Thursday, December 08, 2005

Wow, this version of blog theft is a new one on me!

I just found the most disturbing case of blog theft yet.

Basically I'm used to finding random posts of mine show up in aggregating blogs. Sometimes they make it quite clear where they've pulled the posts. And almost always, even when there's no textual attribution, the link to the post links back to the actual blog the post was lifted from.

Not this site (whose link I refuse to post for real)
http://www.audicialisxanaxnet.com/

This site is pulling in my posts and fedding all the copy into new posts, thus eliminating the need to link to me at all.

But not only that, my friends, if you scroll down the right hand side bar you will see the Worker Bees Blog listed as a "Contributor." (And yes, there they have a real link to this blog, the only one.)

There's actually a second contributor. I have no idea whether that person knows they're a "contributor", but I can say that they are politically in a very different place from me, so you have my worker bees posts interspersed with posts from this right-winger, all mashed up together. Gee, is this the Web 2.0 everyone is so excited about?

Of course there is no contact infor to be found, so I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do, except email WordPress. Except WordPress really doesn't want to hear from people it seems. Their Contact page is more filled with dire messages about how if you send the wrong email to the wrong address the contents will be "ignored and deleted" than with information about how to really contact them :)

Great.

Do you suppose my issue is a "security" issue? Because the only other commincations they're interested in receiving are press inquiries. (And yes, I checked the forums, but didn't really see a topic on content theft and mis-attribution.)

I usually save my sailor mouth for my personal blog, but this one is tempting me sorely.

Comments:
I am not sure what you can do about this mystery content stealer. Maybe add a footer to each post so that it shows up on this thief's site?

I do know that attempting to contact anyone at WordPress will not do you any good as it doesn't appear that this blog is hosted at wordpress.com.

Since WordPress is a free piece of software, it is sometimes used for less-honorable purposes like shown there.

Sorry for the bad news.
 
Hmmm. I've seen people have those footers. Even with language like "If you are not reading this on the Worker Bees Blog this content has been stolen." Of course for all those subscribers are are reading the legitimate blog/feed it clutters everything up.

I looked up the domain's WHOIS, and it's probably not for real, but there's some guy with a Norway address and a Polish email address. I emailed asking him to desist, which I'm sure will do no good. I also alerted the other "contributor" whose content is being stolen.

Sigh.

I mean I know I had an Audi and blogged about how much I loved it, but I never blogged about Cialis ;)
 
There's actually a very easy and fast solution to this problem. All you have to do is file a DMCA notice with the guy's host, EV1.net and they will remove the works.

You can find the proper email address to send such a notice to here: http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/agents/evry1net.pdf

I have a lot of good information about how to create a DMCA notice on my site.

Here's the pertinent links there:

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/?p=105
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/?page_id=61

Feel free to write me using my site's contact form if you have any questions or problems. I'll be glad to help if I can...
 
Jonathan:
Really. That's interesting!

Elisa:
I'm curious to see how this turns out.
 
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