Blog Post Theft Through RSS

Sleaklight · 09-10-2008, 09:47 PM

I went to make a blog post on a website I am building up and immediately after publishing the post, I received a pingback. I went to look at it and it's an exact copy of my post as a new entry on a plain wordpress blog. Funny thing is they are using this domain name:

ezineaerticles . com

Not only did they steal my work, but when you go to the post, they redirect you in 2 or 3 seconds to some search engine type site that does a search and sort of locks up my browser for a bit.

I am thinking they did this through the rss feed that I have. I have now changed it to display a summary instead of the full blog post in the rss. Is there a way that I could prevent people form auto posting my blog postings. I hate to be penalized for duplicate content just because some jackass is lazy to do their own work.

Thanks for any info you can share to help.

sideserver · 09-10-2008, 10:44 PM

Sleaklight,

RSS scraping/stealing is an unfortunate fact of life in the blogging world and they can be difficult to deal with. If it really bothers you, send the site admin a warning email and a threat to take legal action if they don't take your post down.

If that doesn't work (which will likely be the case), email the site's host directly. Most hosts are responsive against spam accounts, and they will be forced to take action.

Kurt · 09-11-2008, 03:08 AM

It's highly debatable whether using your RSS pheed is "stealing". The original purpose of RSS was to easiliy syndicate content from one site to another.

It's people like you that ruin it for those that use RSS for what it was originally intended.

If you don't want your content syndicated to other sites, don't advertise your RSS pheed on your page. And if you do, don't cry when someone takes you up on your offer.

Instead of complainnning about someone using your RSS pheed, get off your butt and learn how to exploit this. I promise, you'll do much better spending your time trying to get MORE sites to "steal" your content via RSS than you will fighting it.

In case you didn't notice, the other site is giving you access to their own pages. You don't think this is an asset? You don't want to get links and increase your "reach"?

Not to mention, you do plan on submitting your pheed to all the RSS directories, don't you? Or don't you want improved linking and traffic? What if someone picks up your RSS pheed via one of the RSS directories? You submitted it according to THEIR TOS, and there's a good chance the 3rd party directory allows republishing of your pheed via their site.

It's the same thing as submitting a video to YouTube, then complain when you see another site embed your video on their site.

You control what is in your RSS pheed and what goes on others' pages. I highly suggest you learn to exploit this, not fight it.

09-10-2008, 09:47 PM	#1
Sleaklight Give To Charity War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: California Posts: 1,072 Blog Entries: 5 Thanks: 62 Thanked 134 Times in 102 Posts Contact Info	Blog Post Theft Through RSS I went to make a blog post on a website I am building up and immediately after publishing the post, I received a pingback. I went to look at it and it's an exact copy of my post as a new entry on a plain wordpress blog. Funny thing is they are using this domain name: ezineaerticles . com Not only did they steal my work, but when you go to the post, they redirect you in 2 or 3 seconds to some search engine type site that does a search and sort of locks up my browser for a bit. I am thinking they did this through the rss feed that I have. I have now changed it to display a summary instead of the full blog post in the rss. Is there a way that I could prevent people form auto posting my blog postings. I hate to be penalized for duplicate content just because some jackass is lazy to do their own work. Thanks for any info you can share to help.
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09-10-2008, 10:44 PM	#2
sideserver Dedicated Warrior Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 140 Thanks: 1 Thanked 24 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Blog Post Theft Through RSS Sleaklight, RSS scraping/stealing is an unfortunate fact of life in the blogging world and they can be difficult to deal with. If it really bothers you, send the site admin a warning email and a threat to take legal action if they don't take your post down. If that doesn't work (which will likely be the case), email the site's host directly. Most hosts are responsive against spam accounts, and they will be forced to take action.

09-11-2008, 03:08 AM	#3
Kurt Boom Boom Boom Boom! War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Rocky Mountain High Country Posts: 5,594 Thanks: 833 Thanked 2,535 Times in 1,392 Posts Social Networking	Re: Blog Post Theft Through RSS It's highly debatable whether using your RSS pheed is "stealing". The original purpose of RSS was to easiliy syndicate content from one site to another. It's people like you that ruin it for those that use RSS for what it was originally intended. If you don't want your content syndicated to other sites, don't advertise your RSS pheed on your page. And if you do, don't cry when someone takes you up on your offer. Instead of complainnning about someone using your RSS pheed, get off your butt and learn how to exploit this. I promise, you'll do much better spending your time trying to get MORE sites to "steal" your content via RSS than you will fighting it. In case you didn't notice, the other site is giving you access to their own pages. You don't think this is an asset? You don't want to get links and increase your "reach"? Not to mention, you do plan on submitting your pheed to all the RSS directories, don't you? Or don't you want improved linking and traffic? What if someone picks up your RSS pheed via one of the RSS directories? You submitted it according to THEIR TOS, and there's a good chance the 3rd party directory allows republishing of your pheed via their site. It's the same thing as submitting a video to YouTube, then complain when you see another site embed your video on their site. You control what is in your RSS pheed and what goes on others' pages. I highly suggest you learn to exploit this, not fight it.
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