A Word on Website Thievery

By Ice

It seems like a lot of the smaller Zelda websites are coming down with the "Sakon Syndrome" ... meaning to say that they're stealing from the larger sites to add to their own site.

Let me establish something ... there is a HUGE difference between stealing something, and asking a site if you can use a piece of it's content. Most sites that I know don't mind if you use their content, as long as you ask first and credit their site properly. This is actually a good thing, it spreads the word about the site that the material came from, and it makes the site that's using the information a better website (by featuring more information).

When I refer to stealing, I mean taking a website's material and passing it off as your own.

This seems to be happening a lot lately. Some people have been stealing not just from IZC, but from countless other sites ... large, honest, well-respected sites. This is a true shame, because I've seen several Zelda websites out there that have awesome original content. They don't deserve to have their information, which they worked very hard on, stolen and credited to the thief.

There was a case here at IZC not too long ago where someone stole about 70 of our articles and all of SCNWO's exclusive fan art (which was one of people's favorite things about IZC years ago). Then they passed it off as their own. On some of the articles they didn't even bother to take out our names. We cleared up the issue quickly but fact is, it happened.

I've heard of worse things happening to other Zelda sites.

Is human nature really that bad? For every awesome, original, honest site out there, there are several thieves. How are we to distinguish the honest ones from the dishonest ones?

I don't have a solution. Perhaps no one does. But the world is set up to where the honest people usually come out on top, and I'm content in that system.

-Ice