Blog scrapers beware!

A new domain and host will cost $20 max, so even if the autoblog makes only $20, nothing lost nothing gained. Starting a new one will be relatively cheap and will not affect the person's revenue stream that much.

I don't run autoblogs, but I am sure getting a few autoblogs shutdown once in a while will be no big deal for most blackhats.

He's decided he's going to take the time to find any place that his blog content is being republished and get it removed or see if he can have the hosting provider close the site.

So hes not going to contact the site owner and request they dont reproduce his content first, thats just arrogant.

Whats he doing about his RSS feeds, stopping them or will he persecute those who subscribe to his RSS as well.

Just sounds a bit harsh to go straight for the 'shut down/ removed from server' firstbefore any contact or polite business like request's

As someone whose content -- copyrighted content at that -- has been stolen, I've been down this route before. I've immediately had the stolen content removed by going straight to the hosting company. If at anytime a registrar's information is incorrect (as is the case with this person), it can render the domain unavailable until correct information is provided. I fired off a few letters to him, the domain provider, the hosting company, and Google which indeed worked.

Don't know. My site has been scraped a couple of times... I contacted the owner who made excuses about not knowing what was on his site. But it was pulled from the site.

It's better to focus on the egregious copying rather than the accidental or occasional copying. For occasional copying, encourage citing and linking to improve your traffic... and that will help.

For someone scraping your entire site, there may be no other solution than going to the hosting company.

So look at the offense and decide but don't use a hammer to crack a peanut.

Kenneth

It's an interesting argument, because I would imagine that this guy was merely re-publishing a feed off your friend's site.

How many places re-publish news feeds? For that matter - Google News does nothing BUT!

If you really don't want your content re-published somewhere else, then I'd suggest ditching the feed, perhaps just go with an email update list or something.

Now - if the guy was publishing content without giving credit where due, then that's a different story. Then it is actually content theft. However, if credit is being given....?

Also - does your friend have any terms or conditions or anything on his site prohibiting this sort of behaviour?

Just like the whole duplicate content argument in SEO - the fact is that the internet is built on duplicate content, there's no way to get around it. Personally, if I find a blog that's replicating my content I'd want to just make sure that they were crediting me for the creation of it, then I would leave them alone.

But that's just my 2 cents.

Tell him to add a link back to his site with keywords in the anchor text and insert that link into his blog's RSS feed. Scrappers are lazy and sometimes they won't even go to the trouble of removing the link.

Even though PR benefits aren't great because of duplicate content issues, it still benefits him.

Tyrus

ROTFLMFAO... these people are so stupid, i mean, come on, to copy the entire content, omg... how lazy is that?

I've been doing this for over 2 years, difference, mines automated and rewrites the content, spits it out, and fetches backlinks at the same time.

Hell everybody. I just hate auto blogs. But anything love and war is fair. And IM is war.

I only put promotional stuff on the blogs that I don't mind being stolen. All the monetized content is in email or membership lockdown.

Of course, and the TOS on his site states specifically that his content may not be republished for commercial benefit. So clearly he's in the right, but as some here say, it depends on what you're trying to achieve.

%95 of blog scrappers are also scrapping about 6000 other blogs along with yours.... and probably making 10x $$ what you making by doing it.. . . .
so keep that in mind when you formulate your view of them and how to relate and interact with them

It doesn't matter what his TOS says - his content is protected by copyright law regardless.

Okay my two cents. Going after these people is a waste of time. Most are hosted offshore so it won't matter anyway. Second just publish a partial feed and add your links to the feed. You'll improve your rank in Google and Technorati. People republish my feeds all the time and it just helps me out. Of course I don't publish their comments from the pingback so I get a one way link. Might not count for much but a link is a link and if I don't have to do anything extra to get it then that's all the better

I had a certain hosting company we all know shut down a competitors website with in a matter of hours. No one on the internet had any access to the site until the hosting company hears from the offending site owner that the content was removed.

I need to say that I did contact the site owner by phone and had two conversations with him about it. I gave him 72 hours to remove the content, then he calls back and starts to try and call me lame for making an issue about it in the first place.

That is when his 72 hours grace period was revoked instantly and I proceeded to contact the hosting company.

His next call to me was 4 hours later screaming at me for having his site blocked and that I had given him 72 hours.

I said, well you changed the rules when you called me the second time and insulted me. So now you have no web site until you prove to the hosting company you have removed it.

lol good stuff!

Please take theft of your property seriously folks. Its pretty easy to win if you document your complaint correctly.

I used:
whois and wayback to provide my proof.

This is actually sad... but the reality is the "scraper" guy will most likely just be right back at it on another server within a couple of hours. The reality is this... have you ever tried to get a server shut down in say Russia or Eastern Europe or China or? So he got one guy to stop scraping his stuff. And it took him how long?

The reality is Google can't always stop these people, but the real disincentive is to go after the PROFIT. Find the Affiliates he is promoting and ask them to pay you his earnings because it's your work.

Plagiarism is rampant. With the right software people can scrap the *)(*() out of you and you can still have your backlinks and in some cases affiliate links appearing on their sites so they are in effect working for you.

I understand the frustration I have had entire sites lifted. But the best thing to do is figure out how to spin it to your advantage.

i said this a few times already - as much as i understand the owner of the article/blog entry and his anger - as much do i think its not really fair, for the follwing reasons:


*) whatever content you post on "the internet", in one form or the other it will circulate, spread and be shared. Especially if you post on "article mills" like EZA or other article directories.

I have already seen people making articles public on ezine arrticles - and act puzzled since they saw their articles some days later somewhere else. This does NOT make sense in my opinion.

*) autoblogs usually get articles from article directories, usually they dont scrape other blogs directly - but its certainly thinkable.

Each wordpress blog has RSS feeds, and their only purpose is to distribute content "into the internet", blogging and pinging...and telling the world "Hello, i have new content!"

Many other blogs use RSS to get content - i could plug it one single RSS feed from Google blog search...and in little time i get links and articles on MY site from other blogs. Because google indexes them and re-distrubtes the feed again.

This actually the purpose of RSS feeds, in the first place.

If someone is freaking about content distribution is probably NOT a good idea at all to post content online in the first place.

This is not criminal or bad intention on any blog-owner's side - AT ALL.
If i use RSS feeds on a blog - it will happen that OTHER content will appear on my blog. Fact.

Where is the line? Where is the line..scraping...RSS...autoblogging?

Tip: There is only one way to protect your content...make a closed, membership site.
Dont blog, dont have RSS feeds, dont distribute RSS, dont do "Web2.0", dont social bookmark your site/content.

If there's an RSS feed involved here, then it isn't even scraping. Scraping involves reading the page programmatically and saving the data for later use. An RSS feed's nearly universal purpose is to syndicate data. And if your friend publishes through an RSS feed, then what else did he expect? Honestly.

"But your honor, I did indeed set my full wallet down on that busy New York sidewalk, but that didn't give the guy that picked it up the right to take it!"

I have quite a few autoblogs. Recently one person who owns a blog that I am using their rss feed left a comment on my blog, saying "I love this blog". Never had anyone complain about it. They get full attribution for the post, a backlink to the post.

I personally love it when my sites are scraped with attribution. The only time I would object is if they scrape with no link back. Easiest way to get backlinks.