incrediBILL - 11:48 am on Apr 20, 2011 (gmt 0)

can you imagine an algo that could compare all those sitemaps with each other and then make a decision on who was first for what.

Yes, wouldn't be that complicated at all.

I was suggesting a simple PING thing, like maybe a one document (or more) per sitemap, not a whole sitemap, just brand new content only, maybe an extra field on the ping for "author".

When the SE ranks the sites to display the SERPs simply rank in order of the original content sitemap PING with the first original AUTHOR by date as #1. The real author would always take top billing, not anyone hijacking the content. If you find additional sites claiming to be the author for the same content, or someone trying to "author" pre-existing content, the fake "authors" go supplemental instantly.

How's that for an incentive not to cheat, scrape or aggregate knowing you'll nuke your page if you attempt to claim ownership for something you didn't write?

Simple solution, authors get top billing, nobody gets to claim historical pre-indexed content as new.

I like it.