GreatestJournal.com: Above and Beyond

Doing a referral check recently, I was shocked to find that GreatestJournal.com‘s trouble ticket system came up as a link to my site. It was odd because, even though I commonly deal with GJ.com on plagiarism issues, I hadn’t filed a report with them in nearly a month and all of my tickets had long since been closed and taken care of (quite well I might add).

I clicked the link to see which ticket was still generating interest to find that it wasn’t even my ticket causing the ruckus.

Apparently, what had happened was that one of the users I had filed a complaint against had his journal temporarily suspended and, when he was allowed to start using the site again, returned to his old ways. GJ.com, not waiting for a complaint, made the suspension permanent.

Too many times hosts take short cuts when dealing with copyright issues. They remove the work in question, scold the plagiarist with a form letter and move on to more important things, never checking back or involving themselves in the process. They only want to do what they are absolutely legally required to do and not an inch more. That’s what makes DMCA letters such a necessary evil.

It’s nice to see a large site not only take a real interest in plagiarism but to use their time, energy and resources to engage in a follow up not required by any law and then acting without a complaint when further infringement was discovered. GreatestJournal.com, much like LiveJournal.com and DeadJournal.com, has a very effective way or reporting copyright issues and seems to deal with it appropriately.

In an Internet full of cop-out admins and form letters, it’s nice to see some personal attention given to a serious problem. I hope they keep it up.