Someone's framing my content

Is there anything I can do about it...

[aus_dave]

I have just discovered a site that is framing an article from a site of mine. It is not presenting the content as theirs, just using a script to display the article within a frame (there is no standard link to my site either).

Should I be worried about it and is there anyting I can do server-side to prevent it happening?

[edit_g]

You could take the page down, change the url or, my favourite, repalace the content with some more appropriate words and pictures detailing why stealing content is wrong - they might not discover it for months.

[peterdaly]

I don't know if it is dynamic or static, but if dynamic you could check the referer and perform "counter measures".

You have many options for how to react to the "lucky" referer; from a blank page, nice polite message, nasty comments about the framing site, and other less tasteful options.

If static, you could probably do something similar with Apache an apache module or something.

edit: fixed typo

[edited by: peterdaly at 2:02 am (utc) on April 7, 2004]

[aus_dave]

Thanks peterdaly, I'll think about how to address this.

It's a dynamic site so it sounds like there are plenty of available options (could have some fun with it too ;)).

[TheDave]

What about putting one of those frame breaking scripts on the page, I've seen them around here somewhere..

[SlowMove]

Would it be possible to include multiple frames on your page to all the pages on that site? Users would be downloading all the pages on that site. That should use up some bandwidth if it would work.

[aus_dave]

TheDave, I've seen some Javascript that can break frames but I was looking for something that would let the user know what the framing site is up to at the same time.

Any site that frames content instead of linking is asking for it IMHO :).

[Llama]

If you can, find a way to have it so that you just reverse it (by redirect); the page that is trying to frame your site is framed in a frame of yours. Then you can maybe even put an ad, or your little message about how putting sites in frames is a bad thing.

Of course, you could just simply ask the person to make it into a "real" link rather than frames.

[jdMorgan]

Placed inside the framed content, this code

<script language="JavaScript1.1" type="text/JavaScript"><!-- // hide from old browsers
if (parent.frames.length > 0) top.location.replace(document.location); // Escape from any referring site's frame, but preserve one-click "Back". --></script>

...works for me.

Jim

[aus_dave]

Thanks Jim :). That code works fine in Mozilla but not in Safari on the Mac. I'm assuming it works fine for IE Windows though, will check it on a PC later on.

[Raymond]

if not instr(Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER"),"your site") then

response.redirect "http://www.fbi.gov"

end if

[TheDoctor]

This is all good advice. But what puzzles me, aus_dave, is why you have no link to your main page (if not other pages on yoyr site) on the page that's being framed.

[aus_dave]

TheDoctor, it's not that I don't have links to the other pages on the site. It's the principle of the thing.

The site that is framing my content has their own links, buttons etc. in the frame around my page. If the information is worth framing surely it's worth linking to directly?

I'll stick with the frame breaker script for now, that works nicely :).

[rceph]

How about if one of my page has been framed but the domain referer who framed my site have some option buttons, like "back previous page" and "remove frame" and there is a statement says " Your are visiting outside of ....... domain"
It is fair?

[trillianjedi]

Personally, I'd shove AdSense on it.

As well as an easy link to your homepage. Why dismiss a potential source of traffic?

I know it's irritating when it happens, but worth thinking if you can turn it to your advantage before blocking it completely.

TJ

[PCInk]

...or I would dynamically generate an good advert for my own site, with a link to open my site in the '_top' section of the frameset directly to the related information. To the reader, they will probably want your information and come into your site, leaving the current 'framesetters' site! For blocked referrers, I would still continue to use the frame-breaking script.

The person must think that your site is worth 'linking' to and therefore I would not consider this to be to much of a problem as the final page displayed is still relatively controllable by you. That is unless it eats up lots of bandwidth.

[SlowMove]

Personally, I'd shove AdSense on it.

or about 50 annoying popup affilite links

[choster]

FWIW our frame-breaking script is down to one line, but since this is generally a secondary for us we haven't tested for compatibility.

<script type="text/javascript">
if (window!= window.top) top.location.href = location.href;
</script>

[mikep]

I guess you all know Ask Jeeves puts its search results in a frame (not the sponsored ones). One of my sites got about 450 referrals from them on Mon-05-Apr. Not about to turn them away because they put my site in a frame. What I've done is made any links on the page it is framing have a target="_top". I might try choster's script on it, but I don't want to lose the traffic. Would Ask Jeeves mind it?

[Alternative Future]

When I was running a framed site, I had the frame jump out in place. This never affected my Ask/Jeeves positions in anyway.

-George

[trillianjedi]

or about 50 annoying popup affilite links

I was thinking more along the lines of letting the webmaster frame it, but using the additional source of traffic as a revenue generator.

But, yes, if you want the webmaster of the framing site to stop, then that seems like a novel (and no doubt very satisfying) way of doing it!

TJ

[Eric_Lander]

Raymond has it right in my opinion. I would check the referral string from the HTTP request, and if it is the page that you're talking about -- redirect it to a blank frame that forces a popup of your home page or something similar.

Or, you could just send an email to a technical contact at the site referring you traffic. No sense in becoming nasty.. They like your content enough to frame it up -- you can leverage and gain some inbound links if you ask them politely.

[TheDoctor]

In fact, you should check if the framing isn't a mistake.

Maybe the referring site conatins a link from a framed page, and they've forgtten to put a "target=_top" in the link. A polite email to them might actually be appreciated in this case.

[rceph]

So , if someone framed your site, and is a dynamic framed, what do your consideration to approve or to refuse it?