Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Upon further investigation I found that my articles (1100+ of which 85% contain unique content) have been copied over and over and over on many sites. Some sites stole more than half of my content. These sites are not competition for me. Their pages are either indexed as "supplemental results" or their page for a specific keyword is on page 7 of Google while my page is on page 1. Yet, it still freaks me out. What is the point of spending a day or days writing an article if somebody can just copy it in seconds. I know what steps to take (DMCA) but I'm afraid that when confronted, these people will click on my ads to get back at me (and after that warning from Google I guess I must be careful). So, do I just leave it and go on with my life or do I do something about it?
SusanPilot
[edited by: SusanPilot at 5:33 pm (utc) on July 13, 2007]
I think a lot of these people that go around copying stuff don't care about retaliting they just go on and copy someone else.
Sometimes it's hard to know when to just forget it and when to go ahead and send the DMCA, but I would probably send it.
What do the other 15 percent contain?!
What is the point of spending a day or days writing an article if somebody can just copy it in seconds.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You must be pretty darn good at what you do to have so many imitators. What will happen is that over time, you will evolve and progress and become more successful, while the copy cats will be left in the dust.
This may not be ethical (Okay, I just peeked the moderator's interest), but why don't you put several links in your articles back to your site. style the links so there the same color as your text so when people copy and past, you get linked back:
<html> text text text text text text text<a href="yoursite" style="color: yourcolor; text-decoration: none">more text more text</a> text text text text text text text<a href="yoursite" style="color: yourcolor; text-decoration: none">more text more text</a> text text text text text text text<a href="yoursite" style="color: yourcolor; text-decoration: none">more text more text</a> AND SO ON.</html>
You might as well get some benefit from their copying and it just supports your ownership with your link in the text.
Marshall
I know what steps to take (DMCA) but I'm afraid that when confronted, these people will click on my ads to get back at me (and after that warning from Google I guess I must be careful).
You assume the people that did the click fraud attack are the same that stole your content.
Don't confuse the two items as you have content thieves and click attacks, two completely different problems.
First, I would put a list of all my raw domain names (example1.com, example2.com, etc.) in AdSense channels so you can use channel reports for those domain names and see if the total matches your site total on a daily basis. If these reports don't match, write to AdSense ASAP and ask why not as it's a clue someone is messing with your AdSense publisher ID somewhere not on your site.
Second, I would research and install a suitable Adsense click tracking script with automatic fraud detection thresholds that prohibit more than a handful of clicks per day per IP address and keep an eye on IP's that seem to cause trouble.
After that, I would launch the DMCA letters and sit back and monitor the situation as you should have the tools in place to detect or stop the problem. Probably wouldn't hurt to notify the AdSense dept. that you just sent out all those DMCA letters, and if the sites you sent DMCA letters had AdSense on them, then send Google a copy of the DMCA as well and get them booted from the program.
Been there, done that, shut down a bunch of these bad boys.
Nothing like launching a good counter strike to get the blood pumping.
or
you could also ask them to give you credit for the articles they have copied with a url to your site. If they don't agree, they must remove your exclusive content.
Rule: people will never take revenge on you. Google has a more advance technology to track invalid clicks. If it is your article,, you just have to email the offender to take them down or credit you with a link to your site.
It happens to me all the time and they always do what I say. Usually , my letter will start as "You are currently in copyright violation of exclusive content I have produced at www. yoursite .com.... You either give me credit or remove my content... or I will seek legal action.. ect.
After that, I would launch the DMCA letters and sit back and monitor the situation
Don't forget to contact their web host and inform the host of the copyrighted content.
Write the copier/stealer a letter saying they have copied your inclusive content. Warn them that you will proceed with legal action if they don't remove them...
I refrain from doing that. Either you're just barking or you're serious and ready to take a bite. If you're just barking, it's a waste of time and energy. If you ready to take a bite, you don't contact the other party and do something that might jeopardize your later efforts, you implement the system, legal or otherwise, and let it work.
Rule: people will never take revenge on you.
I wouldn't count on that. Some people are very vengeful. If the person was willing to steal your content, you already know there is little ethical basis there. And revenge can take many forms, not just AdSense clicks.
you could also ask them to give you credit for the articles they have copied with a url to your site. If they don't agree, they must remove your exclusive content.
I wouldn't do that without first consulting a good copyright attorney. If someone steals from me, I'm not going to start negotiating with them about how they can keep whatever they stole from me. It makes it seem like my content wasn't very valuable after all. It could hurt my case if they steal something else from me later.
