Have Sploggers And Copyright Infringers Already Won The Battle?
© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2009
Since days a splogger rips continuously one specific posting from one of my blogs.
The splogs about pages states that the blog is a search engine and one would hurt oneself if one asks to have the content removed.
Google ads are still happily displayed, despite a complain of copyright infringement. And honestly I do have a big fuzz with Google’s attitude. Blogger is full of splogs, of “blogs” that add hundreds of postings a day, but real blogs get shut down immediately: A friend of wife had her single post blog shut down within 24 hours because Google found out it’s a splog. WTF?
I had to complain 6 times before Google took action against a Blogger account that ripped my content—including the copyright note. WTF?
One friend got cursed at in a public forum because he is so rude to think that his copyrighted photographs are actually his. How dare him!
But what is really worst is the attitude of some hosting and blog-platform providing companies. Even with the copyright of someone else displayed you still get comments like this (since most splogs do not have any way to contact them the only option is to go to the host):
And then there are those who claim they didn’t “know” or they “forgot”. WTF?
—
Search engines punish the original poster by lowering their ranking. A few weeks ago I read that a search engine result had only splogs in the first 20 returned results; and almost only splogs in the first 70. WTF?
How sad.
People stealing, changing the copyright note; claiming it is theirs and then asking for royalties for their work. (Happens way too often with open source software).
So where does this all lead us?
Technorati (All Links are external): attitude battle blog blogger account blogs content theft copyright infringement copyright law digital millennium copyright act elements fuzz google images one friend open source software photographs postings public forum royalties search engine search engine result search engine results search engines splog splogs wtf business ethics general
Since days a splogger rips continuously one specific posting from one of my blogs.
The splogs about pages states that the blog is a search engine and one would hurt oneself if one asks to have the content removed.
Would you name it a search engine when a page is surrounded by at least 7 ads?
But anyway, the request to remove has been honored a few times, just to have the posting back after some hours. WTF?Google ads are still happily displayed, despite a complain of copyright infringement. And honestly I do have a big fuzz with Google’s attitude. Blogger is full of splogs, of “blogs” that add hundreds of postings a day, but real blogs get shut down immediately: A friend of wife had her single post blog shut down within 24 hours because Google found out it’s a splog. WTF?
I had to complain 6 times before Google took action against a Blogger account that ripped my content—including the copyright note. WTF?
Which blogger can’t say they had images stolen? Or content? Had images hotlinked and get cursed at and threatened with legal action for daring to replace the hotlinked image? Get’s slammed for using their own content?
One friend got cursed at in a public forum because he is so rude to think that his copyrighted photographs are actually his. How dare him!
But what is really worst is the attitude of some hosting and blog-platform providing companies. Even with the copyright of someone else displayed you still get comments like this (since most splogs do not have any way to contact them the only option is to go to the host):
- “We are too busy to look into this right now”
- “This is not our problem”
- To make a claim of Copyright Infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), you must provide the following information per TITLE 17, CHAPTER 5, § 512, C, (3) “Elements of notification” of the “Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code” available at http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
Followed by a lot more legal stuff. Does anyone really think that the majority of bloggers can afford that?
Doesn’t that send the message: We make stealing easy and don’t care as long as we can make a profit?
And then there are those who claim they didn’t “know” or they “forgot”. WTF?
—
Search engines punish the original poster by lowering their ranking. A few weeks ago I read that a search engine result had only splogs in the first 20 returned results; and almost only splogs in the first 70. WTF?
Is that the future for search engine results for blogs?
A great many of the wonderful blogs I used to read have vanished. Because of sploggers? Content theft? At least in two cases that is true.How sad.
People stealing, changing the copyright note; claiming it is theirs and then asking for royalties for their work. (Happens way too often with open source software).
So where does this all lead us?
To a web filled with search engines and useless results. Or do you really want to visit 50 splogs before seeing a real result?
To webpages with 50 ads per 5 word sentence?
To feeds with no more than copyright notes?
What do you think?
How do your protect your copyrighted material?
Tags:
attitude battle blog blogger account blogs content theft copyright infringement copyright law digital millennium copyright act elements fuzz google images one friend open source software photographs postings public forum royalties search engine search engine result search engine results search engines splog splogs wtfTechnorati (All Links are external): attitude battle blog blogger account blogs content theft copyright infringement copyright law digital millennium copyright act elements fuzz google images one friend open source software photographs postings public forum royalties search engine search engine result search engine results search engines splog splogs wtf business ethics general
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07:58 on Sunday, June 8th, 2008
08:10 on Sunday, June 8th, 2008
08:11 on Sunday, June 8th, 2008
Even so I think that stealing content to post it as a comment for the posting you stole from is a new one.
08:14 on Sunday, June 8th, 2008
Sorry to hear about your trouble Frank. And Ada’s.
I think this is getting really out of hands. I start to understand the RIAA a bit better now
14:05 on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
For one, they no longer have free reign on sites such as Blogspot and have to instead use their own domains. They are largely blocked from search results. They are now usually limited to taking only a few dozen words from posts for fear of copyright complaints. The list goes on.
This is small consolation for bloggers dealing with these issues, but there is real progress.
On that note, if you have a specific case you want me to look at, I’ve shut down many dozens of these, let me know. I’ll do what I can. Just shoot me an email either using this address or the contact form on my site, both go to the same place.
I’ll gladly help you or any of your friends any way I can, free of charge.
Just let me know how I can assist.
09:02 on Thursday, June 12th, 2008
what are you talking about? There are thousands of splogs on blogspot!
And what setbacks?
09:05 on Thursday, June 12th, 2008
I guess my wife and I must be very special than, after all we have our content stolen constantly.
09:08 on Thursday, June 12th, 2008