Ask HN: Medium accuses me of copyright violation because someone quoted me on HN | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Medium accuses me of copyright violation because someone quoted me on HN

15 pointsbehnamoh8 comments

Today I received a disturbing email from Medium.com. They suspended my account because they found two instances of my content appearing elsewhere on the internet. They accused me of copyright violation. They mentioned two examples:

1. My post (https://medium.com/@aplaceofmind/how-not-to-read-scientific-papers-89c4f39e571d) was copy/pasted by someone else to their blog (https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2022/05/03/how-to-skim-scientific-papers-does-that-include-peer-reviewed-articles/).

But Medium accuses __me__ of copyright violation!

2. My post (https://medium.com/@aplaceofmind/i-stopped-reading-hacker-news-comments-because-of-this-928b7ae87385) was submitted to HN and someone quoted part of that article in the comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32400521).

Again, Medium accuses __me__ of violating copyright!

This is the second time they've suspended my account. I've been a long time writer on their platform and my account appeared as a top writer in a few categories. But this time they went too far.

Friends don’t let friends post on Medium.

When Medium started it tried to present itself as a place that is a little better than the rest of the web but it really is a little bit worse. Blogging has three elements: (1) running a web site, (2) promotion, and (3) writing. Medium makes a hollow promise for (1) and (2), but people who have a low-effort attitude and don’t want to do (1) and (2) probably won’t work hard at writing. And you have to work hard at writing to make a successful blog, at least before ChatGPT.

Maybe you’re different, but if you want to be seen as different you have to think about the environment you’re in, not annoy your readers with pop ups, etc.

So don’t keep associating with a bad neighborhood, if you want to blog, blog on your own blog. In the meanwhile, watch Medium fall apart now that people who want to blog without technical skills, promotional effort and writing effort will just have ChatGPT write their blog for them. Talk about a company that is threatened by AI.

Why were you giving them content in the first place?

I haven't (knowingly) clicked a medium link in a couple years: they make it hard to link and harder to quote things they host. "we have something you want, really, just do irrelevant things and we'll let you see it" is not a business strategy. I can't see the reason anyone would volunteer to be a source of chum for that beast.

This sounds ludicrous. The right to quote is explicitly a part of the Berne Convention. This right is acknowledged also by the US Copyright Office:

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

It is beyond me why people still use Medium.

Medium is worse than Cloudflare for violating customer rights

I'm not familiar with Cloudflare's violating customer rights? Is it different for free vs paid customers?

Medium? Should be called low

Mid, in Gen Z parlance. Medium is so mid.

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