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RSS stealer?

  1. ordinarymagic
    Member

    I hope I'm posting this is in the right forum.

    I noticed some new links in the 'Incoming links' section of my stats today and had a look at the site they came from. It looks like my content, along with a bunch of other people's content, is being reproduced on this site. Here's one of the links that showed up in my log, with my content reproduced on someone else's page:
    http:// ipopedia.com/ipoblog/2007/07/06/messages-5/

    The main page of the site is here:
    http:// ipopedia.com/ipoblog/

    Looks pretty dodgy to me. Anyone know what's going on here? Are they just stealing a bunch of RSS feeds to attract google adwords or something?

    Is there anything I can do to get my content removed from this site? It looks like a wordpress blog.

  2. nosysnoop
    Member

    What are they copying? I don't see anything there but a Read Full Story link. Unless there's something wrong with my browser. But those sites have feed aggregators. They add the site feed that they want and it then retrieves it and places it on their site.

  3. ordinarymagic
    Member

    my content is tiny -- just a one sentence poem. so the entire post in the link above is "new mesages", and then there's the link back to my page.

    it just seems like stealing to me, if they are taking my entire post and reproducing it on their site, even with a Read Full Story link.

    i'm a little precious about this stuff coz i consider what i do to be 'art', whatever that means. i put a lot of time into it, and i don't like the idea that it's being reproduced elsewhere without my permission.

  4. nosysnoop
    Member

    You can email them and ask to take it down if you want.

  5. ordinarymagic
    Member

    ok, thanks.

  6. raincoaster
    Member

    Please don't post the exact same thing twice. It isn't respectful of the time the volunteers put in, and it's not efficient for you either.

  7. ordinarymagic
    Member

    hi raincoaster -- i didn't do that intentionally. i got an error the first time i posted and clicked refresh, which resulted in a second post. i couldn't find a way to delete the duplicate post. my apologies.

  8. raincoaster
    Member

    Thanks for clarifying. No worries.

  9. seacat
    Member

    Can I pick this post up again? I've noticed the same thing: I have links from my own posts showing up in "Incoming Links," and when I click through, there's my entire post. I can't contact the owner as they don't allow comments and don't have an "About" page. Here's an example:
    My post: http://seacat.wordpress.com/2007/07/08/day-136-137-mlwc-heres-a-sign-of-change/
    And the other post: http://www.kayakas.com/day-136-137-mlwc-heres-a-sign-of-change-8798

    I wouldn't actually mind; I really am doing the blog as a way to share information, but he/she doesn't even give credit or link back to my site. Am I reading this wrong?

  10. sulz
    Member

    if you found those links through your incoming links, then they would have linked back to your site because otherwise you wouldn't have found them?

  11. drmike
    Member

    It's picking up on the image link.

    I'd complain here: http://moveclicks.com/contact.php That's where they're hosted.

  12. seacat
    Member

    Yes, I've clicked on the kayakas site when they have my posts and they don't link back to my site, so it must be the image link that's triggering the incoming link. thanks for the link to moveclicks--I'll check it out. If they'd just give credit for the post, I'd be fine, but they don't. Thanks!

  13. timethief
    Member

    For reference: Here's the link to Lorelle's post on what to do if you do discover someone has been stealing your blog content http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/

  14. raincoaster
    Member

    Also, if they refuse to cooperate with your polite request to credit properly, they are hotlinking your picture so you have the option of deleting that picture and re-uploading it under a different name and putting that in your blog. That way you have the picture and they don't. If you're really angry at their response, you can always try to upload a NEW picture with text saying "this is a thief blog, they stole my content" or whatever, but use the exact same name as the original file (that's why you have to delete it first). That way, this is what will be displayed on their blog.

    Change your own blog post to have the proper pic in it, of course.

  15. ozrisk
    Member

    If it is happening regularly I would suggest adding a link or two into every post with a full link (i.e. in the format "http://yourblog.wordpress.com") to your blog. Most scrapers will not bother to check the content and at least this way you can self-attribute and perhaps get an improved Google ranking at the same time.
    You could put it down the bottom of each post, perhaps behind some words like "Originally posted here".

  16. seacat
    Member

    Thanks to all of you for your good ideas and resources on this--your advice and experience is a great help!

  17. timethief
    Member

    Best wishes.

  18. kashmir
    Member

    ipopedia found me too!

    Looks like they are just pulling in feeds just so that they have can have lotsa ads. http://ipopedia.com/ipoblog/2007/07/08/an-indian-who-lived-in-illusion/

    Its harmless, isn't it?

  19. raincoaster
    Member

    It can't hurt you; blog scrapers pretty much never steal hits from the legitimate blogs they steal content from. You will always outrank the blog scraper. But it's theft. As you know he's stealing from other people too, and making money off it, you might want to send an email for the good of everybody. Karma is more powerful on the internet than you'd believe.

  20. drmike
    Member

    ipopedia.com is hosted in godaddy space. Send a complaint their way.

  21. seacat
    Member

    Drmike--thanks for the hosting tip. I sent a note to them last night re kayakas; I also went to Lorelle's site re Timethief's suggestion and posted copyrighted info from creative commons. Today my posts are gone from kayakas site. Coincidence? I think not. Thanks!

  22. timethief
    Member

    I'm delighted to hear that your approach to the web host was productive. I'm also glad you found Lorelle's post to be helpful. I no longer have creative commons licenses on my sites. They are all posted with "copyscape" notices.
    About- http://www.copyscape.com/about.php
    Notices - http://www.copyscape.com/banners.php

  23. kashmir
    Member

    Thanks raincoaster and drmike for the tips.

    I was just checking the incomming links (with the intention of sending in a complaint)and guess what they have removed my blog! The incomming link either displays some webhosting directory listing or error 404! Maybe they saw an incomming link from here and removed it! :)

    raincoaster, looks like even the 'karma of intending to do good' (if one may call it so) is powerfulon the internet!

  24. timethief
    Member

    {waving at kashmir} Yay! that's great news. :) drmike, raincoaster, lorelle and ozrisk are all right on.

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