They can steal the blueprint;
they can't steal the mind

Of the 125 million people in the US that use online dating and social networking sites, The Wall Street Journal writes of a growing number of people stealing personal profiles, life philosophies, even signature poems.

Online daters increasingly feel as though they must sell themselves like a product. The heavy personal promotion that results from this mindset turns people into prime prey for identity thieves of all shades.

Over 50 online daters reportedly stole lines from a witty college entrance exam that writer Hugh Gallagher wrote 20 years ago. The paper later appeared in Harpers.

And a recent Engage.com survey of 400 online daters revealed that nine percent of respondents copied information or philosophies from another profile; meanwhile, 15 percent suspect their profiles were plagiarized.

While suing someone for stealing profile information is possible, it's prohibitively expensive. A law office tells WSJ the best thing to do is simply to demand from that the "thief" take the stolen information down.