Oct 28th, 2006
Identity Crisis?
This isn?t Libraryman, libraryman.com, library man or me, Michael Porter. I DID NOT write this. It does border on amusing though:
This isn?t Libraryman, libraryman.com, library man or me, Michael Porter. I DID NOT write this. It does not border on amusing or appropriate for what I want people to think I try to posit on this site. Libraryman.com avoids politics staunchly in most cases unless it affects libraries. Again, I DID NOT write this:
?I would like to encourage everybody who reads this to vote for the pro-life canidate in the upcoming election Nov,7. For the most part this means vote Republican.?
On one hand being all about libraries and open access, this doesn?t phase me. I also understand that it is likely best to simply ignore it when things like this pop up. I have done that in the past, but these examples seem somewhat more dramatic. In fact, I won?t link to either of them directly.
I will however take screenshots and say that it appears that there is a small spate of libraryman fakers out there. Perhaps ?faker? is a strong word. Maybe poser is harsh too. Is knock off closer? I would imagine it was unintentional in one or two cases. In another, I can?t imagine it wasn?t done on purpose. Anybody have any comments, thoughts, ideas about all of this?
Not really bugging me, this one.
It is worth noting that libraryman is a copyright that I have full permission to use.? Additionally, I have been using the libraryman moniker and web site for several years, very carefully adding content and slowly and surely building what I hope are relationships based on that trust and reliability. Very often people say ?Oh, you?re Libraryman!? when we meet for the first time. If folks were to see some of the above content and think it was something I had written, it would be really quite upsetting.
we all know who the “real” library man is!!!
i just found a rash of skagirlies other than me. i guess that means ska is cool again???
Kinda makes me wonder when a librarian doesn’t do a search before establishing a name… but YOU are LibraryMan 4EVAH!!!
I’ve been there man, although never had to deal with the trademark issue. Good luck.
It seems that no one is trying masquerade as you, so to even call them “posers” is a misnomer. They’re simply people who picked the same name, and probably, to differing degrees, identify with that name. To be frank, taking your profession and adding “man” to the end of it is not a very novel way to create a handle . . . I could see this one coming from a mile away.
While I’d agree they probably aren’t knowingly copying you, it is ridiculously lame for someone to create a blog with the same name as another blog. Even when I created “Information Wants To Be Free” I checked to see if anyone had used that phrase for a blog. We are librarians. It kind of goes to show how little thought most people put into creating a blog these days.
I know nothing about intellectual property law, but I would hope that they’d change the name of their blogs if you contacted them about this.
But like everyone else said, there will only ever be one true Libraryman!
Let the earth-shaking battles begin!
c.f. http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/274/
Hi Michael!
Here’s a service that might be of use to you. Found through LifeHacker:
“Identity Aggregator” FindMeOn.com
I haven’t tried it myself, but it looks promising. With all of the social networking sites and identities people establish in “web 2.0″ land we will probably see more of these types of services pop-up.
Hey Michael,
One of the drawbacks with being a superhero: you turn your back for a second and - boom! - you’re suddenly confronted by Bizzaro Libraryman! :-\
[More seriously, even though Liblog is a “corporate” blog, I was a bit “weirded out” when I ran across the Christian Science Monitor’s blog - the OTHER Liblog - soon after it launched. I can only imagine how much stranger it must feel when it’s not just a blog, but YOU, that gets dopplegangered….]
I’ve run into the same thing, since I’m Netflix Fan aka Netflixfan. Lots of folks use that handle.
I think you’re confusing copyright with trademark. You can’t copyright a title of a book. As far as I know, you can’t copyright the word “libraryman.” But you can trademark it. Owning the URL and having a blog doesn’t automatically mean you own the trademark for “libraryman.”
If you did own the trademark, you could send “cease and desist” letters to everyone using “libraryman”.
(I’m not a lawyer, but I was foreperson on a Federal jury once)
Oh, dear…
Talking about using “Library Man” as a name, are we?
Alright, I’ll admit it: I’ve done it. About five or six years ago I started to draw alot of stick-person comics, and one series that came from that time was “Library Man.”
He’s a super hero who thinks he’s helping people, but he’s not. I loved drawing his book-hat and cape. Anyways I was so proud of him that I eventually created a myspace account for him, http://www.myspace.com/library_man
I’m sorry if he’s not too cool-looking, as I always draw him in paint, but he does always say, “citizen” because it’s funny.
And once I started being a library aide at school, I earned the nickname “Library Man” from some of my friends.
This will be an odd story to relate to them.