Article Spinning Software – Unethical?

[This post was inspired by a thread over at Lynn Terry's Internet Marketing forum at http://www.clicknewz.com/members (and it was my first post there.) I hope you find it inspiring enough to comment upon.]

I think use of “spinning software” is a mark of low character; is cheating; and is attempting to “game” the system in a way it was not intended to be used, and diminishes your relationships not only with your customer base but with yourself to use such tactics. Besides the fact that the results from article spinners are so typically god-awful, it is simply lazy and adds nothing of real worth to the community of Internet users.

It is alright to have the same article submitted to multiple locations (“meet your people where they are”) – the myth of “duplicate content” penalties only applies to use of replicated content in a particular manner. We submit videos to many locations without penalty — why would one think there is a penalty for good article content being disseminated to a number of locations? (The whole point of article syndication sites like EzineArticles and others is to have your article published in multiple venues.)

And if you are asked for an original article, what is stopping you from customizing your approach to sharing information through a re-write that puts a truly different viewpoint into the mix – all of my re-writes result in BETTER articles!

That is the key there — are you producing good article content, or only “fluff” that is a regurgitation of lightweight information bordering upon being a mere spewing of platitudes?

That is my pet peeve. Everything about article spinning and flooding the ‘net with articles just for backlinks smells of unethical practices, and “virtual” lying and cheating.

I hope plenty of people agree with me on this, but I’m open to hear why people do not agree.