Comments on: Content theft on the rise: What now Scoble? http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/ The leading source of news covering social media and the blogosphere. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:28:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content « Lorelle on WordPress http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-127505 What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content « Lorelle on WordPress Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:23:01 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-127505 [...] Content theft on the rise: What now Scoble? [...] [...] Content theft on the rise: What now Scoble? [...]

]]> By: MagiCentric » Reblog Follow-up http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-95147 MagiCentric » Reblog Follow-up Sun, 28 May 2006 00:37:57 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-95147 [...] n original thought, a point-of-view that is your own. John LeBlanc sent me a link to an interesting reblog article and this is one of the mo [...] [...] n original thought, a point-of-view that is your own. John LeBlanc sent me a link to an interesting reblog article and this is one of the mo [...]

]]> By: Lorelle on WordPress » Content Theft from Feeds - It’s Time To Take Action http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-90474 Lorelle on WordPress » Content Theft from Feeds - It’s Time To Take Action Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:13:20 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-90474 [...] Trend in Content Theft, which includes feed thieves. There is a reference in the post of problems in the past [...] [...] Trend in Content Theft, which includes feed thieves. There is a reference in the post of problems in the past [...]

]]> By: Rob Lewis http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-30085 Rob Lewis Wed, 01 Jun 2005 16:17:42 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-30085 The disclaimer idea that Paul put forward above seems like a reasonable idea, but I doubt it would act as much of a deterrent, and whether people would report the stealing sites is another matter - is there another way of determining whether your RSS content has been stolen, e.g. with an image "beacon" which links back to your own website? Not sure whether that would work or even possible within XML, but the likelyhood is the theives would find a way of stripping that out anyway. It's also probably the case that a lot of these sites are probably using this stolen dynamic content to feed search engines, getting visitors to come and maybe clicking on the AdSense ads they've no doubt got on their pages. Excerpts seem like the way to go for the moment. The disclaimer idea that Paul put forward above seems like a reasonable idea, but I doubt it would act as much of a deterrent, and whether people would report the stealing sites is another matter – is there another way of determining whether your RSS content has been stolen, e.g. with an image “beacon” which links back to your own website? Not sure whether that would work or even possible within XML, but the likelyhood is the theives would find a way of stripping that out anyway.

It’s also probably the case that a lot of these sites are probably using this stolen dynamic content to feed search engines, getting visitors to come and maybe clicking on the AdSense ads they’ve no doubt got on their pages. Excerpts seem like the way to go for the moment.

]]> By: John LeBlanc http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-29805 John LeBlanc Wed, 01 Jun 2005 12:44:49 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-29805 I'm not sure how much more of a niche area in which one can participate than the world of performing magicians and mindreaders. So you can imagine my surprise and irritation to find a guy reblogging the feed from Escamoteurettes. (Even though my copyright notice is fairly plain in language.) It took three days, several phone calls, and a number of emails before I found the owner of the site (thanks, whoever you are, who came up with the brilliant idea of proxy registrations) and convinced him I was dead serious about him ceasing from republishing my stuff. The Reader's Digest version of the story is I was called a luddite for not embracing reblogging. "Why would I not want my content republished?" Uh, maybe because I'd rather visitors to my web site to read my content there? Maybe I have something of a problem with someone republishing my work -- insignificant as it is, it's still my work -- and not even bother to credit me or provide a link back to my web site, let alone ask my permission? Yes, I know it's a bit like two ants fighting for a crumb of bread. But to the ant, it's a pretty big thing. I applaud those who publish under the Creative Commons license, or those who lay no claim at all to their words. I happen to not do so. So now, my RSS feed is excerpted with an irritating and stupidly long copyright notice mentioning no copying or reblogging so even the IP-rights-impaired should be able to understand my wishes. Now, whether or not they are honored is another thing altogether. I’m not sure how much more of a niche area in which one can participate than the world of performing magicians and mindreaders. So you can imagine my surprise and irritation to find a guy reblogging the feed from Escamoteurettes. (Even though my copyright notice is fairly plain in language.)

It took three days, several phone calls, and a number of emails before I found the owner of the site (thanks, whoever you are, who came up with the brilliant idea of proxy registrations) and convinced him I was dead serious about him ceasing from republishing my stuff.

The Reader’s Digest version of the story is I was called a luddite for not embracing reblogging. “Why would I not want my content republished?” Uh, maybe because I’d rather visitors to my web site to read my content there? Maybe I have something of a problem with someone republishing my work — insignificant as it is, it’s still my work — and not even bother to credit me or provide a link back to my web site, let alone ask my permission?

Yes, I know it’s a bit like two ants fighting for a crumb of bread. But to the ant, it’s a pretty big thing.

I applaud those who publish under the Creative Commons license, or those who lay no claim at all to their words. I happen to not do so.

So now, my RSS feed is excerpted with an irritating and stupidly long copyright notice mentioning no copying or reblogging so even the IP-rights-impaired should be able to understand my wishes. Now, whether or not they are honored is another thing altogether.

]]> By: Paul Short http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-29413 Paul Short Wed, 01 Jun 2005 04:50:16 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-29413 Duncan, I've done a little hacking of the wp-rss2.php file and found a way to add a copyright notice right in the excerpts themselves. It says something to the effect of: <i>(C) 2005 Blogherald.com If you're not reading this in your news aggregator, this material has been stolen. Please contact editor at blogherald.com so we can take immediate legal action.</i> The beauty of it though, is that it's part of the content of the excerpt itself, so that message shows up right on the offenders web page. ;-) Duncan, I’ve done a little hacking of the wp-rss2.php file and found a way to add a copyright notice right in the excerpts themselves. It says something to the effect of:

(C) 2005 Blogherald.com If you’re not reading this in your news aggregator, this material has been stolen. Please contact editor at blogherald.com so we can take immediate legal action.

The beauty of it though, is that it’s part of the content of the excerpt itself, so that message shows up right on the offenders web page. ;-)

]]> By: The One True b!X http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/comment-page-1/#comment-29410 The One True b!X Wed, 01 Jun 2005 03:43:44 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2005/06/01/content-theft-on-the-rise-what-now-scoble/#comment-29410 It's becoming increasingly irritating to me, all of this latest round of protestations against bloggers who provide excerpt-only RSS feeds. Thing is, while that's the easiest way to steal people's content, it isn't the only way. Some time back, there was a site that was republishing full-text feeds, but if they couldn't find full-text <em>they would scrape the site</em> and get the content that way. I caught them republishing my content that way and ultimately got them to remove it. There's not much to be done to stop the scraping theft, but there's one easy way to stop theft-by-RSS: Excerpt-only feeds. It’s becoming increasingly irritating to me, all of this latest round of protestations against bloggers who provide excerpt-only RSS feeds.

Thing is, while that’s the easiest way to steal people’s content, it isn’t the only way. Some time back, there was a site that was republishing full-text feeds, but if they couldn’t find full-text they would scrape the site and get the content that way. I caught them republishing my content that way and ultimately got them to remove it.

There’s not much to be done to stop the scraping theft, but there’s one easy way to stop theft-by-RSS: Excerpt-only feeds.

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