I just discovered a new-to-me form of intellectual dishonesty that makes my blood boil.

Galactium is aggregating science fiction book reviews from many different sites, giving the books a score (using a method similar to Rotten Tomatoes, then linking to selected book reviews. The links capture the off-site reviews in a frame. The top frame contains links to Amazon, where the person(s) behind Galactium is signed up for an associates program.

The dishonest aspect of this is that Galactium uses reviews that are freely posted on personal, not-for-profit web sites without the author's permission. How do I know? Because several of my book reviews are linked to from the site!

I write those reviews on my own time. I get no financial reward for them. I make them public because I want to provide some original content on this site, and the reviews are a convenient outlet for that. It's outrageous that someone else is trying to earn some money from them.

I've written to the owner of Galactium, and posted to the site's public Bitch Forum, asking that my reviews be removed from the site immediately.

As I told the site owner in those communications, I can imagine several scenarios under which I might give permission for this use of my reviews -- even just the flattery of the request might have been enough to convince me to say yes. But the current circumstances are unacceptable. No one should profit from my words without my permission.

[Note: I posted a nearly-identical rant about this on Breaching the Web.