FarmBoy
Sadly, content theft is a common event. There are plenty of people, some reading this thread, who think nothing of taking your content and will bend over backwards to make excuses as to why it's OK.
Depending on how much income you're earning, you might consult an attorney about establishing a value for your pages and have that stated in your site terms. Then, if someone steals it, you're in a better position to take more serious legal action, depending on the jurisdiction.
FarmBoy
Do a Google Adsense DMCA request for the adsense content stealers.
Note those DMCAs are a little different.
Setup a production line for the DMCAs. Stack them in and hit the send on your fax.
Remove the 15% content that is not yours or link to the original (remove preferred).
Google may respect your site more for doing it.
You may find your SERP position improve here and there.
U can add hyperlinks to your other sites without it appearing to the reader.
" This may not be ethical (Okay, I just peeked the moderator's interest), but why don't you put several links in your articles back to your site. style the links so there the same color as your text so when people copy and past, you get linked back: "
Are we allowed to link to other sites by using same color in links as normal text ( without the hyperlink being visible to reader).
Are we permitted to do this as per SE guidelines?
Rule: people will never take revenge on you.
Wrong.
People have actually showed up at someone's front door with bad intentions after being served with a DMCA and had their business knocked offline. Then again, people have set fire to other peoples yards just for disagreeing with them in an online forum, but I digress.
You can never tell when you're about to set off a nut job but that can be true just changing lanes on the road and fail to signal, cut someone off in line at the grocery store, or a myriad of other things, so there's no reason to live being afraid.
Since I have all sorts of IP access tracking built into my sites I prefer the AUP method of knocking sites offline these days. I can tie the scraping back to the scraper, so if the scraper was stupid enough to scrape from his own server I can just send a log file of evidence to his host and often it's WHAMMO! They get hammered just with the AUP and I didn't have to disclose my personal information in the process.
If the AUP doesn't work, then it's DMCA next.
Are we allowed to link to other sites by using same color in links as normal text ( without the hyperlink being visible to reader).Are we permitted to do this as per SE guidelines?
I do this, it's how I track scraped content with hidden codes on my page.
However, I don't show the invisible text to search engines, only to actual visitors therefore Google would see a clean page but the scraper would have something special included in his copy of the page.
If you aren't showing the search engine the invisible link it's not against the search engine rules! :)
See how that works?
Search engine happy, scrapers busted, constant DMCA reports...
FYI, most scrapers filter out links these days just so they don't give you any juice in the search engine so it's a why bother for SEO purposes. Think about it, if they steal your pages it's because THEY want your traffic so giving you a link back defeats the purpose which is why they are filtered out.
But what if we dont show the link even to actual visitors.
( we remove the underlined & keep text same color as link)
Is this allowed?
Rule: people will never take revenge on you.
Not sure where you're living at friend but I'd like to move there. Tomorrow morning. Where I live at you can get clicked back to the stone age just for ticking somebody off in a forum. Believe me, I know.
I've had entire websites copied line for line. Several times they left adsense code intact, tracking code (which is how I catch them), javascripts, everything. I didn't consider it flattery then and I don't now. They're lazy, stupid thieves and I'm an easy mark. That's all it is.
I've filed 7 DMCAs in the last 5 years. 6 have been successful. I go straight to their host and usually the copied site is taken down within days.
Good luck, and I say that as sincerely as I possibly can.
Just an add-on ...
If you are unfamiliar with server's logs, find a very unique name, non-existent word for your test image - for example you can name a jpg representing a landmark in your town or also a navigation button as chaljo39mi.gif (a file non-existent yet on the web) and run every 15 days a Google Image Search for the filename.gif. Since Google images usually does not fetch the same image twice from one website, all the other results will be those scraping your content.
I will add something out of my 10-year long niche experience. Since 1997 I have seen every year new websites copying my content. Many of them have since disappeared, and new ones have come out. With my unique images I have found in this way a number of sites that were copying my content. After that I dealt in different ways.
1- Some were just inexperienced webmasters thinking anything on the web can be copied and so naive to let my absolute Urls in place. I did not care about them, since Goggle did not rank them anyway and MY own content (much older than theirs) came up in the results.
Whenever another webmaster asked if one of my images or texts could be placed on their website, I usually accepted requiring just a link back to my site as copyright holder. I found this a very good way to have links to my site. When you find someone is using your original content, you might first have a look at their homepage, and decide whether the "theft" is just a minor offence - according to your idea of a minor offence - and in case the site does not look a mainly scraper site, contact them and either ask to remove the content or negotiate an authorization.
