Blog Piracy Alive and Well
My blog has been highjacked! I don't know how or why this has happened, but someone has cloned my blog index page — categories, feed, web badges, and all. Even my photo.
The cloned copy is at http://dtfka2.blogspot.com/ and it's identical to this blog in every way that I can ascertain. I saw this URL in my blog stats this morning. Imagine my shock on checking it out. (Hopefully, this link won't be live by the time you read this.)
I have no idea why someone would do this. I have contacted Blogger, Google, and this jerk's ISP, and await their response(s) with great interest.
The posts all link to this blog. My concern, of course, is that Google will consider this a duplicate domain, and penalize ME!
I'm also bewildered at how this could happen. Has anyone else had this experience? Please let me know. I would also like to know how we can protect ourselves against this kind of thing.
23 comments:
I'm outraged on your behalf! I hope they sink this pirate soon too. FYI, as of 11:35 a.m. CST today (Tuesday), that link was still live.
This website has some interesting information on what's fair use (which this clearly isn't, in my opinion); look at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act info in particular. Good luck!
- Carolyn B.
Collierville, TN
Wow it really is a clone. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Not when it's going to put you in Google's bad books.
Dear Pan, I have learnt a few keys to make my blog useful, thank you. I Wonder though, that the copy perhaps is a experiment? How did you “stumble onto the site?
Best regards,
thebookmann
It was in my stats. If it's an experiment, I don't appreciate it.
This happened to me a while back. It's called scraping and is strictly for Google ad purposes. Fair use is not stealing your entire blog and allowing people to make comments on it. You do have some protection and there is a way to stop it. If you go to my blog and click on my email me I will be happy to help you. Most of these people think because they read in some SEO or home buisness article that what they are doing is legal and ok and fair use. It's not if there is no link to you and they are taking comments on your work.
The guy who did it to me also stole several other highly read and well know NASCAR blogs and we joined together and NAILED him. He had a huge website, making money with Google on our work. He not any longer.
I am happy to help you. It's not difficult to make them stop. Google, his server and ISP will shut him down in a second.
I look forward to helping you if you want.
You can read the article that I wrote for just for him to aggregate here:
http://churchofthegreatoval.blogspot.com/2005/12/aggregate-thisnot.html
I will share any and all information that I have with you. Like I said it took us about a week to shut him down.
Good Luck. Hope to hear from you.
I went back and took a good look at the clone. One thing is good. Who ever it is is'nt using a bot, but literally hand copy and pasting. This is not going to be difficult.
Who ever did this is a dink. I hope it all works out for you, and swiftly.
Holy cow! That is amazing! How in the world is this possible?
I'm sorry you're having to go through this. What a jerk.
really bizarre...
Thanks to the comment above I found out some more:
http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2005/10/splogs-scraping-adsense-fraud.php
for those interested.
http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2005/10/
splogs-scraping-adsense-fraud.php
[should be one line. cut and paste if needed]
Thanks everybody. I am finding out more about this situation all the time. Interesting struggle trying to communicate with with the companies involved (Google, Blogger, and Comcast, the guy's ISP).
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act seems to be the best remedy. Stay tuned. I'll post about it when I finally get this jerk's site taken down.
WOW! now I have seen alot of things, but this really is weird! Who does that?
Weird!
Branden, Nubbit.com
I hope you get this cleared up! Best of luck.
Ack! Friday, May 5, 10:22 AM PST, and it's still live?! i'm disgusted!
Hope this gets cleared up soon... I really appreciate your page.
Thanks Clover. I have sent a letter to Blogger under the Digital Millennium Act. So far, no response.
i hope they delete the blog quick
thank you so much for the 3 column layout! its helped so much!
ive been so fed up with the 2 column one that blogger offers.. and i already have a blog for the past 2 years... so this was a great change! thanks!
This is really shocking, and I have to hope that it's someone who is experimenting with templates. But, miggod, there's a limit to experimentation, and I sure hope you do get the jerk taken down. People have to learn limits.
BTW, I love your site, and you are an inspiration. I invite you to take a look at my hacked template, so I can show you my work. Of course, I'd love to get your advice. hehehe.
Anyway, good luck with your site thief. Total jerk.
Link is still live. You need to report this to Blogger. They can steal your template and plagiarize your words, but taking your picture is hte pits.
Thanks for the support, folks. I HAVE contacted Blogger. Several times. Finally, towards the end of last week, I filed a complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for all the good that's done. It's been a week now, and the cloned site is still up.
As of today, sorry to say it is still up. That's just bizarre! I can't believe he is not shut down yet!
Another reason I hate Blogger. (I know, don't bite the hand that feeds me...)
Yes, I know. It's not for lack of trying on my part :-(
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