Creative Commons License

Recently, I stumbled upon someone using verbiage from my invitation website verbatim.  The had literally copied and pasted text to their site.  This is happening a lot in the wedding industry right now and it really confuses me.  I don’t get steamed with a lot of stuff.  I tend to have a pretty even-tempered feeling on this.  There isn’t a lot of space or time in my life for anger and vindication.

I’m mostly just puzzled…

Why would someone do this?  Do they lack originality?  Are they insecure?  Do they not know how to write very well?  Are they lazy?  I really don’t know why this happens.  I also wonder how they think they can get away with it.  It’s not like being in high school and using someone’s term paper from another school.  This is 2010, age of the internet.  ALL things are SEARCHABLE, GOOGLE-ABLE, TRACEABLE.

Is it plagiarism?

A few months ago, I did a post on “When Not To Worry About Copycats“.  There are plenty of times that people are NOT copying.  If I do a trend post on turquoise blue on Monday and my competitor does one on Tuesday, chances are that this was coincidental.  HELLO – isn’t turquoise the Pantone trend of 2010?  We are all writing about this in our industry.  It’s editorial.  LA Times & NY Times cover the same news.

What I’m talking about today is legitimate plagiarizing. Plagiarizing is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own; use another’s production without crediting the source”.  It happens in every segment of our business: photographers who use other photographers’ images without credit, invitation designers who use other people’s designs, planners who copy/paste other planners’ packages, bloggers who use other people’s writing.  This is beyond using Jackson Pollock as inspiration for your piece.  This is photocopying an image of his artwork and printing it onto a wedding invite.

Please don’t steal…

I struggled with whether I should address this post to people out there who may read my blog (or stumble on this article) and be guilty of this.  I wondered if the type of person who steals would actually be educating themselves on the business of weddings.  I doubt it.  But, in the off chance that you find yourself here, my message is short and sweet:

  • Inspiration and theft are two different things.  Make sure you know the difference.
  • Your business deserves better.
  • Differentiation is the best way to market yourself.
  • Find your voice.
  • Be You.

Tomorrow, I’ll give my tips on how to protect yourself from plagiarism.  On Wednesday, we’ll talk about what to do if your content has been used illegally.