Post by High Priestess on Oct 4, 2015 4:10:03 GMT
Sylvia shared in June 2015:
Plagiarized Listing
I just came across a listing in my ___________ neighborhood that plagiarized my listing word for word! Except for the specifics related to their unit, whole, lengthy paragraphs of my carefully crafted description are being used. Since we are in the same neighborhood, the well thought-out details of transit, parking restrictions, travel time to popular attractons, app recommendations and more were flat-out copied. Even my cute turns-of-phrases were lifted with no effort to change some of the writing so as not to come off as plagiarism. I haven't reported this to Airbnb, I'm mulling it over but I'm not sure they would care. I could also message the hosts, but it's still too raw for me, I'm waiting to calm down. Like me, J and S are Superhosts. I generally like to think of all of us hosts as a supportive community but I feel angry and violated, especially since we have similar listings in the same neighborhood and in a business sense, we are competitors. Only other hosts would truly understand why this riles me. Thanks for letting me vent.
Melanie:
Or just take is as a compliment. Too bad the other host has not an ounce of creativity or initiative. I doubt our listings are copyrightable, but I bet you can corner them with the appropriately cute turn of phrase.
Peter:
Syvlia, I sympathize with your plight. Upon reflecting on it, if you still feel strongly about it (and no one would blame you if you did), I would think that you'd be justified in writing a note about this to the plagiarist, suggesting that they rewrite the passages in their own words. After all, readers may accuse you of plagiarism if they come across both listing not knowing who was the original author. However, before you do, I would counsel checking their profile to see whether there's a chance English is not their first language. That may explain their actions.
Lynn:
How about a copyright after your script with all rights reserved , no usage permitted unless sanctioned by the author- ... Like that would work - I would contact airbnb- have them do the dirty work
Keith:
Its not necessary to state that something is copyright. In general, once written, copyright is automatic if you can prove you wrote it first. Some contexts can automatically put copyrighted works into the public domain but posting them to Airbnb isn't one of them (unless their terms of service waive thus).
Here's from wikipedia:
The United States copyright law protects "original works of authorship," fixed in a tangible medium[3] including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
Deborah:
Hopefully Peter is right, it's someone who has little facility with English and so they are reduced to copying.
One way to prove ownership of such material -- after you write your listing, print out a copy of it and put it in an envelope, seal it, and mail it to yourself. Now you have a sealed envelope with a date on it showing when this material was written. Anyone who copies your material wont' be able to produce like text in a similar fashion, antedating you. Hence, if needed, you can let plagarists know that you have proof of the date of your publication. However, it would be my hope that writing a note to the plagarist and scolding them for their actions would be sufficient to get them to change the copy. I don't think Airbnb takes any action on these things -- this issue has come up before and the host who was plagarized said Airbnb couldn't do anything about it.
Sylvia:
Thanks for your responses. Language does not appear to be a problem for these two judging from their photos and bio, which lists them as a marketing and real estate pro -- go figure! I've seen their listing before since they are in my neighborhood, and it did not include my wording, as of a couple of years ago. They always had a good presentation with great reviews so I don't understand why they would have to stoop to going to another host's listing and deciding, "Hey this sounds good, why don't I just copy and paste it into mine?" I'm not sure when they lifted my descriptions. The Guest Access section (changed only slightly to reflect their furnishings); Interaction With Guests, Neighborhood Overview, and Getting Around are all quite lengthy, multiple paragraph descriptions that they lifted verbatim. We're not talking about a phrase or two. The volume amounts to about two pages of content. Thanks all for your comments about copyrights, etc. As I noted earlier, they are Superhosts, and this behavior, in my opinion is not worthy of a Superhost designation.
Anita:
When this exact thing happened to me, I contacted Airbnb Customer Service and explained how angry I was and had customer service contact the plagiarist and have him/her write their own ad. Airbnb did in fact contact that person, and that plagiarized ad did in fact get re-written soon after....
Plagiarized Listing
I just came across a listing in my ___________ neighborhood that plagiarized my listing word for word! Except for the specifics related to their unit, whole, lengthy paragraphs of my carefully crafted description are being used. Since we are in the same neighborhood, the well thought-out details of transit, parking restrictions, travel time to popular attractons, app recommendations and more were flat-out copied. Even my cute turns-of-phrases were lifted with no effort to change some of the writing so as not to come off as plagiarism. I haven't reported this to Airbnb, I'm mulling it over but I'm not sure they would care. I could also message the hosts, but it's still too raw for me, I'm waiting to calm down. Like me, J and S are Superhosts. I generally like to think of all of us hosts as a supportive community but I feel angry and violated, especially since we have similar listings in the same neighborhood and in a business sense, we are competitors. Only other hosts would truly understand why this riles me. Thanks for letting me vent.
Melanie:
Or just take is as a compliment. Too bad the other host has not an ounce of creativity or initiative. I doubt our listings are copyrightable, but I bet you can corner them with the appropriately cute turn of phrase.
Peter:
Syvlia, I sympathize with your plight. Upon reflecting on it, if you still feel strongly about it (and no one would blame you if you did), I would think that you'd be justified in writing a note about this to the plagiarist, suggesting that they rewrite the passages in their own words. After all, readers may accuse you of plagiarism if they come across both listing not knowing who was the original author. However, before you do, I would counsel checking their profile to see whether there's a chance English is not their first language. That may explain their actions.
Lynn:
How about a copyright after your script with all rights reserved , no usage permitted unless sanctioned by the author- ... Like that would work - I would contact airbnb- have them do the dirty work
Keith:
Its not necessary to state that something is copyright. In general, once written, copyright is automatic if you can prove you wrote it first. Some contexts can automatically put copyrighted works into the public domain but posting them to Airbnb isn't one of them (unless their terms of service waive thus).
Here's from wikipedia:
The United States copyright law protects "original works of authorship," fixed in a tangible medium[3] including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
Deborah:
Hopefully Peter is right, it's someone who has little facility with English and so they are reduced to copying.
One way to prove ownership of such material -- after you write your listing, print out a copy of it and put it in an envelope, seal it, and mail it to yourself. Now you have a sealed envelope with a date on it showing when this material was written. Anyone who copies your material wont' be able to produce like text in a similar fashion, antedating you. Hence, if needed, you can let plagarists know that you have proof of the date of your publication. However, it would be my hope that writing a note to the plagarist and scolding them for their actions would be sufficient to get them to change the copy. I don't think Airbnb takes any action on these things -- this issue has come up before and the host who was plagarized said Airbnb couldn't do anything about it.
Sylvia:
Thanks for your responses. Language does not appear to be a problem for these two judging from their photos and bio, which lists them as a marketing and real estate pro -- go figure! I've seen their listing before since they are in my neighborhood, and it did not include my wording, as of a couple of years ago. They always had a good presentation with great reviews so I don't understand why they would have to stoop to going to another host's listing and deciding, "Hey this sounds good, why don't I just copy and paste it into mine?" I'm not sure when they lifted my descriptions. The Guest Access section (changed only slightly to reflect their furnishings); Interaction With Guests, Neighborhood Overview, and Getting Around are all quite lengthy, multiple paragraph descriptions that they lifted verbatim. We're not talking about a phrase or two. The volume amounts to about two pages of content. Thanks all for your comments about copyrights, etc. As I noted earlier, they are Superhosts, and this behavior, in my opinion is not worthy of a Superhost designation.
Anita:
When this exact thing happened to me, I contacted Airbnb Customer Service and explained how angry I was and had customer service contact the plagiarist and have him/her write their own ad. Airbnb did in fact contact that person, and that plagiarized ad did in fact get re-written soon after....
