How much would you pay for one of these cheat sheets? Personally, I believe £0.00 is a fair price. It seems I may be undervaluing them though - someone (Dr Lance D Chambers JP a.k.a. lance1949) in Australia has decided to start selling them on eBay (screenshot). Without permission, of course. And without the "Available free from AddedBytes.com" note. Bastard.
They have been posted on other sites before, which is one thing - but conning people into paying for something that someone else produced and distributes for nothing is very very low indeed.
He's not alone in making money from the cheat sheets, but at least this guy is more subtle - he's selling laminating and postage of the cheat sheets.
Thanks to Kevin Futter for letting me know about this.
(Of course, the cheat sheets here are free and always will be.)
Update: It appears he's made a sale! Feel free to forward AU$1.50 on to me when you're ready, Lance.
Another Update: Good news - it seems Lance has ended all of his cheat sheet listings on eBay! Perhaps it was the attention he received from this site and others, or perhaps he had a sudden attack of conscience - either way, he's finally done the right thing.
Interesting to see that eBay themselves failed dismally to do anything, despite at least five people filing separate reports about the listings.
Thanks everyone, for the comments and emails - the support was definitely appreciated!
36 Comments
My wife reckons you should watermark them. I reckon you should at least assign some sort of CC license to them, or failing that perhaps an explicit copyright statement? Anyway, nice to hear you're undaunted Dave.
#1, Kevin Futter, Australia, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
I'm working on a new version of the cheat sheets at the moment, the idea being to update them to a slightly better design and hopefully much better PDFs. I think an explicit copyright statement would be a good addition, though I have no idea how much of an effect, if any, it would have!
#2, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
That's just wrong on so many levels. You have a copyright on your site, so people should know better, even if it's not explicit. If you haven't, I'd contact ebay about it.
#3, J.D., United States, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
there's an "ask the seller a question" link at the bottom of each item... why not ask "WTF do you think you're doing?"
#4, iamdecal, United Kingdom, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Okay so I'm selling (not the cheat sheets themselves) but rather asking people to pay AUD$1.50 (less than an English pound and about US1.00) for the work I have undertaken to find and e-mail the sheets to them - not much I admit but maybe worth the one dollar?
I will, if you wish, simply charge a research fee of AUD$1.50 and pass onto them your URL so they can pick them up themselves. Exactly to the same end result but one is 'legal' and the other not and the second just means that the buyer of my 'consultancy' service does a bit more work.
Just let me know and if you wish I'll become a 'consultant' insteads of what you term a 'seller'.
Regards, Lance Chambers.
#5, Lance Chambers, Australia, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Hi Lance.
It takes some guts to actually post publically in response to this kind of thing, so thankyou for doing so.
Sorry, but your story holds no water. You removed the "available free from" line. The only reason you'd do that would be because you didn't want people to know where they came from. Why go to the trouble of removing that line if what you were selling was "research"?
It's hardly the "same end result" - in one case the person gets the content from the owner for free, in the other they get ripped off.
It's up to eBay at this point to decide what they're going to do about your listings.
#6, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Hey Lance - I've got a bridge I can sell...er...consult with you about! Gimme a call! Only 2 left!
#7, Kevin Futter, Australia, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Okay so you want me to sell research instead of e-mailing the cheat sheet itself.
I will change the listings and 'sell' the relevant URL's (ie charge for 'research' and 'consultancy' as both you and Kevin do in your businesses. It's nice to find like minded people on the web).
Regards, Lance Chambers.
#8, Lance Chambers, Australia, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Right! All done. I'm a consultant now - just like you two guys.
Cool how quick and easy it is to change professions.
Regards, Lance Chambers.
#9, Lance Chambers, Australia, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Now why don't you two go to e-bay buy something off me and then you can leave really nasty feedback. That might make you both feel better.
Regards, Lance Chambers.
