Practice Management

And no, by "warpath" I am not referring to the video game, the music group, or the Washington Redskins' official website.  So please, nobody sue me for using the term.  I am talking about its original or literal meaning.  A path to war taken by native Americans when traveling to an enemy's territory to engage in battle.

I am also not saying that Robert Ambrogi is a native American, or is otherwise a doctrinarian of native American practices.  I do not really know his heritage or beliefs.

I am just saying the word seems to fit his rightful outrage that the ParalegalSLO blog ripped off his article or post, With The Web, Who Needs Mediation, almost verbatim without giving him credit or attribution, or for that matter even linking to his post.  (You can read about the problem by clicking HERE and HERE).

Apparently, ParalegalSLO blog took the copied post down once it was discovered.  And, I noticed that it has started branding its current post with the source of the article it is now copying.  (Although, it is still not linking to the other articles and posts it uses).  What I think it failed to do was aplogize to Robert Ambrogi, as it should have done.

It appears that ParalegalSLO is an aggregator of the news and posts that it believes are relevant in some way to its potential readership.  Much like The Drudge Report and HuffPo, these blogs really just rely on what others have already posted or written.  And that is really my problem with ParalegalSLO.  It relies on lazy aggregation.  Unlike Drudge, HuffPo and the many others it adds nothing to the conversation.  It appears to be simply a cut and paste opperation.

Robert Ambrogi might be the least of their problems.  I noticed where they recently took an article and picture whole from one of American City Business Journals' publications.  I tend to think that American City is one of the closed in publications that is trying to figure out how to survive in a world that does not want to subscribe to the former print world and media.  It feels the pressures of this and, as a result, it has its journalist sit down and scan the web for their stories.  When they find them, American City will demand that they be taken down.  They do so even when the only real reference to their stories is a link back to their article along with some discussion of the original point of the article on the blog or the subject matter.  They will sue ParalegalSLO for this wholesale copying if ParalegalSLO is not more careful.

In reality, I am just so happy that people read anything I write, I do not get too mad when parts or posts are taken.  Sure, I would love a little attribution, but what the hell.  Others, like American City are fighting a losing battle in my opinion.  I just think that we all need to be careful not to take whole articles, and instead just use them as a starting off point for original thought or advice, giving proper credit where due.  Like the whole putting lipstick on a pig fight going on in the media now between Obama and McCain, we can all get a little too exercised about things like this.

As for me, I do not read ParalegalSLO.  I had never heard of it until Robert Ambrogi brought it to my attention.  Regardless, I do not need regurgitation of what others are writing.  Good, bad or indifferent, on the web I am looking for original content, thought or viewpoints, as Robert Ambrogi often provides.  The real sadness of ParalegalSLO is that it takes the cheap way out and provides us nothing original, nothing new.  That is the real shame.