RSC Partners, Inc.

While bloggers are gaining the respect and attention of everyone from politicians to businesses to sports franchises, the mainstream media is still struggling to come to grips with the phenomenon.

When Yost at the Michigan Football site The M Zone heard a segment on ESPN Radio Colin Cowherd’s show that seemed a little familiar, he pointed out that, well, the item was plagiarized from his site. Cowherd responds that he didn’t know, the item was emailed to him before making a big mistake: blowing the blogger off and telling him to get over it.

Cowherd may have been innocent enough in his using material that was emailed to him, but as a journalist he should know what it feels like to have his material stolen. In the world of a cut-and-paste internet, a little due diligence on Google could tell you whether credit is due. Telling the author of material to bugger off will only turn the blogs–and public opinion–against you.

As bloggers gain a larger audience, situations like this will continue to arise–and as much as anybody wants to talk about blogger responsibilities and ethics, a debate about blogger rights should be in the works as well.