What did I do this week? In my real life, nothing that bears mentioning.
The Bads
This site was scraped by two malevolent individuals, to pad the content of their sites. Thanks to My Several Worlds for the heads-up. The one site required a threat or two. An email to his/her hosting company, and a promise to file a DMCA complaint with Google Adsense (the life-blood of the scraper) resulted in my posts being removed.
The second blog was hosted on wordpress.com. I inquired in the forums regarding DMCA complaints, listing the site in question. Low-and-behold, the scraper’s blog was suspended the next day.
Hey Scrapers: Mess with the bull and you get the horns.
The Good
While two sites (and possible others) stole my stuff, I did receive an email from a father in Nova Scotia, Canada. His son is doing a historical presentation on the Battle of Hong Kong and wants to use some of my images. He asked for permission, which I gave. I looked through my archives and forwarded some unposted shots that would be useful.
In the end, the two balance out. Ying and Yang, light and dark: All that stuff.
People who scrape content deserve to be bitten.
thelittlefluffycat´s last blog post..Easter Grass –
I use RSS footer plug in to include a link so that scraper just keeps giving me free links!
nomadicmatt´s last blog post..The Weekly Photo: Lancaster, England
LFC is right they should be
beaten…um bitten.Nice thing you did for the kid though. I hope he gets an A.
Shawn´s last blog post..Because Angela Is Temporarily Out of Ideas
Sheesh, seems like the WP scrapper would know that’s not gonna last.
Nice that you got the permission from the one guy, and more importantly, that you gave it!
Well that kinda’ sucks. Makes me a bit leery. How did Carrie scope them out? I have been missing your stuff buddy!
Expatriate Games´s last blog post..Estranged!
LFC: Yes. Are you up for the task? I would be afraid of you catching something.
Matt: Had there been a link I wouldn’t have been so pissed. I’ve now done the same thing.
Shawn: Me too.
yb: I’m happy to share.
Michael: Carrie is almost supernatural when it comes to sniffing out scrapers. An internet psychic perhaps?
I guess scraping is a for of flattery albeit a lowly one!
I get scraped all the time, and just sort of ignore it. I didn’t know there was much in the way of recourse available.
amuirin´s last blog post..Twitter the truth?
QR: True, but very lowly.
amuirin: There is.
Stevo´s last blog post..Learning your first useful words in Chinese
I’m terribly late with my victory applause, but yeah! WE RULE!
Carrie´s last blog post..Photo Moment: Pure Bliss
Carrie: Yes. Thanks for the heads up about all this!
How hard is it really to write your own content? You have at least a million topics someone can write about. Why do they do it if it gets taken down anyway? I can’t figure this out.
mike´s last blog post..Court and legal terms – trivia 5
mike, the thing that flummoxes me is, if it’s that hard for you to write your own content, why are you writing? there’s at least a million other things to do, too, kwim?
thelittlefluffycat´s last blog post..You Can’t Roll On Comics. . .
Mike: Money, Mike. It’s about the money.
LFC: People think the internet and blogs are easy money. Steal content, get Adsense clicks. It’s not that easy…
*bump* no, sure isn’t. 🙂