Comments on: Is Modern Media One Big Mix Tape?

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:56:32 +0000

I am starting to think we have lost the direct battle against scrapers and the only real defense is to build our own domain strength so we always outrank them. Defeatist, maybe, but with an RSS footer plugin and plenty of links pointing at your own site you are pretty much ok without having to chase the crooks down all the time?

By: Sue

Sue — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:29:45 +0000

While almost all the photographs I upload to Flickr are licensed under the Creative Commons, I think most people are hesitant to do so with their blogs because of the scraper problem. If it’s got a copyright link with all rights reserved in it, especially in your feed, Google (home of the most scrapers via Blogspot) will be more inclined to follow through on a DMCA notice. If, however, it’s CC licensed, and there’s a link back to you somewhere, then you have really no call to complain about the scraper.

If anyone wants to use my work, under fair use, of course they can. And republishing it (a lot do in their organization’s newsletters/magazines), that’s fine too. I’ve never refused a legitimate request. All I ask is for the attribution. So while all rights may be reserved, it’s still share and share alike for a lot of us.

But we have to protect against those nasty scrapers. :)

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:18:11 +0000

Glad to be of help in the pant kicking dept ;)

By: Tracy

Tracy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:49:06 +0000

That’s an interesting question Chris, I’ll be upfront and say I never put one on my site because of sheer laziness. I’ve been intrigued about the one on the Zen Habits blog but somehow haven’t gotten around to read it closely to see if it’s something that would be right for me.

Thanks for the kick in the pants to check it out already.