Update On Stolen Blog Content
Just a quick recap on my post, Has Your Blog Content Been Stolen. My first option was to leave a comment on each post demanding that the posts were removed. After several days not only were the comments never approved, the wanker even had the audacity to pilfer more articles. I decided to take it further.
I contacted netfirms, the site that hosted the blog telling them of my dilemma and they quickly replied that they needed more information, which was quite understandable as they want to make sure my claim is legitimate. I sent out the email with the required information and within 24hrs I received the following.
Hello,
Thank you for your email. We had already undertaken an investigation on the content of this website as being copied without consent from several other bloggers, have have just recently placed the domain name on RegistrarLock status – effectively suspending the domain name.
We appreciate your patience and your assistance in this matter.
Regards,
Chris
www.netfirms.com
Netfirms Abuse Department
Thanks Chris and the Netfirms Abuse Department for your action in regards to this serious matter.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010
I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!
Filed under: General
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Wow! That was an awesome job and responsible hosting.
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 12:56 am
Yes it was, thanks for your comment.
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Sunil Jain from gupshup Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Yup :) :)
It is an responsible hosting :) and before i had hosted my pirated blogs here only ,but the cost was very much high when compared to other host and many times i had to pay them for spamming in other sites .
So its good for legal blogs like us :), where in they are in touch always and this service which you have told is also available with many reputed hosts like Network solutions :) :)
Sunil Jain@gupshup´s last blog ..50+ Best Free Premium WordPress Themes of December 2009
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Pirated blogs?
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Sunil Jain from gupshup Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
I mean to say , those were warez like blog , they included free download links of several games,applications and movies. I don’t want to mention here ;) , i hope you can understand :) :) :)
Sunil Jain@gupshup´s last blog ..How to use different Themes for WordPress posts or pages
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Sire Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I think I do now. Thanks for clearing that up.
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Yeah, I just checked it out and was glad to see the site has been removed. Good on you for taking the correct actions. You gave him a fair chance and he kept stealing. Well done, Sire.
Can you remind us how we can find if our content has been scraped? Cheers.
Gordie´s last blog ..Interview With Captain Australia.
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 12:55 am
I didn’t do much Gordie, other than writing a couple of emails. I was prepared to take it further but lucky for me netfirms are responsible hosts.
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Rose Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Gordie, I use blog search to check my content. You can also use http://copyscape.com Google Alerts, emails reports of any web pages in its database that match your search terms. You can set up an alert for your name. I did. Check Trackback and Incoming Links. That’s where I find most of mine.
Sire are you using a copyright plugin?
Oh and good for you. Glad it was removed.
Rose´s last blog ..Using the right Keywords
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 2:17 am
I have my name and wassupblog set up in backtype so that I get an email every time it’s used.
I don’t use a copyright plugin at the moment. What one do you recommend Rose?
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Gomez from windshield quote Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Rose – I too would be interested in knowing what copyright plug-in you might recommend. I don’t put out a ton of content, but anything to automate the process would be very welcome.
Gomez@windshield quote´s last blog ..Avoiding Insurance Fraud
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Rose Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Sire & Gordie I use Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter.
Inserts copyright message in Feeds. The message is of the standard format (can be customized): Copyright © 2010 YOUR BLOG NAME. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@BLOG_ADDRESS so we can take legal action immediately.
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
I think I might go for partial feeds instead. I need to keep the amount of plugins down.
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Ching Ya Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Will need to have a look at this plugin. Anything to kill off those content-scrapping.
Ching Ya´s last blog ..How to Brand Your Tweets with TweetBrand
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Why would somebody do this, did they just copy and paste your stuff, word for word? How stupid, wouldn’t the search engines gig them for dup content?
Dick´s last blog ..RT @KriziaMissK Kidpreneurs Book -the kids guide to Entrepreneurship. The must-have for 2010!…
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 2:19 am
They copy and pasted everything, including links, tweetmeme counter right down to the FlexSqueeze blurb I have at the end of the post.
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Excellent work!
I’ve been avoiding checking for scraped articles lately. Too busy to care. I should take the time though, this is inspiring.
Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..Your Next Killer Technique for Telling Compelling Stories (It’s easier than you think)
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 4:43 am
I don’t actively search for scraped articles either Dave, I just figure I’ll find out about them sooner or later.
