Freebooting

About

“Freebooting” is the practice of downloading copyrighted content from a media-hosting website and re-uploading it without the creator’s permission, typically in order to accumulate a large following or for commercial profit through advertising revenue. The practice should not be confused with “mirroring,” or the recovery of censored or lost media content using a similar method for non-commercial and archival purposes.

Origin

On February 27th, 2014, Urban Dictionary^[1] user Icanshowyoutheworld submitted an entry for “freebooting,” defining it as “taking online media and re-hosting it on your website.”

Etymology

Prior to its online slang usage, the term “freebooting” has been used for centuries in the English-speaking world when referring to the act of maritime piracy, with its earliest known mention on record found in American explorer James Richardson’s 1853 book Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2.^[7]

The Haghar are well known, even in Europe, for their freebooting propensities.

Spread

On March 10th, 2014, the /r/freebooting^[2] subreddit was launched for discussions about the practice. On May 24th, the Wiktionary page for “freebooting” was updated to include “the unauthorized re-hosting of online media.” On January 19th, 2015, YouTuber SmarterEveryDay uploaded a video about the problem of freebooting on Facebook, which gained over 420,000 views and 3,300 comments in the first four months (shown below, left). The same day, the “It’s Okay to be Smart” Tumblr^[4] blog published an article on the practice. On January 21st, the SourceFed YouTube channel posted a similar video about Facebook freebooting (shown below, right). On May 12th, the video marketing blog Reel Seo^[6] published a guide for reporting freebooted videos to Facebook.

Search Interest

External References