Well, no. Probably not. But it is currently the most personally irritating.

I recently discovered that the site’s admin is reprinting Black Gate material without our permission, and frequently without byline. The site isn’t merely quoting from us, or summarizing, or pointing interested readers here, which we appreciate and encourage, they are copying and pasting our complete articles onto their own web site. We’re not alone — they’re apparently doing this with a lot of other fantasy and science fiction web sites as well.

My first hope was that this plagiarism was some sort of amateurish mistake, and it may still be. Some people, even some literate, intelligent people, might not understand what’s wrong about taking someone else’s work without credit.

Upon digging further,  I realized that there is NO WAY to contact anyone involved in the site. No contact information for the administrator is listed anywhere on the pages of The Bookish Owl. I filled out a comments page and submitted it, but my comments were ignored. I tracked down to whom the site was registered (a company) only to discover that the company’s web site has not been updated since 2008 and that their voice mailbox is full. Their e-mail address bounces.

I can only conclude that theirs is a deliberate attempt to steal the work of others to boost traffic to their own site. As their admin seems to regularly cut and paste material from this site, perhaps he or she will read this note and realize their error, and correct it with an apology, in which case all will be well. Or perhaps it will simply reappear automatically at The Bookish Owl with the headline above and I’ll have a chuckle before I track down all the others from whom The Bookish Owl is stealing material and together we will contemplate appropriate action.