Trust me…
I’ve gotten content stolen many times. So many times….it doesn’t bother me at all to refer to these thieves as Lazy Asses!! Dirty SPLOG Mutants!! (Spammers that steal your blog’s content and use it on their blog or website as their own. They just take your feed and display it! Pigs they are!!)
Some of the losers that have stolen from me didn’t even bother to “lift” the content and change the code?! They ran my images with the original links, using my bandwidth.
So not only are they Lazy Jerks…..they are STUPID jerks at that.
And I’m not alone.
I’ve talked to, dare I say…..HUNDREDS of website owners that have gone through this….still go through it.
It truly is an ongoing battle. And if your website or blog is something you value….you’ll want to keep a diligent eye on the info highway….because Hijackers and Hitchhikers are everywhere.
What can you do to protect your original content?
Well….quite frankly…..not a lot. (I know…..it’s a crying shame!!) Unless you’ve got money to burn to hire those pricey Intellectual Property and Copyright Infringement attorneys. (Any of you attorneys out there take pro bono cases? Or offer discounts to us little people?? Didn’t think so!)
What I’ve started doing is really studying my referral logs. You can do this easily in your website control panel. It can give you some real tell-tale signs of someone nabbing bandwidth. Typically when you see a link sending you traffic that seems out of the ordinary – click on it…..go to the site. Betcha you’ll see one of your images or something.
I like to swap the image out and rename it and put something snippy in it’s place like…”This website owner is a thief.”
You can certainly use programs like CopyScape. I do. It gets pricey the more pages you have them watch…..but it can help.
You can also use Google Alerts. It’s totally free – and easy to set up. www.Google.com/alerts
You set it up to look for a name or a website link….and it will return the results to you daily if you like. So….if one of my website names come up on something new on the web….I know about it. I recommend this program whether you’re looking for content thieves or not. It’s really cool and can let you know whose talking about YOU or one of your websites.
There is AntiLeech for WordPress. A plugin that doesn’t prevent sploggers from coming to your blog – but can’t detect their “footprint” per say.
Digital Fingerprint for WordPress is another one that gets big raves.
Like I said…the battle is ongoing….
It can get very tiresome.
It always amazes me how many people out there just don’t give a damn about stealing someone’s content, images….what have you.
I had someone lift an ENTIRE website. ENTIRE website. There was no contact info…there was no whois info. I contacted the hosting service. I said….Please take down this site….they stole the entire site from me. Do you know what the host provider replied?? “F&$! OFF – You can’t tell me what to do!”
Niiiice.
To this day…..http://www.proparents.com/ is up and running with all stolen content from my website ParentingHumor.com.
Makes me sick. And I can do NOTHING…because I’m a small fry.
What are you using to protect your content? What works….what doesn’t?
Have you been the victim of theft??
Share your story….
At least venting allows some relief. And sharing what works can help everyone!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
OMG?!
An entire website?
That is incredible. For the company that is allowing this site to continue to run, it’s shameful. There are creeps everywhere you look on the internet. I would think most legit hosts would pull the offending pseudo site down immediately?!
Content theft is a horrible reality of running a business or doing anything online.
Becki
Kelly,
I feel your pain. I’ve had it happen to me many times. Google alerts is my way to fight it and it’s free. So I’m glad you mentioned it.
There is also a setting in your webserver that stops people from using your image url. I think it’s referred to as hotlinking. But if you check your control panel you can turn it on and I believe it stops people from stealing your bandwidth with the images.
Just browse through the features in your contol panel.
At the end of the day sites that steal your content don’t get your reputation and Google pretty much buries them. So they get no real benefit from Google. So I wouldn’t stress it too much.
Just continue to bang out great content like you do on this blog and MoneyMakingMommy.com and your name and reputation take on a life of their own as you have experienced first hand.
Cheers!
Eddy
Don’t you wish there were internet cops or something? Some kind of law that could help prevent this type of stuff?
I would love to be an internet cop and bust content thieves. LOLOLOLOL
Cody
I have done that before too; replaced the file with something else. I created this really big ugly black box with red flashing text that said, “I stole this image from…Please report me right away!”
Wouldn’t it be funny to have these people take a look at their site and see this HUGE box that says that on there! lol And the fact that their visitors have been seeing it for a while too! lol
I had a lady steal an email once and then couldn’t figure out why I was so upset that she used it word for word. It was for a top site list I owned. I sent out a message to MY top list and then she took it and sent it out to HER top site list and I was a member of hers! So here I was reading my own email!
It is like you said, people just suck!
Glad you were able to catch this one though! It helps us all to know that these people are out there!
Have your attorney write a letter to the web hosting provider. It worked for the company I was working for a few years ago. “F#*$ off” changes tune real quick when they realize they are responsible as well.
I wish I could find an *affordable* attorney. Or at least one in my area that deals with internet “law”.
I’ve heard it’s good to have one on “retainer” – but God only knows how much that costs.
I did send this hosting service a professional cease and desist email – but you already know his response to that. I think the host is the one that stole the site in the first place!
So much dishonesty out there. But there are GOOD people too. It makes a world of difference when you have friends out there in cyber-land watching your back.
Kelly
HomeBasedBusinessMom.com