Those Who Can, Blog . . . [Updated 9/16/2009, 9/20/2009]
[Updated to remove Googleable references to the subject, who was duped by her ex-client web designer. She is not without fault, but it's appropriate to dissociate the posts from her name.]
I don’t know why, but I would have expected someone who, like a particular Fresno criminal defense lawyer, reads this blog [update: it appears that her web designer was posting comments in her name, making it appear that she was a reader] to have the good sense not to steal posts.
It seems that I’ve been involuntarily guestblogging at this Fresno criminal defense lawyer’s blog (motto: A Defense Attorney Trying to Change the World ONE BLOG AT A TIME), where full posts from real bloggers are republished in full and attributed to her name:
(Yes, it’s horrifically ugly, but that’s not the major reason for my objection.)
I’d have expected anyone with half a brain to think better of hijacking this one:
I don’t know where people get the wacky idea that blog posts are free for the seizing. IANAIPL, but as far as I’m concerned use beyond “fair use” requires my permission, which this Fresno criminal defense lawyer most emphatically does not have. When I publish an RSS feed, it is and remains my intellectual property. You don’t have my permission to use it for your own commercial purposes.
This Fresno criminal defense lawyer is scraping lots of stuff, like this (BikePortland.org) and this (Wonk Room) and this (IBNLive.com). It’s all “posted under criminal lawyer news by [her name]” but none of it is by her and precious little of it has anything to do with criminal lawyer news.
My favorite may be The Silent Destruction of Australia…Compare With Britain the M.O., a rambling post about what appears to be a vast conspiracy, copied from Centurean2’s Weblog. It appears that this Fresno criminal lawyer is taking everything she can from anywhere on the web, regardless of whether she has permission or whether it’s relevant. Why?
This Fresno criminal lawyer is suffering from one of two indistinguishable conditions: either she has hired a legal marketing “expert”, or she is absolutely batshit insane. No sane and ethical lawyer would possibly think that what she’s doing is a good idea, but when you outsource your marketing you also outsource your ethics.
My guess is that some nonlawyer has told the Fresno criminal lawyer that content—even other people’s content—is king. In listening to this person, she has outsourced not only her ethics but also her reputation. There is no way in hell that I would ever refer a case to her, especially since she’s practicing in the same neck of the woods as Fresno criminal defense lawyer Rick Horowitz.
Rick can blog, and he does. Those who can’t, steal.
[Update: after talking with the lawyer and her web designer, Wayne Conley, I am convinced that Wayne Conley was scraping other people's content without her knowledge. She had no bad intent, but entrusted her web design and her reputation to someone—someone dishonorably discharged from the Army after rape and obstruction of justice convictions—whom she should not have trusted. In other words: bad judgment rather than bad intent.]
About The Author
I laughed at the CREEPING FABIANISM IN AUSTRALIA! post.
It must be some sort of crime to be be a fabianist, so there’s your relevance. Of course, copyright infringement is also a crime, or so my dvd player tells me.
Extraordinarily scummy.
[...] Those Who Can, Blog . . . [...]
[...] Those Who Can, Blog . . . [...]
Dammit, I need to blog more. No one plagiarizes me anymore.
I love the phrase “batshit insane”! Can I steal it? Just borrow it? (I gave you credit for “asshat” but now use it unabashedly. (Is that a real word – unabashedly?)
She steals your blogs because you are a creative, intelligent writer, and apparently she is neither.
I coined neither “batshit insane” nor “asshat”. Unabashedly is an excellent word.
Thank you.
I think I coined “Batshit crazy” and it is my intellectual property. As is, “Crazier than a shithouse rat” (which is actually a Bryan, Texasism), but I’m claiming it.
That being said, I will freely admit to having stolen the line “That dude is one enchilada short of a combo platter” from a Complainant during a RIP call during my DA years.
Honest error on my part. I have been making blogs for Mrs. Benninghoff and feed agregating news feeds from yahoo and google. I don’t know why it is doing full feed posts when it is only supposed to be an excerp with them pointing to the source. Please give me time to fix this issue and I will properly attribute your posts. I am sure it has to be the keywords I am using along with a plugin I need to disable. You can e-mail me if you would like. Thanks
Mark:
What I love best is when the stolen post (due to site engine manipulation) appears higher in the google/bing/yahoo rankings than the original post which happens to me on a regular basis.
-k
That’s amazing. I’m going to have to ask around about her. The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don’t think I know her.
Currently, the page says that her blog is undergoing scheduled maintenance: “Please try back in 1000 minutes,” it says. “Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Wow.
I guess that’s one word for it.
Does “Crap! They’re on to us! Quickly! Take it all down!!!” count as maintenance?
Mates you are all pigs. You boys make all of us look bad. I had a post on her site and wrote her. The webmaster said he was very sorry and it was a gregate or grregoroor problem and he said that is a auto post it. Said site is brand new and working on the kinky stuff. I am a female with the Law Commission in London and you boys would be reported to someone possibly me for your Unabashedly public dis[lay and may push you to the commons. I am convinced because as soon as it was brought to his opinion he closed site to repair the error. Most Sharky lads would ignore you. Is this behavior toward your college because she is a woman or did you gun jump?
You lads be nice because lawyer are to help people giving them a new chance. Now where did my tea go…?
Man, talk about being divided by a common language.
Can you give that to us in the Queen’s English? Hell, even Elizabethan would be easier to follow.
