer who would accept that kind of pay. maybe they've been told that it's the latest-greatest in money making. maybe they've not taken the time to do any form of research on the writing market at all. Or maybe it stems from their lack of self worth, and they feel their work is only worth that tiny fraction of an amount. Who knows. Or perhaps, they are the same type of people that believe the Enquirer is the bible....

Yikes.

Is it just me or is the US at the forefront of exploiting the underpaid masses (in any field)? Why else do the corporate behemoths insist upon outsourcing work to countries that accept pennies on the dollar pittances for anything from hard work in the fields to knowledge work?

In any event, I think I just hurt my remaining brain cell by thinking too much, this early on a Monday morning :)

[Ed]

Well, it was more of a rhetorical question. Why does anyone get anything for cheap? Think about it . . . it isn't just people from the U.S., Canada, or the UK who write articles.

[Lor]

Exploitation. Exactly.
It takes at least an hour or more to write 500 good words and come up with an original article. One dollar an hour? I hate that this sort of thing goes on. There is a forum out there with a buy and sell section ... people wanting original articles for a 1/2 cent a word or less and at the same time, insisting on quality, native english writers, good grammar, totally original content and samples. Are they kidding? There are some requests for article rewrites for so much less ... turning someone else's hard work into their own by changing some phrasing etc., just enough to pass copyscape. The thing is, those webmasters who buy the dollar carp, don't care that much, as long as the article is bathed in keywords. Serious writers need not apply.

And this is why I came to CC and why decent webmasters and probably print publishers peruse the site. :) Serious writers should never undervalue their work.

That being said, there are some parts of the world where a dollar could mean fifteen dollars, so they grab at the chance. This to me is the worst kind of exploitation, whether it's words, or the manufacture of blue jeans, pay its value in labor.

Lorraine

Edited to add
Two other posts came in while I was writing this. Sorry. Had to stop mid-way.

[Ed]

You said it, Lor!

[DSWaltenburg]

My one brain cell does not allow me to discern between the rhetorical and the regular... :)

[Ed]

That made me laugh out loud.

Funny Mondays are auspicious, btw.

[cgardener]

The exchange rate in Jamaica alone is $1 u.s. to $78 Jamaican dollars. If someone can sell ten articles for $10 U.S., they just made $780.

In India, the exchange rate is about 25 to 1. So if they sell those articles for $10, they just made $250. That's only two of the countries where English is the primary or one of the primary languages.

I just had someone offer me .01 a word to write 10 articles, and you wouldn't believe what she wanted me to do! Keywords, special formatting, the whole nine yards. It would take at least an hour to do each article the way she wants them. I'm sorry, but I haven't worked for $4 an hour since 1975.

I was going to do it just for some quick cash, but the way she was describing them, someone is paying her a bundle to write these articles, and she's farming them out for pennies.

I wonder what these clients would think if they knew where their $50 articles were really coming from?

[DSWaltenburg]

Funny Mondays might be auspicious but disappearing comments thereafter are NOT :P Clearly I'm overtaxed today, and took the time to write my response but couldn't be bothered with hitting the Submit button. Having the attention span of a flea on crack, clearly something else caught my