2- Other more recent scrapers act like real thieves. A number insert my content in the bottom frame, and theirs with just a 90 px high frame at top, actually containing just one 728 px Adsense leaderboard or 2 468 beside each other, and the frame container with keywords, title and description matched to my page appearing in the bottom frame. This system I partly overcome with a small javascript string before the <head> of each file, that I found here on WW, that forbids other websites from loading my page in frames, a system that will not work for browsers with javascript disabled. Server's logs are really of no great use in this case since the contact is considered direct and the IP is that of the visitors, not of the offending site.
3- Another still more recent group seem to place my page after a php include, without frames therefore, and I still have not found a way to disable or exploit this in my favor, but placing absolute link works most of the time redirecting traffic to my own website.
4- Finally, there will be others just copying and paste your original text in their own, differently named files. So far Google has been usually on my side, since oldest content is usually privileged in the algo. But if the "thieves" change here and there with synonyms and paste inside text from other sources (equally scraped) and actually come out with a "new" product (in the algo of the search engine) I don't think much can be done on your side, apart from keeping your website in good standing, building loyalty etc. After all, teachers have been dealing all the time with students copying essays from everywhere, and some students are so clever in copying that they can get through fine and are actually rewarded.
YOu need to be tough on the internet especially against those copiers. You have to tell them you own those content and they are exclusive, and tell them to remove your exclusive content from their site(s). If they don't agree file a DMCA. Simple as that.
I don't understand why you are afraid of them. If you let them steal your stuff, they will continue to do it. As long as you have good, original content, AS will never NEVER BAN you. Even if you get invalid clicks, all AS can do is investigate but they will never ban you because your content is really good and original. AS aways love UNIQUE , GOOD QUALITY sites. Since you write your own articles, your site is unique.
I still don't believe people take revenge on you on the internet. Some may be extreme like clicking your AS but that's ridiculous. I don't believe it.
Well, OK. If you don't believe it, you don't believe it. But, as the saying goes, a lot of people said the Titanic was unsinkable.
..Google will never ban or leave you because......As long as you have good, original content, AS will never NEVER BAN you. Even if you get invalid clicks, all AS can do is investigate but they will never ban you because your content is really good and original. AS aways love UNIQUE , GOOD QUALITY sites.
I think you're missing the point by a wide margin.
There is a bit more involved than simply whether Google/AdSense likes you, bans you, etc.
FarmBoy
The newsletters were lengthy and he was just copying and pasting, sometimes on the same day the newsletter was issued.
After I saw what he was doing, I switched him over to his own customized edition of the newsletter without him knowing it.
Each addition included a line somewhere in the middle that included: My name is John Doe at johndoe@widget.com. I stole this content from a newsletter I receive.
This started appearing on his site on a number of pages as he copied each edition. Someone must have eventually brought it to his attention because his site disappeared and I haven't ever been able to find that he's published a new site.
FarmBoy
Seems that many adsense MFA stealers are blocking Google bot so the pages and content can't be found searching Google.
When I searched yahoo I found the stolen content (9 full pages) with adsense ads.
I've already had these guys removed from another domain and now they'll lose their adsense account - good!
I still don't believe people take revenge on you on the internet.
I've been looking all morning and can't find Fantasyland on the map.
Revenge can be as simple as Google bowling your site [webmasterworld.com] into oblivion for starters.
Seems that many adsense MFA stealers are blocking Google bot so the pages and content can't be found searching Google.
The flip side of that thought is the Google anti-spam team has detected and dumped them from the index.
Have you checked the robots.txt file of one of their sites?
It may just be a new thing hosted on Yahoo's geocities website and perhaps hasn't been index by G yet.
I had them kicked off their original location a few weeks ago.
Apparently they really don't want to lose my pages! I'
ll find them whereever they put them.
The other 15% are either articles that I bought but didn't buy the exclusive rights or reprinted articles (authors can submit their articles plus a resource box through my site). I accept maybe 1 in every 30 for reprint.
My name is John Doe at johndoe@widget.com. I stole this content from a newsletter I receive.
ha! I did that with people who were linking directly to my or my customer's images. Replaced the image with one of my own creation, and it wasn't near as pretty.
Most of the people who have swiped my content are traditional media - newspapers, tv stations and radio stations. And I'm easy - I have a statement that says anyone is perfectly free to republish my listings as long as they credit me and/or include a link back to my site. I was pleasantly surprised this year that for the first time *ever* I had close to 100% compliance.