Mate.
I don’t know what the Fresno criminal defense lawyer’s final explanation will be. And perhaps it was some kind of a mistake. But it doesn’t explain the behavior that Mark discovered and comments about in his follow up post at http://bennettandbennett.com/blog/2009/09/melina-benninghoff-you-dumbass.html
The comments have been made, under the circumstances, do not appear to be inappropriate.
I do recall a run-in some months ago with someone — I don’t recall if it was Benninghoff or someone else — who had a bunch of Twitter accounts hyping each other. When I said something about it to the individual, she indicated she was not a lawyer. So I asked why her Twitter account said that she was. She was incredibly rude to me (wish I’d saved the tweets now) and said she was a paralegal and that I was an idiot for thinking she was a lawyer just because the Twitter account said she was.
But, again, I don’t recall if it was Benninghoff. But it was the same kind of Internet marketing approach that Mark describes in his follow up post on this situation.
I hope for Benninghoff’s sake that what the webmaster says is true. It still doesn’t explain the interlocking Twitter accounts all hyping “her” posts.
Cindra Polush
Why would The Law Commission in London be the organisation to report (a) anyone (b) miscreant UK lawyers (c) miscreant US lawyers or, indeed (d) PIGS. I suspect that the Ministry of Agriculture or DEFRA as it was called when we had to shoot all those cows twhich started foaming at the mouth and tap dancing when they were ill, would be the apprpriate organ of the British state to deal with (d) PIGS – but be that as it may.
As far as I recall – and I do know a fair bit about The Law Commission’s remit and work, given its importance to the development of our law – it is not a regulatory body.
Perhaps you work for The Ministry of Justice and are just a bit confused about who your employer is? .. or it may be that you work for the Solicitors Regulation Authority? Or even the Bar Standards Board?
If the latter two – they tend to have their hands full with English solicitors and barristers who have been, shall we say, a bit ‘close to the wind’ and would be unlikely to take any interest in the misbehaviour of a lawyer in a US state jurisdiction.
As you state that you are (a female) with the Law Commission in London and provide a link to the Law Commission website in support of what I believe may well be (a) a preposterous claim or, in the alternative, consistent with my earlier statement, (b) an error of nomenclature as to the employing body on your part – I feel it imperative that you look at your employer’s website to see what they actually do – because it might help you in your career with them. This advice – I am happy to provide FREE.
As I like to keep a close eye on the activities of lawyers and educators in the legal profession I shall speak to the press office at The Law Commission when it opens on Monday to ask if they have taken on a regulatory role. I am sure that lawyers in this country would be most interested to hear if this is the case.
Things are very fast moving in Britain at the moment… and it is entirely possible, with swine flu, a long hot barbecue summer that never materialised.. that I may have missed a complete revision of The Law Commission’s role in the administratuion of Justice in my country.
We have the Legal Services Act coming into force. You will, of course, be familiar with this – given that you work for the Law Commission. I understand that The Law Commission had some input into this reform – and it may well be, when you were taking time away from your ‘regulatory’ duties, that you had a significant role in the formulation of policy which led to this fascinating piece of law reform?
Perhaps you would be kind enough to email me at mikesp@insitelawmagazine.com and arrange a time when I could talk to you about your role as a Law Commission regulator. I don’t always have to be first with a story. I rarely am – but on this occasion it would be good to get a SCOOP and be first in…..
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mike Semple Piggot aka Charon QC (Blawger)
[clears throat while reaching for card in wallet]
Hello, stranger from a parallel universe. Welcome to ours. I know that things are somewhat different where you come from, and will try to introduce you to some of our quaint local customs.
In ours, it’s customary for people attempting to impersonate a British barrister or solicitor to do some research and at least make a creditable attempt. It’s also wise, if not customary, for somebody getting penaz all over herself to shut up and not be shown to be a greater fool.
Hope this helps — and do try some of our local cuisine. May I recommend the veal?
[...] She doesn’t take the time or trouble to write her own blog, but she has good taste. She’s letting Mark Bennett write it for [...]
Looks as if she has folded up her blog and left.
[...] Those Who Can, Blog . . . [...]
[...] Those Who Can, Blog . . . I don’t know why, but I would have expected someone who, like the Fresno criminal defense lawyer, reads this blog to have the good sense not to steal posts. [...]
As a web designer and a legal secretary who’s worked with lawyers for nearly 30 years this makes me sick on all fronts.
But Mark, you should follow the lead of a Northern California law firm who found its content on a San Diego law firm’s web site, pretty much verbatim. Take them — and their web developer — to court and win a nice fat judgment.
Read about it here:
http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/ca/ninth0806.PDF
Read the whole story at law.com … watch the line wrap.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202432820979&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=LTN&pt=Law%20Technology%20News&cn=20090806&kw=9th%20Circuit%20Finds%20for%20PI%20Firm%20Over%20Theft%20of%20Firm
Excellent. I’m not the suing type, but I’m glad to know that courts will hold the lawfirm liable for the theft of content by their webmonkeys. “We had no way of knowing” is not a defense.
[...] Melina Bennighoff or on her behalf by a marketer is much more objectionable. As Bennett explains, Benninghoff scraped posts from Bennett’s blog and others’ without those authors’ consents and reposted these on Benninghoff’s blog. It is [...]
[...] Benninghoff’s robot-blog stole content from Mark Bennett, and some of us noticed here, here, and here, a representative of [...]