I wonder how many of those reading these lines have put their own names in a search engine and clicked on the "Go" button, just for a laugh? I'll bet there are lots of you who've done it. Webcissism, I call it. These days, if you aren't on the Web, you're nobody.
In 1994, when Bill Gates was first becoming notable for being the richest person on the planet, someone, somewhere, wrote a satirical article Microsoft Bids to Acquire Catholic Church. This little article worked its way around the Internet of 1994 mostly through e-mail, as the Web as we know and love it today was in its infancy. Someone sent it to a religious mailing list I'm on, and I began to think, "Gee, I could probably write something like that!" If Microsoft were buying the Roman Catholics, I bet that IBM would be looking to play catch-up. And so, late in 1994, IBM Buys Episcopal Church made its first Internet appearance on this small religious mailing list.
My friends on the list were not sparing in their appreciation. Of course, as well as appreciating something witty said on the Internet, it was easy to tell all your friends about it. Just click on the "Forward" button. They did that, in droves.
A few months later, a daily joke list which I subscribed to sent out the Microsoft... article. I thought to myself, "I wonder whether they have seen my article?" Sure enough, the next day brought IBM Buys Episcopal Church to a mostly unsuspecting public. To my horror, it was credited to "Anonymous".
I quickly gathered up my evidence: the original article with headers was still on my machine and I copied it and sent it to the joke list asking politely for credit. Amazingly, the next day an appendix to their joke credited me with the IBM article, and listed my then e-mail address.
A few years later, I idly put my name in a search engine, and what do you suppose came up? IBM... came up! The joke list now had a website, and my article, credited to me, was on it. I then tried searching for "IBM Episcopal", and was wearily unsurprised when a few other websites came up, none of which had credited me. So, I sent the evidence to those websites and, sure enough, both sites added my name to their credits. Occasionally someone would e-mail me to tell me how funny they thought the article was. I was very pleased with myself for a job well done, both in the original satire and in getting credit where true credit was due.
It's now the year 2004, and, since the devil has some mischief still for idle hands to do, this afternoon I again entered "IBM Episcopal" into a search engine. Now there are thirteen sites with my article on it. Eight have no credit at all, some have my name and an old e-mail address attached, and only two actually have my current (for the last 4 years or so) e-mail address listed. One now has a link to this page and a full attribution. I am really grateful for that!
I have even discovered about four sites that have links to a website that used to work and have my satirical article on it. It's broken now, but these sites still merrily point to it.
Dear reader, I thought I'd put links to the sites I've found right here, so
that you, too, can read of the day when IBM aspired to religious leadership.
Now, I'm not Metallica, or Dr. Dre, and I have no quarrel with those who appreciate good humour (obviously!). I shall e-mail the sites above which are not credited and ask for credit. I shall e-mail those sites which have an obsolete e-mail address and ask them to update the e-mail address. The commercial sites I shall e-mail and request that they add my name, a copyright notice, and the correct e-mail address, or remove the material.
The 'net has, I believe, made the whole idea of "Copyright" obsolete. When the only way a written work could be copied was on paper, then copying meant that the copier had to do some work--maybe with a quill pen, or a copying machine, or whatever instrument came to hand. Nowadays, all you need to copy someone's work is <CTRL-C> and to paste,<CTRL-V>. It's easy to leave out the pesky copyright notice, or the name of the originator.
I won't make any money out of this little piece, of course. But I'm not asking for money. I'm just asking for credit? Is that too much to ask?
|
Top of page