I think this is a method that can tell google who is the original author. As you know people with Google Webmasters Tools account can submit a sitemap.xml and I think almost every script sends a ping to inform google that the sitemap has changed.
If we send the ping in the exact moment that the sitemap has updated then google will know the exact time (day, hour, minute and second) when the original article has been published.
If the scaper copies the article, google can now see which is the scraper and penalize it!
