HP encourages others to plagiarize our quizzes!?

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   Laura Schneiderposted 5 years ago

   This is nothing new, just new to me: I was shocked to see the message that one of my quizzes had been taken a few times on HubPages but 20-some times 'on other sites'. I never gave permission for my work to be distributed to other sites like this. I read an old forum thread, which told me to start a new one, that said that the "get this widget here" line beneath our published quizzes allows them to be easily stolen and placed on other peoples' sites and the only credit we get is that someone took the quiz on that other site--we don't get the page hits, time on our site, or possible other site revenue benefits.  Those people who stole our quizzes and are profiting by them should be held accountable, and we should, rather than encourage by giving them easy access to the code for the quiz, prohibit others from plagiarizing these parts of our work. Am I the only one bothered by this? I would be less bothered if it were within HubPages only, or if the person had to ask permission and give attribution back to my site, but I haven't found anything that says that's the case. Here's the specific message I got (sorry, for the life of me I can't get it to appear any bigger):
   
   

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      Simone Smithposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Perhaps I might help to clear things up, Laura Schneider!
      
      That quizzes can be embedded on other sites is supposed to serve the same purpose of making a YouTube video embeddable on other sites:
      1. The work is still yours
      2. The work still links back to your work
      3. This can be an effective means of spreading your work
      4. This can be an effective means of gaining backlinks
      
      So if I were in your position, I would be pleased as punch that one or more people have embedded my quiz elsewhere!
      
      Unfortunately, we do not present an option (at the time, at least) to disable embedding of quizzes, and we are not likely to take the time to do so as few people go above and beyond like you to create share-worthy quizzes (heck, most Hubbers do not make *any* quizzes).
      
      But I hope I might have put you at ease about the quizz's share function- it is intentional, and meant to benefit you!

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         Laura Schneiderposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Simone! I know it was meant with the best intentions. However, it could (almost certainly would) put me in court if anyone from certain companies posted my work on their site/intranet. Without any control over where the quizzes end up, my only choice is to immediately remove all of my quizes and take the hub score hits. :-(
         
         For regular hubbers without legal baggage like me, I would think it would be common courtesy to give sharing as an option only, as psycheskinner suggests below.

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   psycheskinnerposted 5 years ago

   I would support having sharing as an option only (just as on youtube).  This issue is the main reason I don't write quizzes.

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      Ceres Schwarzposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Would you mind elaborating on this? I think I might be missing something. I've only written one or 2 quizzes (I think) but, from what Simone posted above, it seems that quizzes getting posted on other sites don't seem like such a bad thing. So, what's wrong with quizzes and quizzes getting shared on other sites?

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         psycheskinnerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         The quizzes I have a parts of courses I teach that are my intellectual property.  They are questions and answers that it took me some time to come up with, and that are part of courses I may sell on a consulting basis in the future.  So I want to prevent people from using them or reprinting or embedding them in any way.  That's just my choice for my situation, just like on youtube (the analogy used above) where some people allow their videos to be embedded, and others do not.
         
         Where I am wrong or right to see it this way is a bit beside the point, it is just what I do want and why I don't post my quizzes.  And not something I even bother to mention until I saw a thread about it. A good quizz is a product lime a photo or a video.  And we don't give every person the right to hotlink out photos.

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         1. 92

            Laura Schneiderposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            I agree with psycheskinner. I have to know where my work went at all times because I did the work. In this case, I did the work to keep people on my site longer and increase my scores and my chance that they will click on one of the ads on my site.
            
            Just like YouTube, some people find benefit in sharing and some detriment. In this case, I must also un-post my quizes so that I can ensure that I still have the copyrights to them and that they are not published in other places. :-( I would like to have been given the choice. I am contractually prevented, for example, from posting on certain company websites/intranets. Without any control over the process, I could end up in litigation, and I would lose because now I know that it's being done. (joy)
            
            I guess I have to ask, since I missed this detail in the reading (which must somewhere exist) on how HP works: Is any of our other content free for the taking, as long as they link-back to our sites?

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            Ceres Schwarzposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Oh I see. Thanks for that clarification. I guess I didn't think of all the other types of quizzes that could be made. The ones I have are just simple ones and the questions and answers were from the hub itself. I guess it would be good if we were given the choice on whether to allow quizzes to be embedded or not, just like in the case of YouTube videos.

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   Barbara Kayposted 5 years ago

   I learn something new here everyday. I didn't know this. Yes, I would think it would be a benefit to us.

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