Watch Out, Is Your Content Being Stolen?
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People like this just boggle my mind.
One of my readers sent me a heads up about one of my articles being taken, copied and pasted word for word, over at another site. This site calls themselves “Smart Blogging Tips” - I gave them a nofollow link; I only give credit where credit is due, and it’s NOT due here.
So I head on over there and take a look. Not only do I see that one article taken, but many of my other popular, recent articles - as well as many, many articles from other bloggers! And this person isn’t a scraper - they don’t use feeds to find the content they steal. They visit the sites and copy and paste the content. Sometimes they leave the post titles alone, sometimes they change a word or two around. Does it make any difference? NO! It’s still stealing!
“Smart Blogging Tips” definitely isn’t smart - actually, he/she is a downright THIEF. Taking other people’s content is illegal any way you look at it. If I were you I’d go over there and give this person a piece of your mind, especially if you think they might have stolen some of your content as well. Add this person’s site and IP to your block list if you want, so they can’t comment you or access your blog.
I’ve left comments on several of the articles this person has taken from me and put up on their own blog, letting them know that if they don’t take the site down or at least all of the stolen content, that they’d be in big trouble. Stealing is ILLEGAL - it’s no different online than it is in the real world!
If a thief argues to you when you confront them and tells you that “they didn’t know”, don’t take any of that. Even if they didn’t know, it’s no excuse. Anyone who is stupid enough to think that taking content from other people is okay shouldn’t even have their own website in the first place. I’ve found many sites before that have taken my content, but each and every one of them angers me even more. Why can’t some people just write their own articles? Taking from others is NOT the way to go about things!
If your content is being stolen by ANY site, first things first: contact the site’s owner. If they don’t have a contact form or email shared, bombard them with comments and let them know it’s not okay. I’ve had sites before that answer me and and tell me they don’t care and they’re going to keep stealing. That’s when you take it to the next step. Ban their site from visiting yours and blacklist it. Report them to their host. Do everything you can in your power to shut them down, because you work hard to write your content and maintain your blog. Other people do NOT deserve the credit for that.
Note: I am not singling out this “blogger” individually. So many people steal content, and this person is just one of those people. However, this person link exchanges and has many who trust him for his “great content”, which he doesn’t even write - he takes it. I have no guilt about linking to this guy and “giving him a bad name” before he’s even responded to me, because guess what? He deserves it.
EDIT: Click here to see a post on Courtney TURTLE where the author talks about the article I wrote. However, they originally read the content over at “Smart Blogging Tips”, so that other site is getting credit for what I’ve written. This just flies all over me. It’s not the fault of Courtney TURTLE, of course, but that of this THIEF! Let’s get this nasty person’s site shut down!
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18. October 2007 at 21:12
I left a comment on the other blog telling them to get original or get lost, and I pointed out that you posted the article the day before they did. I also posted the link to your article, just in case anyone is curious. It sucks that people have to resort to that to make a buck.
A quick search and looking at their Technorati page tells me the only English this person knows is “make money online.”
18. October 2007 at 21:38
It’s ridiculous that people steal other people’s content. I noticed a back link from that blog and decided to have a look, that’s when I saw he simply copied your post about the blogger mistakes, but now that I look further I see that’s not the only one he stole. I would report it to blogger if I were you! They will close his account.
18. October 2007 at 21:55
I had to laugh though–I went to check this one, and the second post on their list? How to Stop Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft.
Sheesh. There’s a similar site in the knit-blogging world, and it drives me nuts when they “borrow” the content from my knit-blog.
18. October 2007 at 23:04
@Kirsten - Thanks for the help. I hope that since their blog does appear to be in a different language that we can get through to them. Their blog is on Blogger so it’s not as easy as contacting the host about it if we can’t work it out with the owner of the site.
@Sandra - I know, if people can’t write their own content why do they have blogs in the first place? They think they’ll make a fortune by it but they won’t. I will contact Blogger if this person doesn’t understand what I’m saying to him. Hopefully Blogger will close down the account.
@Deb - It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? If only the thieves practice what they preach and weren’t such hypocrites… Good luck with this other site that’s taking your content. If you can’t reason with them, look into getting them shut down. They would deserve it.
Thanks to everyone for the input and advice. Hopefully we can solve these problems!
19. October 2007 at 06:06
Why don’t you file a DMCA and or report them to Blogspot. They will remove them. Once the complaint is filed Google is forced to immediatly deindex the site. So, filing a false report could get you sued by Google. Anyway, There are ways to take the fight to them. Also it looks like the are using Adsense on their site, file a complaint with Adsense as well. You can file a complaint with each and every one of their advertisers. The list of what you can do goes on. It is up to you to decide how far you want to take the fight.
