· July 24, 2007 at 5:56 am · Hot Web Topics, Web Development
Tags: blogging, blogs, content, copyright, E-mail, rights, stealing, talk, theft
I don’t like having my stuff stolen or abused. Unlike most folks though that just roll over and take it - I like to do my best to fight back.
If nobody fights back against these guys, they win and we all have to pay the price for it. I recently found one web site that will go un-named (no reason to give these guys free press) stealing content from my podcast, WebHostingShow.com. Here is the un-edited version of his responses. I sent the first e-mail asking for the content to removed and for him to respond within five days or less.
Not totally out of the question - right? Here is his reply:
Hello Mr. Keller, we are not using site webhostingshow.com for these news, than using rss feeds from domaintools.com. And under every message there is your name and your email - notice to people that YOU have written those texts. So, please see with domaintools.com are using their rss feeds are legal or not.
Oh so they are saying it’s DomainTools.com that is stealing my content - not them. Hu? Yeah didn’t make much sense to me either - the DomainTools.com folks are a great team of people, not like this idiot who can’t even spell my name correctly. I replied trying to clarify, here is the next response:
Mr Keeler, we are using material that domaintools.com provides via rss feeds for free. So I do not see any copyright abuse. If you think this material is copyrighted, please contact domaintools.com first. If they remove your blogs from their site, they will be automatically removed from our site, too.
Oh so all content published via RSS feeds are free for the taking, happy I got that cleared up.. no wait, it is still my copyrighted material I did not give him permission to post. That is the fact plain and simple - so yet again I try to explain the situation and ask for some clarification.
Wish I could say this story had a happy ending, but afraid thus far it is not looking that way.
· January 29, 2007 at 8:00 am · Hot Web Topics, Personal
Tags: blogs, content, Firefox-Facts, intellectual-property, splogs, stealing
Nobody likes it when they get their stuff stolen. No matter if it is personal goods or virtual goods, the end result is the same. You feel a little cheated. Well, this weekend I decided to fight back against some folks that were stealing content from one of my Web sites.
I ran across a Web site that was reposting content word for word from Firefox Facts.
Now I have seen maybe a post here or there taken from one of my blogs - that I can live with. Even if they are spam blogs - I can’t go around and fight every single one of them. This one though just made me mad. So what did I do?
Well first I contacted the Web site owner after doing a whois search on the domain name in question. That didn’t end up being too fruitful. After that I contacted his Web host and his Web host’s data center. Did that work? Yep.
As of right now the stolen content is off the Web and I feel good about getting these folks shut down. Now yes, they could go to another Web host and start all over again - that is the bad thing about these types of setups. I’ll be keeping an eye on them though. The lessoned to be learned here is do not steal my content! This guy picked the wrong geek to mess with.
If you want to read more about how you can protect your content, I would suggest checking this post out from Lorelle on Wordpress:
+ Applaud Those Who Warn You: Your Blog’s Content Is Being Stolen
Updated - Well it wasn’t The Planet that took them down. Apparently The Planet is happy to have them. Here is the response I got from their abuse team:
To Whom It May Concern:
Please note that below-referenced copyright infringement notice does not substantially comply with the required notification elements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (”DMCA”). Please note that we have not passed on the substantive merits of your claim.
So The Planet won’t take down a splogger or could it be since they were already taken down they can’t really do anything about it?
