Website "Ripper" List

[keyplyr]

While going through my daily analog referrers, I came across:

http*//download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=website+download&tg=dl-2001&search=+Go!+

I cross referenced in raw logs to get the usere's IP and activity time. Analogs failure report and my error logs showed several attempts resulted in 403s.

Seems the (ab)user was going down this software page, trying different free demos to "rip" off my site. No telling if he (or she) ever got what they were after, as some of these "tools" may have had blank or hidden UAs.

My website is basically an online version of my books. I freely make available excerpts for reference and general education, but if the user wishes a hard copy, they may buy the book. This is a product I sell. Taking this product without payment is theft.

Anyway, this was a wake-up call and although I had 75% of the popular download programs blocked, there a couple I didn't have.

[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 7:49 am (utc) on Sep. 5, 2003]
[edit reason] Delinked the URL [/edit]

[Jenstar]

I get people doing this on a daily basis. I often see thankyou.html thank_you.html thankyou.htm and variations of that in my logs, because Clickbank instructs clients to use that URL to redirect people for their downloads after payment. Definitely secure ;)

So there are a lot of people out there looking to steal. Even worse are the people who buy it, then resell it, complete with my copyright notices still intact. Just found one of mine on eBay, complete with my selling page to advertise it too :( Unfortunately, she started reselling it two months ago.

[keyplyr]

I get people doing this on a daily basis

What I get 'on a daily basis' is attempts to print out pages. The copyright notice is right there in front of them, but I guess they feel that since they are in their own home/office and have the printing technology, then the law doesn't affect them.

I use the meta tag: <link rel="alternate" media="print" href="copyright.htm">

...so when they click 'print', instead of the page they they are viewing, they get a nice print-out of my copyright. On pages excerpted from my books, I serve them a mail-in order form instead. Since I started doing this, mail-order sales have increased significantly. I guess guilt is playing to my favor - LOL

[Longhaired Genius]

On pages excerpted from my books, I serve them a mail-in order form instead. Since I started doing this, mail-order sales have increased significantly.

This is very interesting. I wonder what would happen if you let them print the pages, but with the order-form at the top of every page...

[BlueSky]

Not sure about other countries, but in the U.S., "fair use" allows people to legally make copies without infringing on copyright if it's being used for things like criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. There's no hard rule on how much they can copy. It's supposed to be very limited though.

I like your print metatag idea. I think I'll use that myself too.

[keyplyr]

"fair use" is not an across the board allowance. It applies only to mediums that have been deemed to be in the public use (as established by US and International copyright laws at the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), the Berne Convention and also under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)), and restricting this usage would be infringing upon the established rights of the public.

I am speaking only of my original, copyright protected product, which strictly prohibits the reproduction or distribution in any manner without the explicit permission of the author.