PS Dave I really do appreciate the hard work you have undertaken to develop the Cheat Sheets and I also understand your obvious chagrin at what I am doing. You will lose nothing other than, if sales are good, getting more web traffic and lose a bit more patience with arseholes like me.
My actions in no way diminish your contribution to those who find your website and use your outputs and efforts to their benefit.
#10, Lance Chambers, Australia, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
Hi Lance,
In the grand scheme of things, you really don't amount to much. I've had my rant and sent out the obligatory emails to eBay. With any luck, this article and comments section will soon appear on Google so those searching for information about you can see the kind of person you are. You're not worth much more effort that that.
I hope that at some point, when you've finished trying to justify your actions and trying to make out like you're doing nothing wrong, you realise that, with the time you've spent concocting your little "consultancy" fantasy and trying to pass off other people's work as your own, you probably could have created something worthwhile and original to make money from.
Perhaps it's time to take up finger-painting, Dr Chambers.
#11, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 23 June 2006. Reply to this.
It's disgusting that eBay allow someone like this to "sell" someone elses work, be it in the fashion of selling the link to someone, or selling the item itself. The only think they should really be allowed to sell is the ink, paper, and mailing charge of sending a premium-quality print-out to someone.
#12, David White, United Kingdom, 24 June 2006. Reply to this.
I've written about "reputation management" on WebWord.com several times. The basic gist is that in a highly connected, highly distributed world, we need mechanisms to watch what others say about us.
I think this idea applies to our ideas, products and services as well. Most invididuals aren't aware of this need. Even fewer have the resources to make the magic happen. I'd guess that I've been ripped off many times.
There are related "small" issues too. For example, how many people are stealing your bandwidth? I'm talking about WiFi bandwidth in your neighborhood but also images that are on your site, if you have one.
As I've stated previously, there's a business for this stuff. I wish I had the time to go after it since I would guess people would be very interested in it. Think about how this also plays into identity theft and you'll definitely understand what I'm proposing.
#13, John S. Rhodes, United States, 24 June 2006. Reply to this.
Wow...this is painstakingly embarrassing, and I would hate to see this diminish your desire to create your cheatsheets, if you ever can find something you're interested in to do more of (as you've already done quite a few). Either way, from a link/article over at Sitepoint.com, I found something called "Copyscape" which can help developers search the web for infringement issues. Although it's based more for text related things, this still might be helpful to you and others in the future.
http://www.copyscape.com/ (sorry, don't know how to make links in here, hopefully it's disabled anyway)
#14, Brendon Kozlowski, Unknown, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
I've never been less proud to call myself a member of the Australian web development community.
Lance, if you're still reading these comments, you are pathetic. Not only because you're selling someone elses work without their permission, but also because you are stripping their credit in the process. I do more 'research' when answering "HELP!" posts on forums.
I can't understand why someone with a B.Bus from Curtan Uni, a Masters from Purdue, a PhD from Uni of SA and who is a JUSTICE OF THE PEACE in Western Australia is pulling such a crooked, low, lame-ass scheme to get-rich-slow. Very little 'research' on my part just returned proof of online activities dating back to '94... Surely you've learnt of Netiquitte by now?!
Sir, you are a Poodle Farmer. Round 'em up.
#15, Andrew K., Australia, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
You'd think a JP would have more integrity, wouldn't you ...
#16, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
I did a search for 'PHP Cheat Sheets' on Google and wow Added Bytes came out top! According to Lance I suppose that makes Google a consultant too. The argument for a consultancy fee is so painfully bad that it really isn't worth disecting. It is a breach of copyright plain and simple.
If the net result of this is to stop people like Dave from contributing to the web in the way that he so brilliantly does, then it is much worse than the $1.50 that an unethical trader is making.
#17, George, United Kingdom, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
It wouldn't surprise me if Lance got his qualifications through the same set of fantasies that allowed him to acquire 'constultancy rights' to the cheat sheets. It amazes me that the guy is prepared to be so cavalier with his reputation, as that's really all you've got online. Poodle farmer indeed.
