Triberr and Reblogging – Are You Aware That You Give The Right To Reblog Your Posts?

By Patricia de Hemricourt.

Thanks to Triberr reblogging, I recently met Mary Pax. As Mary is a very nice person, what could have turned into a nasty exchange became the occasion to create a new bond. It all began like this.

Mary Pax publishes brilliant posts on her blog. Unwittingly, she had authorized the reblogging function on Twitter, so I felt free to reblog some of her posts on this blog. A few days ago, Mary sent me a tweet asking me to answer her email. As my email as been acting up lately, I never received her mail, which I tweeted her, together with an alternate email address.

Here below is the email exchange in extenso, which contains essential information for fellow Triberr members. I chose to reproduce the entire exchange as an example of civil resolution of copyrighting issues between bloggers. Mary’s kind way of requesting me to refrain from using her posts in the future is an example to follow by all who face copyright issues.

Mary: 

Hi Patricia,

I noticed last night that you published some of my blog posts in their entirety on your blog. In the future, I require that you get my written permission to reprint original content posts. As a writer, I’m sure you understand why.

Thank you,

Mary Pax

Me:

Hi Mary,

Sure, I do understand though something puzzles me.  I used the reblogged option from Triberr, thinking that, if you enabled it, it meant you authorized reposting your content with credits to the original author, which I did include, though only in my last reblog as i did not originally notices that Trberr’s platform does not insert them automatically.

I have now added it to the other two posts. I am used to repost.us which does the entire formatting for you, so missed the fact that Triberr does not.

By the way, Google does identify the original author and credit ranking accordingly, so reposting does benefit the original author as it increases the number of legitimate backlinks to their sites.

But of course, I will refrain from reblogging any of your articles in the future.

Thank you for not requesting to takes down those post I already reblogged, I very much appreciate the gesture.

Best regards,

Patricia

Mary:

Thanks for saying. I will check that setting on Tribber. Thanks for being understanding, Patricia. Have a beautiful week.

Mary

Me:

Thanks to you!

Will you let me know what you found out on Triberr? I use the reblogging option quite a lot during weeks when am flooded with work and have no blogging time, and have not checked if they changed the terms of use lately, after the last batch of updates when suddenly pretty much everyone’s post became available for reblogging, whereas it use to be a few isolated ones before.

And, with my email address acting up, I might have missed a critical email.

Have a great week too.

Best,

Patricia

Mary:

Will let you know. I have a feeling a lot of people are in the reblogging thing without realizing it. Now we all learn something new. 🙂

Mary

Mary again:

Hi Patricia,

You’re right that it’s something Triberr did with the last update that most of us didn’t know about. To opt out people have to go into settings/blog then hit the edit icon to opt out. So people have been automatically opted in, and I’m sure a lot of people aren’t aware.

Thanks for helping me learn that. It could get me in trouble too with people who guest on my blog.

Well, now we get to know each other better, so another bonus 🙂

Mary

Me:

Hi Mary,

Thanks for letting me know.

Now, let me take this opportunity to invite you to the start-up 2 friends and I are currently setting up:  http://www.ourboox.com/.

It is all explained in here https://www.epublishabook.com/2013/09/09/children-book-writers-and-illustrators-this-is-for-you/?goback=%2Egde_2289474_member_273396465#%21 and of course, you are warmly invited to reblog the entire post 🙂

It is a pleasure to meet people like you.

Best regards,

Patricia

Me:

Hi Mary,

I would like to use or email exchange in extenso in a post to warn about reblogging on Triberr and as an example of how nice you were from the beginning when contacting me to request not infringing your copyright.

Yet, before doing that, I would like to ask your authorization to do so, ask whether, if it is ok with you, you would prefer to be named and have a link to your blog included or to remain incognito.

I believe that, in addition to warning fellow triberrs about the reblogging function, using the email exchange as is would be a wonderful way to show how your very kind initial request enabled both of us to discover the lack of awareness of fellow triberrs concerning the reblogging function.

I once came accross a blog transcribing an acrimonious request to remove a post deemed infringing copyrights, assorted with threats of legal pursuits, on the base that it was quoting a paragraph (with credits and backlink) to the complainant’s post.

The “guilty” part answered on his blog, making fun of the complainant and his lack of awareness of the laws regarding copyright that allow such use, and inviting him to sue, being ready to have to pay the ees for a frivolous lawsuit and be sued back for compensations.

Your way was sooo much nicer that you deserved to be publicly praised for it.

Best,

Patricia

Mary:

Hello Patricia,

I starred your email w/ the illustrator information, because I know many writers who would be highly interested. I’m having a promotional event in November if you’re interested in any exposure for yourself or your book. You can check it out here http://mpaxauthor.com/realmsfaire/  We have quite a few authors involved already and it will be a fun event. It was last year when I held the joust, which is how it all started.

I’m fine with you writing that post, using whatever quotes you’d like, to use my name and link back to me.

Triberr people need to know about it. It always pays to be nice to start. You never know what’s really going on and that needs to be determined before getting to threats and all. And I think most people are fine with their stuff being reprinted as long as they know about it first. In some instances they may be using copyright sensitive material and it could harm them and whoever reblogs them not being aware of that feature. [ie, I know an author who was sued for using Google images on their blog – reblogging such a post could open up the reblogger to a suit].

I think most people just like to know and if asked will say yes. Maybe Triberr should have a mechanism that emails the original blogger and asks if it’s OK when someone wants to reblog. Seems blanket permission is messy. Easier for Triberr, but not for the blog writer or the person wanting to reblog the post.

Sorry if none of that made sense. I worked at the observatory tonight, so it’s late.

Mary

Now, here is how to check if you are allowing fellow Triberr members to reblog your posts.

On your tribal stream, look at one of your own post and check if the icon framed below appears

If it does, you are authorizing fellow Triberr members to reblog your posts.

To disable it, go to the Triberr plug-in setting (on WordPress) and opt out of the Reblog function.

Happy blogging everyone and feel free to reblog or repost this! NB: Using the Triberr reblogging function means it will not be included in your Triberr stream, using the repost.us function (clicking on the icon bottom right of the post and copy pasting their code in your admin panel) means it will, your choice.