Stealing from the Little Guy

Stealing from the Little Guy

Published on December 19, 2011 by The Editor in Opinion

Look here’s the deal within the blogging community covering MMA in Asia we are all trying to compete with each other while also supporting each other.

If I was to 'borrow'  an article directly from for instance  http://www.mma-in-asia.com/ (A superb and very helpful website by the way)  I would at least tell my readers where I got the article from. I might use some information but I would always try to check that information and cross reference it.  I would put a link to that website so my readers could read the original article.

Sometimes we all have the same information, Fight Announcements, Fight Cards, Fight Results etc, but even then some of my fellow MMA writers do a neat packaging job to make that information their own.

My website is just over a month old and the last thing I would expect is to find MY ARTICLES directly copied onto another site with somebody else claiming to have posted it and to give me or my website NO ACCREDITATION.

Especially if the website is much longer established site with many many more times the readership than mine has and therefore of course being accredited would be very helpful to me.

Let me make this clear – This is NOT another Asian MMA website, It is a a North American based website with little Asian coverage, that indeed is why they contacted me in the first place.

I put a lot of work and money  into the site – I paid for the website domain, the website theme, the podcast access, I paid to enter events and all my transport and hotel costs. Of course I would like to get paid for this, I don’t have a job, this is my attempt to create an income stream doing something I love, I have a few people who also help me with occasional articles. People that give me their time for my podcasts, Kian Pham, Bashir Ahmad, Jussi Solaranta, Gan Ju, People that have helped me also include Chian Yik, Paul Teo, fighters and fans too many to mention. None of them get paid and yet they willingly get involved.

I spend many long hours on the website daily for NO money and therefore to have my work stolen without even a thank you is very distressing.

The website that stole my work is a long established one and I am sure that it is making it’s owners a pretty penny.

I was approached by somebody from the site asking if I would like to write for them and I said NO! This is not because I do not wish to, but because I wanted something else. I wanted MY site to be their Asian MMA page and to have their website as my MMA worldwide page.

The next thing I know is my articles are appearing on their website and they are effectively claiming them as their own.

I don’t have the link, I don’t have accreditation and I don’t have a cent!

So I say out loud a big FUCK YOU to this website – I won’t name it or the Ex UFC fighter behind it because they deserve nothing but my contempt.

********* UPDATE ************

A small victory after all the fuss I made they removed the articles and the Asian tab from there website, so a small victory, but, NO APOLOGY – what a classless bunch!   Very much the type of move you would expect from a bully.