Plagiarizing blog posts is stupid

I just saw in a pingback that someone copied two of my blog posts to pass off as their own. No credit, nothing. Wow! Talk about a great way to get yourself noticed! :)

RexyStudios, who ripped off my blog posts on User Interface Design Principles for Web Applications (ripped off copy here) and Best Practices for client-side validation in Flex 2 (ripped off copy here) are, according to their Founder and CEO, Anthony G. Persaud on their About Us page, a "new type of design/development type of group". This must be a new type of design/development that doesn't respect the intellectual effort of others enough to give them credit for their work when copying it. What a horrible way to market a company that works with IP. Can you trust such a company with your own projects? If they don't spare a thought to ripping off blog posts, what about source code and company secrets? In a line of work where trust and reputation are paramount, I cannot think of a worse way to shoot yourself in the foot.

To add insult to injury, they didn't even do a good job of it. They hotlinked the images from my blog and didn't bother to change the links (so I got the pingback notification.) If there's anything I hate worse than a plagiarizer, it's an incompetent plagiarizer.

Of course, when someone hotlinks an image from your site, there really is only one thing to do. (No, no, not that; I'm not that unkind.) I do hope they like the new images on their blog that have their Founder and CEO admitting to ripping off my blog posts, though.

RexyStudios/Anthony G. Persaud: Remove my blog posts from your blog immediately!

Update: Feel free to digg this :)

Update: Well, the site's down and there's a message:

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to apologize for the content on this website. This is not a specific company or a design company but a way for me to be able to capture tutorials that I find on the internet using a firefox plugin - but I guess the plugin does not acquire author/post information. I was not running any ads or trying to attract any traffic. All the content has been removed and I apologize.

Thanks and again I apologize sincerely.

That's cool, I accept the apology. I wonder which plugin he's talking about though.

Update: OK, so Anthony's posted yet another message on his blog, along with a few comments here:

Hi Everyone and specifically Aral,

I'd like to apologize for the content on this website. This is not a specific company or a design company but a way for me to be able to capture tutorials that I find on the internet using a firefox plugin - but I guess the plugin does not acquire author/post information. I was not running any ads or trying to attract any traffic.All the content has been removed and I apologize.

See your comments on his post. There is also another apology from me. I would appreciate if you (pretty please) take down that picutre on your blog post- I know it helps in the laughs for my stupidity... but I really feel bad and I am already having already a terrible day (especially after valentines day).

Thanks and again I apologize sincerely.

It sounds likes it was an honest mistake -- don't worry about it, I've taken the image down! :)

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