"Copyrighted work like a news article or a picture can hop between Web sites as easily as a cut-and-paste command. But more than ever, as that material finds new audiences, the original sources might not get the direct financial benefit — in fact, they might have little idea where their work has spread.
A young company called Attributor says it has an answer, and a number of big publishers of copyrighted material say Attributor just might be right.
The company has developed software that identifies an electronic “fingerprint” for a particular piece of material — an article, a picture, a video. Then it hunts down any place across the Web where a significant chunk of that work has been copied, with or without permission.
When the use is unauthorized, Attributor’s software can automatically send a message to the site’s operators, demanding a link back to the original publisher’s site, a share of revenue from any ads on the page, or a halt to the copying."
I would wholeheartedly agree with this concept, as long as it is designed for the specific purpose of penalizing plageurism, purposely, or otherwise. I always include a link to the source article I use in my blog to give the author credit, allow them to benefit from traffic,advertising revenue, and readership, as well as validation of reference material.
No matter what the ideaology, or slant from the site in question, or personal feelings, it's just fairplay in my opinion to pat each others back. I know of bloggers out there when in bias sometimes refuse to add a link back to a source article because they look at it as a promotion, and traffic, or advertising benefit for the site they admonish.
With readership down in the printed media, viewership also down in the televised news media, the hidden demon I see here would be a witchhunt by the mainstream media designed to take down some elements of the blogosphere, specifically the conservative side. It's no secret the elite within the MSM despise us in the pajama media, and blame, not only the right side,but also the left side of the alternative media for their dwindling audience.
Not to mention a large portion of the alternative media acts as a watchdog on the MSM, effectively, and accurately pointing out their bias, and hypocrisy whenever possible. I guess the wait, and see approach best fits here, but when it comes to the MSM, it's best to be a skeptic, and a pessimist.
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