Copyright outrage!
I was doing some ego searching and came across a blog who has re-published my post as their own, what’s with that! Check out this post at mindblast, it’s my post, but there is no link to my blog, and the author is labelled as someone else.
Here is the original post which is from my blog, you will notice the 1st couple of paragraphs are missing as well as the last sentence.
Someone has also left a comment saying it’s a nice list and where did he get it from…well that’s just it isn’t it, you shouldn’t have to ask, as it should be linked back to the source, and on top of it not be claimed as your own…since it has a few bits missing the least would be to quote it from my post, and link back.
At first I thought it was a clipping type action where the post is re-published from an RSS reader and for some reason it wasn’t linking to the source, but what about the author’s name.
But then I noticed it wasn’t a software problem as some of the post has been deleted just leaving the listed items.
So you might say how did I find this post if I was ego searching (seeing who links to me) as I’ve mentioned one of the problems is they don’t link back to me, well the only reason I found this post is that I’m referencing one of my own posts at the end, so that’s how I found it.
This may be happening with other posts that people are claiming as their own, but how would you know, maybe a tool like Copyscape helps, but all it found was some of my posts in a Blogdigger search…also with Copyscape you have to manually check, it isn’t a magic scout that checks and alerts you when someone is ripping you off!
So this isn’t an RSS re-syndicating issue (which we accept), this is outright plagiarism!
PS: I can’t seem to find their email, and instead of leaving a comment on their blog, what better than to achieve the same thing by using trackback, and broadcasting at the same time.
![email.png](http://services.nexodyne.com/email/icon/GxbiQvgbwBgCnw%3D%3D/oIp%2BJMQ%3D/R01haWw%3D/0/image.png"){kind=icon}
How about writing blogware to give them a heads-up about the Qumana ad-farm too? (oops… just did!!) and perhaps using the keyword Qumana a whole bunch… They seem pretty hot about following up when they’re discussed in the blogosphere. Being discussed in this context ought to get a response…
Comment by - — October 28, 2005 @ 2:07 pm
I’m sorry to hear about your recent plagiarism problems. I’ve had quite a bit of experience with it myself. I even started up a Web site to help other Webmasters deal with the issue.
What I would do, if I were in your shoes, is file a DMCA notice with the hosts of the infringing sites. You can get the work removed quickly that way. If you need any help with that, either send me an email or check out my site, I’ve put most of my information up there but there’s still a few things that haven’t gone up yet that might help you out.
Let me know if there’s anything that I can do to help!
Comment by Jonathan — October 28, 2005 @ 2:10 pm
John, Man-o-Man do I Know the feeling. NOt only do I frequently find my blog posts clipped and unlinked, but worse, I have been writing copy for the supplement industry for 18 years. A few years ago I started my own company and spent a lot of time and money creating nice websites that included all original content.
One of my manufacturers had an injunction against them preventing them from making any claims about their products so they were referring people to my site for information since mine was the only site that had details that were compliant with the regs.
No sooner did they discover it, then every other site that sold the same products scraped my pages and began to use my very own copy and photos to compete with me. They even bought the same Google AdWords I did, and since they didn’t experience the cost up front to build the copy or shoot or edit the photos AND because they weren’t tight with the manufacturer like we were, they under-cut the prices and totally messed with our business.
Putting a lawyer on the case only cost me money, they’d take their content down for a few days and they put it back. I wish I could tell you that there is a good soultion for this, but even in my case where it was clear that these are my images there wasn’t much the
judicial system would do.
Some examples of the offending online stores below:
http://www.acnedoctor.com/Sleep-Rx_pill.html
http://www.acnedoctor.com/Lipodrene-Sr.html
Stealing photos and copy from my site (which has now been sold)
Anyway, I sympathize. if you come up with a way to put a stop to it, let me know.
Oliver Starr
http://www.mobile-weblog.com
Comment by Oliver Starr "stitch" — October 28, 2005 @ 2:15 pm