Comments on: Calacanis on content theft: dob ‘em in!

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 03:14:08 +0000

here’s a solution from bloglogic if you have a wordpress blog, you might find a way to do it on other blogs as well.

http://www.bloglogic.net/2005/06/stop-stealing-my-stuff/

He’s irritated at it happening too and has modified a wordpress file wp-rss2.php, so it includes a visible copyright notice in every post in the feed. So if any of you readers have wordpress blogs they might want to use this.

“First thing your (RSS) readers will see is your excerpt from your post followed by a horisontal line and this underneath:

â€œÂ© 2005 YOUR-BLOG-URL.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If youâ€™re not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site youâ€™re looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact YOUR-CONTACT-DETAILS so we can take legal action immediately.â€?

so it’ll be pretty obvious what they’re doing.

Pete

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 18:15:26 +0000

You were right, Google doesn’t care, here is their responce to me:

Google is a provider of information, not a mediator. We serve ads targeted to certain web pages, but we donâ€™t control the content of these pages. For these kinds of questions or comments, it is best to directly address the webmaster of the page in question.

However, it is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website: http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/) and other applicable intellectual property laws. In this case, this means that if we receive proper notice of infringement, we will forward that notice to the responsible web site publisher.

To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the
items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and attorneysâ€™ fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when you in fact do not. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether you have the right to request removal from our service, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

By: Do I Really Want to Share the Intimate Details of My Life With the Rest of the World?

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 09:35:48 +0000

[...] As I was taking a break this evening, I cruised the sites of a few well-respected bloggers (culled from a recent list by Darren at ProBlogger,) and came upon two similar posts, one at ShaiCoggins.com, the other at The Blog Herald, lamenting the outright theft of original content, presumably for the goal of making a quick buck on ad-revenue, and wandering what could or should be done about it. [...]

By: Cary

Cary — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 07:57:06 +0000

Thought provoking post for sure. I’m with Jason, in that I think community action can be incredibly powerful if wielded correctly. My blog’s not big enough for anyone to have noticed it yet, but I can imagine be very unhappy if someone started stealing my content (not fair-use commentary, but just outright stealing.) I think it would be wise to start a Blogger’s Content Collective, or some such thing, as a way to put pressure on Advertisers when it is needed. It could also operate as a kind of Neighborhood Watch for the blogosphere…If I knew more big-time bloggers I’d be tempted to do this myeslf.

By: » Calacanis Wants Publishers To Blackmail Google InsideGoogle - part of the Blog News Channel

Fri, 03 Jun 2005 06:23:41 +0000

[...] , it is clear that new ideas are the only way to end the madness. So, got any ideas? Via The Blog Herald. On a side note, the Herald has some disheartening th [...]

By: Bowietrek

Bowietrek — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 04:18:06 +0000

What is dobbing? This is a new word to me.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 03:27:18 +0000

Big difference between this and comment spam is that comment spam folks don’t have any signup costs and these folks have to signup and be approved by folks like Google, Tribal Fusion, Burst, etc.

That process takes a very long time and it is tied to a TAX ID or Social Security number. If you get someone banned from Google Adsense, Tribal Fusion, Burst, etc. you are going to really hurt them. It will take them a long time to get back in and if they do they need to get another tax id or ss#… not an easy task.

If Tribal Fusion or Google did not respond to you alone I could see that. However, if you had ten folks back you up I bet they would. Ten people with $10,000 a month each in Google Adsense complain as a group I bet you’ll see results.

Also, you really only have to do this to a couple of folks. If people see others getting kicked from Google Adsense, Tribal Fusion, etc for lifting content others will not do it.

We’ve had a dozen folks republish feeds and 11 of 12 have stopped, and I’m sure we will get the latest one to stop soon. If you don’t defend yourself now you will have a harder time later.