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Glad to hear things worked out for you! It’s a good thing that the hosting company reacted the way they should. Now let’s keep the scum from copying again! ;)
Bjorn | ican’t Internet ´s last blog ..8 most read iCan’t Internet articles of 2009
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Yep, and not only did they lose their blog, they shit down the whole domain.
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Anne from AnneOnLife Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Was that intentional or a typo? Either way, funny and poignant!
Anne@AnneOnLife´s last blog ..I Always Admired Mr. Franklin, But Now I Truly Respect Him
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
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Mitch Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
I almost bust out at that one myself, Sire; what a Freudian slip! lol
Course, then you missed “typ”, but who’s looking
Mitch´s last blog ..5 Ways Poker Is Like Blogging
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
That one I just had to fix
I am in the same situation. I have sent the offender emails and left comments, but I get no reply.
They have scraped articles out of Ezines of mine too, with no resource links, along with other peoples articles too. I don’t think one article of theres would be original.
I had a friend abuse them with comments and now I am a bit afraid to take action.
Linda Jackson´s last blog ..Prada Infusion D’Iris Perfume by Prada 1.7 oz Eau De Parfum Spray
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Linda, following this link left by Holly, on one of my commentators in the previous post may help you.
They need not know who you are. It was that very post that helped me to have that site removed.
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Linda Jackson Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Hi Sire,
Unfortunately they do, because my friend pointed out my articles. That’s why I’m scared to act in case they take a little vengeance.
I will check out the link though, thank you very much.
Linda Jackson´s last blog ..Three Popular Celebrity Scents To Excite The Senses
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
True, but they would probably have scraped other blogs so they wouldn’t really know it was you. Still, you have to be comfortable with whatever action you take.
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Glad to hear that scum was removed, although they will probably be up and running on another host in no time. There should be more serious consequences for scraping….
Keith @Need Information´s last blog ..Follow Up To Pagerank: It Really Doesn’t Matter
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 8:44 am
More than likely Keith. The only thing that would stop them would be if Google etc. terminated their accounts.
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I’m glad you didn’t have any problems getting this rectified. Sure they’ll probably reemerge somewhere scraping yours or someone else’s content, but eventually they will get theirs. Or maybe they already have and are miserable or work at Walmart or something.
Anne@AnneOnLife´s last blog ..I Always Admired Mr. Franklin, But Now I Truly Respect Him
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Anne, if we are continually on top of these guys sooner or later they will give up. Some other dude will always try it, but hey, that’s life.
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Great job my friend, and kudos to the host.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..PLEASE COMMENT – Have You EVER Used The Added Feature Of My Subscribe To Comments Plugin??
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I quite bothering with people that steal my content. Not that I don’t care, I do. I just hate wasting the time trying to fight them all. Most of the time they don’t show up anywhere in the serps for my content whereas I do. Just because they take the content doesnt mean they get the traffic. To me the time invested in fighting them could be spend on family, business, or building links to better garner the traffic and authority for myself. Just my .02 cents.
The Real Josh´s last blog ..Step by Step Guide on How to Make Money With Twitter
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
It didn’t take much time, just a couple of emails, no more than 15 minutes or so, and most of that was copying the links to the email.
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The Real Josh Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I think best case it takes 10-15 mins like you say, but I sure have had ones that are impossible to find, hosting doesn’t care, no responses from people/hosting companies. Then for what. Usually the site in question is here today and gone tomorrow. Rarely do they last any length of time. But this is albeit my experience and by no means a rule.
The Real Josh´s last blog ..Step by Step Guide on How to Make Money With Twitter
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
I suppose you have to deal with each case separately. Discard the ones that are too hard and crush the ones that aren’t.
As to the hosts, I wonder if there is someone who can deal with them?
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It’s always nice to come across a responsible host that is willing to cooperate when you have this sort of issue. I wasn’t aware of the existence of copyright plugins and it seems like a good idea to use one but it may not really prevent some people from copying your content. These people just set up autoblogs that pull content from your feeds or scrape the actual site and republish it. The idea is to have some sort of content and they don’t always care if it’s unique or if it has someone else’s name on it.
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
I suppose I should be happy that they though my content was worth scraping, but I don’t think it fair that I do all the work and they try to benefit from it.
I’m trialling out a copyright plugin at the moment which looks pretty cool.
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I am your muse, Sire; your chess playing muse.
Mitch´s last blog ..Clearing Away Irritations In 2010
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Wow thats awesome that the hosting company did that. I wouldn’t even know what to do if my content was stolen, but now I do. I guess you can comment to have them removed, but if that doesn’t work go to the webhosting company.
