Steal my content, please!

That’s the title of a post from Robert Scoble last week. He was responding to Susan Mernit’s report that Lane Hartwell was so pissed with people stealing her photographs that she decided to take her photos out of the public eye.

After offering up a way to watermark the photos and keep them online, Scoble says he’s just the opposite.

I WANT YOU to steal my content. In fact, next year I’m going to do stuff to make all my content available via Creative Commons license so you can use it whereever and whenever, including my video shows. I’d like a credit, yes, but don’t demand it. I’d rather just add to the human experience and if that means that other people make money off of my work, so be it.

I’ve found that the more I give away my content, the more magical stuff happens to me anyway and if that means my photos or writings or videos get used in some way that I don’t really like, well, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Lane obviously is not.

Plus, today I have a little less competition from Lane, who was a great photographer but who’s work will be hard to discover now.

I’m right there with Scoble. And you lawyers should be wanting people stealing your blog content. The more it’s stolen by blockquote, reference and link, the easier for the world to discover you. And isn’t that what’s it all about, getting known for our expertise?

Want further evidence that you want people stealing your content? Scoble cites the New York Times whose traffic has taken off since removing its subscription pay wall in September.

As Scoble says, ‘…[W]hen you try to hold onto your content too tightly fewer people are able to find it.’