Content theft

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Permalink Reply by Jo Dyson on December 18, 2009 at 8:49am

I will support you in this. It is a major problem and we need to shout up more about it.

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Permalink Reply by Not Delia on December 18, 2009 at 8:54am

Thanks, Jo. :-)

I really appreciate your help.

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Permalink Reply by MaryMoh on December 18, 2009 at 9:37am

Thanks for sharing this. But I'm still not sure how you catch these thieves. I often get pingbacks of my blog on other sites. Hv a look at this. http://macapple.com.cn/keep-learning-keep-smiling-%C2%BB-fennel-and... Do you call that content thefts? This is just one of them. There's no contents but the title of my blog post. If it is, what should I do. Pingbacks like these always get into my spam box. I didn't know what to do so I just delete them.

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Permalink Reply by Not Delia on December 18, 2009 at 10:01am

A pingback could be a link to your post (a good thing) or a spurious way of getting you to link to them by spoofing a link (which doesn't actually exist) to your article on their site. There are plenty of nasties out there, so be careful.

It's not the same as content theft. Content theft is when someone (or more likely a bot) scans the web for recent content about any topic, mince pies, or whatever, and then does a cut'n'paste job into their own site as though it's their content. That's what humans do. What's even worse is those lying, cheating, thieving people who have the bots set up to automatically harvest YOUR content and publish it as though it's their own.

Now, I understand that it's hard for us small guys to do much about these nasties, but I think that my friend Paul had a good idea with his "I'm an idiot and a thief for publishing this" idea. That way, every time a bot republishes the content, they're saying that they're an idiot and a thief. You just have to customise it a little bit to say why you're writing it, where your original posting comes from, and then the thieves and idiots will look stupid because they've published stuff on their websites saying that they're thieves and idiots. You won't look stupid because you'll make sure you have a link in your posting to say where your original content is from and why you're making the posting against the thieves and cheats.

Have I made myself clear or is there anything that people don't understand? Please tell me. And please join us in the fight against the nasties.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Hall on December 18, 2009 at 3:22pm

Just to add to this, please see the excellent post below. It'll show you ways to check if your content's been nabbed, how to prevent it and what to do if it happens!

Simple Tips To Prevent And Deal With Content And Design Theft

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Permalink Reply by Giles Lindsay on December 18, 2009 at 8:13pm

Good link Matt - cheers!

I often get my posts harvested and posted as if it's their own - case in point for my new post this evening on Braised Red Cabbage - already have found one site that has harvested it...

http://www.wineglaze.com/braised-red-cabbage-%c2%ab-anyone-for-seco... - Apparently listed on there by some Woman called Karol!

So I will definately help fight the cause Kay, as I wish other sites would stop doing it!

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Permalink Reply by Not Delia on December 18, 2009 at 10:22pm

Thanks for your support. We really have to stand up and fight against this menace.

I've been looking at some of the sites which harvest our content, and a lot of them have AdSense. We should be telling Google about the stolen content. I'll be doing it for my own sites. Will you also take up the cause?

Please join in and help us to get these thieves shut down.

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Permalink Reply by Not Delia on December 19, 2009 at 7:39am

Hi Giles

I just had a look at the links you posted. I don't really think it's in the same league as content theft where someone steals your whole article and republishes it word for word as their own without even a link back.

The case you mention most certainly does look like a scraper site, and not very nice, but what they've done is to give a brief taster (71 words) of what's on offer on your site, and if anyone is interested enough to read more, then they can follow the link there to your site. Fair enough if you don't like it, I can't say I'd be thrilled about it either. But, just like a book review, it's usually thought of as acceptable to use a small taster to encourage people to buy the book or "read more".

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Permalink Reply by Giles Lindsay on December 19, 2009 at 9:05am

Hi Kay,

I havent then suffered the complete plagiarism that you and others have - though I think any type of harvesting/scraping is not on! If you actually look, the harvesting from my site has been automatic - not actually done by a human, as it has copied and pasted parts of feeds and links at the same level as my blog post from the RSS feeds I list. That can only occur from an automatic harvester. This is only an identical system used by other sites even when they dont give you any type of link back! However good or bad or whatever league the copying is in, it shouldnt be done which is why i will back your cause :)

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Permalink Reply by Not Delia on December 19, 2009 at 10:24am

Hi Giles

I know. This type of harvesting/scraping is a real pain. That's why we've taken the "I'm an idiot and a thief for posting this" initiative.

I really think that we should be reporting the thefts to Google. If these thieves get their AdSense accounts banned, there's very little incentive for them to continue.

People like us can take hours crafting a posting, going hungry whilst taking photos, and then some twit just comes along and copies it.

I think a lot of people don't even realise it's happening. The link that Matt gave was interesting. Most notably this quote:

"If you think no one ever stole any of your work it is only because you haven’t found out about it yet!"

Don't just accept it. Do something about it!

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Permalink Reply by Jo Dyson on December 22, 2009 at 9:33am

Does anyone know who these people are below?

http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/cooking-for-a-crowd-184241

https://conversation.ecairn.com/login

One of them appears to have taken my entire blog page and the other I cannot access- it needs a password. What does everyone think is best way forward with this for all of us?

Thanks for your help

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Permalink Reply by Giles Lindsay on December 23, 2009 at 11:24am

Jo the first link is like a blog directory tool - mine is on there too and it allows visitors to the cooceatshare site to search from many recipes and be easily taken from recipe to recipe on different blogs. It is nothing to worry about and actually brings more visitors to your site! All the CES site does is add a frame over your site while on theirs for easier navigation. No need to worry as they havent taken your entire blog :)

As for the second one, I am not sure, as I have had that site listed in my visitors too. I could easily do some digging and find out but I dont think it is anything to worry about either.

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