Thanks for the tips!
Jim
Jim Hardin´s last blog ..Nutrional Value of Baked Stuffed Post
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Sire Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
No worries Jim, and Mitch, you are my muse
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I’m using partial feeds, but I still use the plugin.
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Sire,
At least there’s one website down, who knows how many more are out there?
Good thing you stumbled on their site and it was a relief that the webhost did their part.
Z
Zorlone´s last blog ..Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 12:52 am
It sure was Zorlone. Thanks for commenting
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I found you via Gordie.
It’s great your problem is solved – mine is still open!
I guess I’ll write to them today…
If you have time pls visit my site and see yourself how stupid and rude some business people can be…
Have a great day! :)
BLOGitse´s last blog ..I love sharing but I hate STEALING!
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Yes, it’s pretty awful, but perhaps if you follow some of the advice from the comments left on my original post you will be able to get some satisfaction.
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Cool. Serves him/her right!
Shane´s last blog ..How to Insert Affiliate Banners on a WordPress Site (RQR Basics)
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Thanks Shane
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Good move! I really do despise those copycats and scrappers. Serve them right! If only there’s a way we can claim for copyrights and protect our work, someday, somehow. Until then, may we all keep our eyes open. Also, never stop to look out for our friends as well. An alert regarding this matter is always appreciated, surely. Thanks for updating the issue.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Ching Ya´s last blog ..How to Brand Your Tweets with TweetBrand
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
That’s right Chingya, and it was thanks to Mitch that I knew about it. Seeing as how we are all prone to linkluv a blogging friend may well get wind of it via a trackback.
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This is an ages old problem and I for one have quit worrying about those that plagiarize. They really don’t get much benefit from it as Google credits the first publisher with the indexing. I used to be concerned and try to track them down and usually it turns out to be some wise ass kid that will only haunt you and spam you at every level.
I no longer worry about it, but do understand your concern.
Rich Hill@Eating NYC´s last blog ..It’s About Food: Eating NYC
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Sure it’s not worth worrying about but then we don’t want them to get away with it either. Just like spam it’s part of a bloggers routine.
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Kudos to you Sire!!! Plan a course of action and follow it through. So glad you got some satisfaction. It just doesn’t always work out that way. GREAT info in this thread. Thanks for keeping the ball rolling:)
Louise´s last blog ..Oh Boy it’s Spaghetti Day!
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Thanks Louise.
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It’s good to see action was taken! I’ve been battling with the same problem. It seems that some people consider Internet a no-rights zone.
I would hate to be paranoid to put content online (which I do everyday, pictures and articles) but people need to play it fair.
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
The problem is that not everyone wishes to play fair which is why we have this problem.
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Wanker indeed! And good action from the hosting firm.
Recently, I read another nice tip: when someone copies your content together with the pictures in it, you can give them a nasty surprise: buy a picture from a photo provider site of which you’re really sure that they will pursue damages from illegal copiers. Put the picture in your next article and wait until the imbecil copies it. Then report him to the photo provider.
Luc J´s last blog ..Remote PC Support for Your Relatives – Netviewer
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Nasty, but I like it
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I’m so glad that you took action and got great results. That’s awesome. There needs to be respect for toher people’s hours of work and effort. I’m glad they did that.
Kudos,
Eren
Eren Mckay´s last blog ..How to stay calm while being more productive
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Yes, it’s great when you can rely on people to actually do the right thing.
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Glad to hear you had a good outcome with not to much hassle on your end.
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Sire Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Thanks Matt
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Glad to read you got some positive action from the offender’s host. Sheesh…I’ll never understand some people. Guess (s)he was taking the easy path to success.
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i know how much it sucks when someone steals the content, you know how much of a hard work us bloggers put in to write the content, good that you got that one solved.
I usually do the same, first make a contact with the copy-cheat webmaster and see what he does, if that doesnot works, i contact the host, google search and advertiser networks, and they all take appropriate actions,
Uttoran Sen´s last blog ..10 Tips on How to Gain Search Engine Trust
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Sire Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Yep, you just have to take it one step at a time. Thanks for your comment.
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Nice work Sire, it’s nice to see a few losers go down for stealing content and it’s great to see that someone was willing to work with you on it. Props to them.
Extreme John´s last blog ..What Does Blogging Mean to You?
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Sire Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Thanks John and like you said mate, it’s good to see the bad guys get what’s coming to them.
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