19. October 2007 at 10:12
Hello Tay,
Allow me to apologize again. I had no idea I was linking to a site that had stolen your hard work. I have updated my post to reflect you as the source. You wrote a great article and managed to get input from several influential bloggers in our community. I was very impressed. As a note, I found the article from the link in Court’s post on the SEO Pipe Dream. You should contact him and get him to make the correction as well.
Best regards,
Greg
19. October 2007 at 17:00
@Beau - Thanks for sharing this information with me. Usually when I find people stealing I have a word with them and they take down the material, but this might not be the case this time. I tried filing a report with Blogspot but they replied to my email and said I had to send them a fax or letter through the mail. Instead I think I will start by filing against them with their advertisers like you recommended. Thank you!
@Greg - It’s all right, it wasn’t your fault! I’m very flattered that you did like the article. I will take a look at Court’s post and hopefully we can also get this imposter’s site shut down!
19. October 2007 at 17:17
Sorry to hear about this Tay. I’ve had problems recently too. One blogger in particular that repeatedly steals my content as well as content from others. He has no contact info on his blog so all I could do was leave comments, which he deletes. He’s hosted on Blogspot, so there’s no hosting company to notify.
19. October 2007 at 18:01
It’s definitely a problem Tay, a growing problem at that.
The sad thing, really, is that there is so much content out there that is freely available to anyone who wants it. There are tons of Article Directories for example where anyone can get good content from, but again, even there you start to see problems. All too many sites that actually republish your article sourced from a directory will remove your resource box, and more.
And yet, if someone takes the article, posts it on their site properly, Karma very often will come full circle and the author will see it and just might send some ‘Link Love’ in form of some Web 2.0 traffic or even a post about the site.
It really comes back down to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.
Xavier
19. October 2007 at 18:04
I discovered this theft when Stumbling yesterday and my heart went out to you. Two years ago I had material stolen from my published book and put on a competitor’s website, complete with their own illustrations! It was a sickening, maddening feeling. They did remove it when threatened with legal action but it left a very bad taste in my mouth.
I do believe in karma though.
20. October 2007 at 02:25
@Steven - I finally got through to the person. Just like in your case, they’re on Blogspot and don’t have contact info. All I could do was leave comments, but they finally emailed me. They apologized and said they would write their own post about copyright to make up for it. They haven’t removed the old stolen posts yet (however, they have added source links) so hopefully I can convince them to take those down as well.
In your situation, you CAN contact Blogger. I forgot the link, but I was there a few days ago. I just Googled how to report stolen content to Blogspot. You can email them and they will respond telling you to fax or write a letter and what information must be included. Best of luck!
@Xavier Nelson - You’re definitely right. I’m not sure what goes through the heads of thieves, but apparently they think stealing content is better for them instead of using the free stuff. They like being able to take credit 100% for something they didn’t even write, I suppose.
You’re also right in the aspect that if someone does take a free article and post it properly without removing credits, that they will get back for being honest. I love honest bloggers and I would definitely drop by their site and comment, and maybe send some link love like you said. If only everyone was honest…
@Sunny - Wow, I think I should feel bad for you, not the other way around so much. I agree with you though - it IS a sickening feeling. Us honest writers work hard, and then some people just get a free ride and all the credit for it. It’s a shame that life isn’t always fair!
20. October 2007 at 21:22
An apology from this content stealing thief isn’t good enough, is it? Everyone knows this is unacceptable behavior. Why would a blogger do that?
If he/she happens to be reading this - you won’t be making money from that site. I’ve reported your blog as a content stealing splog to every single advertiser on there. Good luck with earning cash in the future!
Snoskred
20. October 2007 at 22:07
@Snoskred - No, it’s not, but an apology is definitely a start. I’ve contacted some people before, scrapers, and some of those people just refuse to take down the content. I tell them that what they are doing is stealing and that stealing is illegal, and one of those people just appalled me. They said something along the lines of, “I don’t care, take me to court then! Haha!” Now THAT was frustrating.
Thanks a bunch for helping me, and all other bloggers they’ve stolen from, out by reporting them. You’re right - it is unacceptable behavior!
22. October 2007 at 09:30
at least for me this DMCA works, also you can try to contact the hosting company and request a removal of your content, at least for me the contact with the hosting company works
22. October 2007 at 15:31
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