'...moving to Montana soon...'
#18, Kevin Futter, Australia, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
Truly disgusting Dave. Lance seems to miss how easy it is to damage your reputation online. Then again if the only way he knows how to make money online is by selling other people's work I don't think he gets business ot the net full stop.
#19, Sophie Wegat, Australia, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
I just wanted to respond to what John Rhodes said above, specially about "reputation management":
You're exactly right, John. In an information age, the things you say and do are often recorded and easy to find later, especially with search as powerful as it is. The front page of this site is already appearing in searches for "Lance Chambers", and the article and comments aren't indexed yet.
Lance may have thought there was no harm in trying to sell the cheat sheets - he probably thought the worst that could happen would be that he'd have to remove them from eBay.
The reality of what's actually happened is that he has done damage to himself - or, at least, his reputation. Anyone searching for his name, be it a potential employer, a friend, or an academic institution, will find these pages and his comments. They may even form part of their own opinion of him based upon what is said here.
#20, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
Interesting that I dropped by your site today and saw this thread because I came across http://www.flickr.com/photos/laihiu/175362221/ and was looking for original's URL. (At least in the Flickr case, it's not being sold and has the credit line intact.)
#21, Eric Meyer, United States, 26 June 2006. Reply to this.
Dave +10 for the cheatsheets, very well done.
Lance -25 for being a chumly
It seems only a matter of time that this gets dugg and Dr C gets a net rep lower than that girl that kept that ladies mobile phone and refused to return it.
#22, soop, United Kingdom, 28 June 2006. Reply to this.
I talked to my brother about this. That means that this issue has literally moved by word of mouth. It has an impact in meatspace.
For your reference, here's the Digg on it.
[redacted]
Also, I left a comment pointing users back to [redacted] versus where the story points right now (eBay). That'll drive some traffic this way I hope and it'll feed itself. We'll see how it goes.
#23, John S. Rhodes, United States, 29 June 2006. Reply to this.
I get pretty pissed when i read something like this, so thought i?d send Lance an message on eBay. I told him i thought his actions were immoral, unethical and illegal and all he was doing was damaging his reputation and pissing off the wider web development community.
Here?s his response?
?I seriously do not have a moral or ethical problem with that I?m sorry. You do I don?t. Differences of opinion. It?s no worth starting a war over. As long as e-bay are okay with it then so am I.
And please don?t threaten me with ?bad publicity?. I am 57 years old, retiring in about 3 months, I?m not looking for work, or to become the next president of anything. I really don?t need my ?electronic reputation to be intact?.
So what if 1 million people read about this? 999,000 will forget about it within minutes. Of the 1000 left about 900 will forget about it the next time they wake up and who cares about the remaining 100? They cannot have any real impact on me.
Get a life. You obviously need one.
Regards, Lance1949"
Great guy, fantastic attitude. It's funny how he's put a price on his intellectual property - his incredible research skills - yet completely disregards the rights of others.
#24, Jason Chipperfield, Australia, 3 July 2006. Reply to this.
Karl Denninger.
Bernard Shifman.
Dr. Lance Chambers.
#25, snorri, Germany, 4 July 2006. Reply to this.
The guy sounds like a pretty big scumbag. I just sent three angry emails to eBay complaining about this (doubt they'll do anything, so I'll just redirect my anger at Lance...).
#26, alf, Australia, 5 July 2006. Reply to this.
Interesting to note that the sale that Dave's link points to now returns an 'invalid item' page from eBay, stating that it has been removed (though only generic reasons are given, eg the auction ended more than 90 days ago).
I thought maybe eBay had finally acted, but a quick search shows the cheat sheets are still for sale, and somewhat inconceivably, Lance's feedback is still at 100%. I couldn't be bothered conducting exhaustive checking, but a couple of his latest sales that I checked were not for cheat sheets. Perhaps nobody's really fooled.
