Set in Style

It was just a month ago when we considered Hayman & Kirshenbaum, a small, personal injury firm in Chicago.

Now we’re prompted to revisit the firm’s Web site because of this recent article from the New York Times which claims:

Copyright infringement lawsuits directed at bloggers and other online publishers seem to be on the rise.

____________
What’s Changed?

H & K made some significant changes to its site since we last visited and discovered the firm was presenting previously published, copyrighted works — as if they were original.

They still do that, but they copy protect the copy. That’s right. They’ll republish an article from the New York Post, but — unlike the original — you can’t select the copy, and then paste it elsewhere.

Note: Very few Web sites protect their copy from being copied.

The consequence of protecting the copy is this — search engines can’t read it. So copy protecting a Web site is like hiding it from most everyone. That’s not a great approach to promotion.

Try this experiment.

1. Open this snapshot of a story recently published by H & K.
2. Open this snapshot of a story recently published by the New York Post.
3. Compare them.

What’s so fascinating is that the copy published by H & K is identical to the copy published by the Post two days earlier.

Note: to see the story at H & K’s site:

1. Select Automobile Accidents from the menu on the left.
2. Scroll down to Featured Articles on Motor Vehicle Accidents.
3. Select the second story from the top — Bus Driver Took Girl, 8, on a Nightmare Ride: Suit.

Compare this snapshot of a story to this snapshot. Compare this one to this one.

What you find is that H & K regularly takes what others have published and presents it as original.

But, the way it does this defeats its very purpose — to promote the firm.

____________
And Here’s Why

The idea behind publishing articles about current events is so that people who are interested in the services you offer (helping accident victims get good medical care) can find you. That’s what SEO is all about.

But if your copy is hidden, search engines can’t find your articles.

Try this experiment.

1. Open any snapshot of a story recently published by H & K.
2. Search for a line of copy from the article (e.g., “Alfredo Muffaletto didn’t even know where Connecticut was”).
3. Examine the search results.

What’s interesting is that the copy published by H & K is not among the results.

So . . . H & K gets no benefit from this subterfuge.

____________
What’s More

As with most Web sites published by law firms, H & K’s site has a copyright notice. Here it is:

Note that H & K doesn’t claim to have rights to what it publishes, but seems to acknowledge that the New York Post reserves ALL rights to what it publishes, and that you need to get the Posts’s permission to reuse any of the Post’s content for any reason. 

Most unusual.

____________
Update

This is from the Post’s request for permission to reproduce:

By submitting this request, I agree to accept a non-exclusive, non-transferable, one time license to copy the requested materials, so long as each reproduction is correct, complete, and includes the required copyright statement: “Copyright NYP Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with Permission.”

I don’t find the required notice at H & K’s site.

This entry was posted 3 March 2009 at 12:17 and is filed under General, What’s Happening. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.