OMG. The scraper site that I originally made the “spam sandwich” for scarfed up both of my “vigilante blog posts,” one of which even has the unchanged link in it to the original stolen work…on their own site.
And it looks like another blogger is using a similar tactic. There’s an obviously scraped post with links back to the originating site in the first and last paragraphs with a content summary sandwiched in between. Way to go Binary Moon.
There is a lot of opinion out there regarding how Google penalizes people in their search rankings for duplicate content. I wonder who will listen if I submit this site showing the links and dates…the search engineers and the AdSense team would seem to be at cross purposes with one another.
This whole experience is making me rethink my strategy on my upcoming websites like http://www.flamencophile.com. I had been just assuming that I’d have a bar of ads down one side. Though I hate subjecting people to the advertising, I need to make something for my time and effort and it’s been sticking in my craw how others are making money from illegally reusing my content. I’ve been reading too many webmaster discussions lately about whether to even syndicate your content, the hours of time it takes to go after the scrapers, and the generally poor results of doing so.
I remember back in 1996 having discussions with colleagues how the imminent monetization of the web would affect its usefulness and integrity. Back then, we never dreamed of the vast junkyards that would come to lie scattered across the virtual landscape. (Erluvi.com, this means you…)
What would an internet renewal look like? Green zones…places where there was quality content and ad-free sites could flourish. Pardon my dreaming, or reminiscing, as the case may be. As in all things, the best and the worst of humanity seems to flow towards the newest frontier, and left in that wake, the little settlements pop up and are subject to the predations of bandits and marauders. The good, the bad, and the ugly…
This is Ariel Laurel Strong signing off for the Cloud of Unknowing on September 21, 2007, at 15:38 UTC.
Hi Ariel,
Apparently all WordPress blogs are being copied at something called WordPrexy. Ads are being run at the copied blog. But the issue is not clear cut. Why not? WordPress blogs are banned in Turkey and it is a Turkish group who is operating WordPrexy in order to bypass the ban. They claim the ads are simply to cover their cost.
I discovered my Turkish site when I Googled and found the counterfeit site ranked higher than my real site (for one search anyway).
Anyway I began a thread at WordPress forums where the issue is being hashed out: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=15655
Hi Barry –
Thanks for the heads up. I didn’t know about that one. My recent railings have been based on ones (like Erluvi.com, that try to appear to be independent sites) that I have been seeing that got swiped up off my RSS feeds. It’s been a real education!
Wow. It really is the Wild West out there. I feel like the little homesteader with my plot of vegetables and a few chickens, caught between the big cattle barons with their range wars, and assorted renegades, thieves, and claim jumpers that ride through at regular intervals!
ithink the web should only be made to bring the usefullnes and the integrity.