Copyright your posts in Firefox

by on February 14, 2006

Robert Ollenbuttel wrote me and said he’s using the ESBN Firefox Extension to try to make it harder for people to wholesale copy his blog posts. I’ll have to try that out and see how it works but he says if you use it you’ll always be able to tell who originally wrote the content you’re looking at (if it was generated using the ESBN extension).

  • Robert, What do you use? IE or Firefox?
  • ESBNs provide nonrepudiation for copyrights of blogs, podcasts, images, digital documents, websites, source code, periodicals, e-books, etc.

    ESBNs can be created 3 ways: Firefox extension, Mac OSX widget, or directly through ESBN.ORG. Future ways will include service plug-ins into blogging services like WordPress and online word processors like Zoho Writer.

    ESBNs can now be linked back to the ESBN.ORG verification service which provides author authenticity and the ability to track the number of blog views read by the blogosphere.

    Future features of ESBN.ORG will include automated plagiarism checks with original author notification and copyright researching tools.

    More information regarding ESBNs are available at http://esbn.org

    Cheers,
    Chris Matthieu, founder
    ESBN.ORG - Join the (R)evolution!
  • "wrote me" is getting tired now. It was cute for a while ;-)
  • Robert Ollenbuttel
    Hi,

    Sorry let me clear that up, I read on Security Monkey's blog about an ESBN filter that he was using and after reading one of Robert Scoble's blog entries thought he might be interested to know about it. I'm not Security Monkey (http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/security/investigator/), and if your interested in security stuff I thoroughly recommend his blog.

    Sorry for any confusion and I am definitely not trying to take credit for the great work done by Security Monkey.

    Regards

    Rob
  • But at the end of the day a blog post is just text so if they are already stealing your content by scraping then it isn't going to be that hard to edit out any copyright related stuff.
  • Doesn't work with latest version of Firefox. Wordpress plugin would be great.
  • Interesting ... I wonder if this will have more legs than the IBSN I blogged about recently.
    http://blog.larixconsulting.com/blog/_archives/...

    Personally I like this system better because the number picking is computer controled and not individually chosen. ESBN will certainly have a better and more logical structure from the get go.
  • Jaseone,

    Granted, it would theoretically be easy for a scraper to omit such information, but most scraping software is blind and dumb. Some will synonimize words to avoid detection, others will remove HTML code, but either case leaves the number intact. Future generations of these applications may or may not omit this kind of information, but we'll have to see.

    Humans are able to edit out this kind of information, but even then the ESBN provides proof of ownership. If the plagiarism is discovered, which it can be through other means, the date and time stamp provided by the ESBN provide both proof of ownership and proof that it predates the copies.

    It seems minor, but given some of the plagiarism battles I've witnessed and been a part of, it can be a huge asset. Third party confirmation of ownership is a HUGE deal.

    Hope that clears things up a bit.

    Jonathan
  • Is it work? We are protected under CC liscents, aren't we?
  • The latest version of the Firefox extension is pending Mozilla review and approval. It supports the latest version of the Firefox browser and includes a few new conveinence features and error checking. You can download version 0.3.1 directly from ESBN.ORG at the following address:

    http://esbn.org/esbn/esbn.xpi
  • New ESBN FireFox extension approved by Mozilla. Download it today at http://esbn.blogspot.com/2006/02/new-firefox-ex...
  • Riva
    If the majority of content doesn't have an ESBN associated with it I fail to see how it tells you anything. Person A can write the original but is clueless about the existance of ESBN, B plagarizes it and gets an ESBN for it.

    The only thing ESBN seems to accomplish in this situation is to add a false sense of legitimacy.
  • You can now share your ESBN content online with your friends, blog/podcast audiences, and co-workers by adding your ESBN Username to ESBN.ORG.

    Example: esbn.org/username
  • If you're into preventing plagiarism, check out my Firefox Plagiarism Plugin at:
    http://www.berkshire.k12.oh.us/beta/free_plagia...

    Unangst
  • ESBN.ORG adds RSS newsfeeds! You can now subscribe to all content being submitted to ESBN.ORG as well as particular authors content only.

    ESBN.ORG also adds an optional rating system to your ESBN IDs in the page. Now people can rate your content no matter which blog or comment it is posted to. This also corresponds to the page view metrics already supported by ESBN.ORG.
  • ESBN.ORG incorporates and changes its name to Numly, inc.

    Check it out!
    http://www.numly.com
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