#27, Kevin Futter, Australia, 9 July 2006. Reply to this.
I came here because a friends was asking a HTML question and I have used the cheat sheets when designing my site. Why? Because when I was hitting a problem with php I did a search with google and got this site up as NO 1. The name was interesting but I came and bookmarked it and have used it since. It is an easy site to navigate and teaches us simple minded people in simple English.
I can't believe someone would nick your sheets and sell them. Seems there is another person selling them on ebay UK saying that it is for laminating and postage as the cheat sheets are free on the web. You might want to look at that one as well.
I for one would willingly pay for the sheets but only from this site because of the work gone into them. I really appreciate all your hard work, and it sucks that someone would rip you off.
#28, bev, Hong Kong, 17 July 2006. Reply to this.
Jeez, this feels so crappy.
Dave has done so much work and some guy is just selling it off...
I understand the thing that there still are a lot of noobs who cannot use Google to find how to learn PHP -- but why just resell, as if it was yours?!
You could at least ask.
"AUD$1.50 (less than an English pound and about US1.00) for the work I have undertaken to find and e-mail the sheets to them - not much I admit but maybe worth the one dollar?"
You call that work?? Wait, this is more like writing an email in 20 seconds, isn't it?
This is even too much.
You're a fool, Lance!
Sell your own work, ok?
#29, Drakas, United Kingdom, 26 July 2006. Reply to this.
This Lance Chambers is an asshole, and he should die in a fiery pit.
"Okay so I'm selling (not the cheat sheets themselves) but rather asking people to pay AUD$1.50 (less than an English pound and about US1.00) for the work I have undertaken to find and e-mail the sheets to them - not much I admit but maybe worth the one dollar?"
How about you just go on eBay and sell a copy of Linux - only when the bidder wins you go and email them a link to download it for themselves. Okay, so you're selling (not the Linux distribution itself) but rather asking people to pay however much you ask for, for the work you have undertaken to find and email the Linux distribution download to them - not much you admit but maybe worth it?
Go to hell.
#30, Steven Bao, United States, 27 July 2006. Reply to this.
Another guy is selling your sheets (k-net2020). He's in the UK.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Cheat-Sheets-PHP-MySQL-CSS-Javascript-HTML-more_W0QQitemZ150015959381QQihZ005QQcategoryZ4291QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
#31, Thomas Finley, United States, 31 July 2006. Reply to this.
Report these guys to the eBay fraud department and get them banned from the site. That will stop them for a while.
#32, Gavin, United States, 1 August 2006. Reply to this.
Proactively, there's not much you can do about it but reactively there's a slim chance of contacting the purchaser before the feedback is posted.
A negative like "This guy rips off works that are available freely; just use Google and you'll find all this and more." might just stem the sales.
Problem is, it needs an eBay taskforce.
#33, Ed, United Kingdom, 19 August 2006. Reply to this.
This is absolutely ridiculous!
I am actually at a loss for words. Lance actually posted on here trying to justify what he was doing...I really don't know what to say.
Dave, you definately handled it well and put him in his place.
Thanks once again for all your hard work on these cheat sheets!
#34, Bjorn, Unknown, 22 March 2007. Reply to this.
I added a reference to the Wikipedia page for cheat sheets, citing Dave as an example of freely available cheat sheets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheat_sheet
That page also has a reference to the "academic dishonesty" Wikipedia page, which might be an appropriate area to cite this Lance Chambers story. ;)
Seriously, this is an interesting case of web-enabled plagiarism/copyright infringement that would be good to publicize. Raises some key issues that many netizens should be aware of.
#35, Steve Trutane, United States, 23 January 2008. Reply to this.
Thanks Steve! It's rather cool seeing one's own name on Wikipedia :)
#36, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 23 January 2008. Reply to this.