Night of the Meme Vampires

Am I the only person who gets annoyed at others re-posting “funny” pictures online without attributing the original creator?

I always remember the stink when sites like Ebaumsworld were nicking original content and passing it off as their own. Or rather, just posting it without attribution or linking to the original and letting the viewers assume it was original content.

Social networks are full of this stuff. Multiple people re-posting pictures they like rather than “sharing” or “re-tweeting” from the original. Sometimes this is just people being thoughtless or not understanding how to share the images properly, but occasionally it’s deliberate in order to gain credibility or attract hits with minimal effort.

Some may feel this is making a mountain out of a molehill, but I feel this is symptomatic of the casual attitude towards online content, whether it be funny cat pictures, music, videos or any form of intellectual property. A dismissal of any effort put into the work by the original creator and placing value wholly on the immediate aesthetic. I won’t go into the infinite copies of the same videos in increasingly degrading quality on YouTube. That needs destroyed with fire and rebuilt with love…

It’s minimal effort by the online audience at large to share these things correctly, either by posting to the original source or just crediting the creator.

Everyone wants to be, and deserves to be, rewarded for their work. Even if it’s as minimal as putting a witty one liner on a photo of an overweight moggy or conservative MP.

Remember; Re-Tweet, don’t Re-Post! Share, don’t… erm. Shear..? Snipe..? Steal? STEAL! Share, don’t Steal!

That works.

Something to say?