Banned By Adsense

The other side of the story

[MsHuggys]

I know exactly how some people got banned by Adsense, stealing the content of another's website and calling it their own. A well-placed complaint about the Adsense publisher's website to the Adsense team resulted in the website being banned from Adsense almost immediately after my complaint was made this past week.

He was out-ranking me in Google using my content exclusively. I suspect the copyright violation to Google Search will also get quick results.

It's obvious to me he was banned, because he pulled Adsense off his website, replacing them with an ad server known for producing very low ctr and cpc for publishers. They are the company banned Adsense publishers use when they're tossed from the Adsense program.

I had been making a bundle when I was in the #1 position for Google Search, before he launched his website with my content and took #1 based on his domain name match to the keywords in my content. The only way he'd pull those high income ads was if he was forced to pull them.

This is one of the stories from the other side of the "Banned By Adsense" issue.

[Leosghost]

Well played ..:)

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

This is one of the stories from the other side of the "Banned By Adsense" issue.

It affects all webmasters, every visitor sent to a content thief is lost to the original author and it's very frustrating. I have always thought that Google acts responsibly and in a timely manner with such complaints, considering how large a company it is. I may be critical of other things they are doing lately with search but complaint resolution is, in my opinion, something Google does exceptionally well.

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing that but, in general, I don't recommend discussing this type of thing online because if the content thief finds your article and connects the dots, or if he/she is already a member, you risk having a lot more problems with this individual. In their minds you will have stolen "their" income even if they were stealing it from you. I hope this thread doesn't turn into a "I totally relate, I got this guy last month too by...".

Do what you need to do, write the complaint, but move along afterwards and don't look back unless Google asks for more information. Things can get nasty quickly when you put a personal face on actions that impact others, rightfully or not. You can Google and find quite a few horror stories on the subject.

Congrats though, must feel good to have a leach removed!

[MrSavage]

If you could expand on what is a well placed complaint it would be helpful. Done via their ads or done via another method?

[incrediBILL]

if the content thief finds your article and connects the dots

DMCA complaints have your address attached, the dots are already connected so the simple act of filing a DMCA complaint, just like any other legal action, can be dangerous because it exposes your address to the defendant. Some scrapers that were put out of business have been known to show up on people's doorsteps with bad intentions and got hauled off by the cops. That's not going to stop me from filing those DMCA complaints as I've nuked a couple of people's livelihoods in the past because it's me or them, and I certainly won't go down without a fight and since they already know who did it the dots have already been connected.

However, sgt_kickaxe is probably right that publicly boasting about it could set some psycho off the deep end if they figure out you're the one that DMCA'd them and are now publicly boasting about it and humiliating them further.

Not like they don't deserve it.

FWIW, I've actually been threatened just for stopping some clown from scraping my site, not even filing a DMCA, just blocking him from crawling.

[netmeg]

yea, some idiot just posted a long crazy blog post about me because I sent him a link to my republishing policy when he republished my content without attributing it to me. which he fully admitted doing!

And people wonder why I believe in staying anonymous on the interwebs

[incrediBILL]

some idiot just posted a long crazy blog post

If it was slanderous show him some love via your legal beagle.

If not, slap him upside the head with a DMCA since he didn't abide by your republishing rules.

BTW, since it's your content and you own the rights, I'd send him a nice note revoking his right to use it, assuming you give the right to use it, since he was disrespectful unless he apologizes and takes down that blog post.

Have some fun with it :)

[MrSavage]

This has been enlightening to me. Really things that I hadn't considered. There are a lot of flakes out there and there is more to filing a DMCA that I would have thought. Eye opening.

[incrediBILL]

There are a lot of flakes out there and there is more to filing a DMCA that I would have thought.

IANAL and anything I state is just opinion, shouldn't be taken as legal advice nor should anything anyone else posts on a blog or forum be taken as such. If you're really concerned, hire a lawyer to do such things or use your legal mailing address, which in many cases I've noticed people use a PO BOX (assuming you have one and it's legal to use for such matters).

Gee, using a PO BOX must be legal, <smirk> as someone I once unfortunately did business with once had their business address registered with the city as a PO BOx. For some odd _tax ^evading reason the city was real pleased when I gave them the actual address of this so-called business. ;)

Lots of craziness out there, you really can't avoid it, just be careful.

[Leosghost]

The only way ypu can get a PO box where I am, is if you show your up to date business registration papers and unique national and EU business numbers, business tax papers, etc, personal photo ID, business bank account details etc, which are then all verified, before you get the PO box..

[buckworks]

In my location, a post office box is the only choice for receiving mail.

[zarathustra2011]

I found a scraper content with my website on there, along with goodness knows how many hundreds of others, Google ads placed everywhere. I asked them to remove my content, which they did without a DMCA, but I also reported them to Google (I've only ever reported a site once before), but google haven't done anything. The other site I reported also used my content without permission and had an interactive app, that automatically drops down onto the page, partially covering the Google ads, but not only cutting them in half, but making it extremely easy to accidentally click on one. Google never did anything about that site either.

Congrats on your result though - must be highly satisfying. :)

[MsHuggys]

I weighed my options; didn't just jump and shoot from the hip. Push came to shove. I've been doing this far longer than the little twit. It's my hope that his newly launched website, which consisted almost exclusively of my content, is but one of many he owns and he forfeited the earnings of far more than what he stole from me.

This is the where you file a complaint for an Adsense TOS violation:

[support.google.com...]

[MsHuggys]

One more note on this particular case. What fueled my rage for weeks was the fact that he not only stole my content, but the entire theft was a copy and paste job that included my exact text formatting and my unique custom font color, which I've been using for 9 years.

[netmeg]

Yea, there was one time a Detroit newspaper stole my page right down to my CSS-styled bullets.

I always take a screenshot before I do anything else.

[jpch]

There's a very popular comic site named after a hot breakfast cereal (since we can't post links) that just posted a hilarious response to another site that stole his content and is now demanding $20,000 because the scraper site claims he was defamed. His response to the letter from the lawyer made my day.

[incrediBILL]

I once had some web designer steal a site design we paid about $4K to develop. we're talking free flowing graphics type stuff. I know the designer personally, knew it was all original hand made artwork in PhotoShop, no clip art involved.

Anyway, when I called the site owner and told him to get our stuff off his site ASAP or face the consequences he started with "I know this web designer from Church! He wouldn't do anything like that!" at which point I started yelling "WELL HE MUST'VE SLEPT THROUGH THE PART ABOUT THO SHALT NOT STEAL!" and then it got fun. Then they started telling me it would take so many days or weeks to do this and that to which I kindly told them my lawyer apparently works faster than his developer and it would probably cost a lot more. Then I kindly offered him options to see if he would prefer paying the developer or my lawyer.

It was off the site within a couple of hours.

Luckily for him I was in a good mood that day. :)

[MsHuggys]

I'm please to say, Google acted fast on the DMCA. He's gone from Google Search. I feel like I've poured Draino in the cash flow pipes, which cleared a huge clog :)

[MrSavage]

I think people often underestimate or are ignorant of scraping and how it's affecting their sites ranking. Google is unable in my opinion to deal with it on their own. It does seem that a DMCA or other means of communication does rectify the situation. I think Google deserves credit for being able to deal with those situations once they are manually told about them. The internet is getting nastier and nastier. This is what I realize.

[incrediBILL]

The internet is getting nastier and nastier.

It's been pretty nasty for quite a few years, 6-8 years at a minimum.

If I had to pick 2 events that probably kicked off the large scale abuse we currently contend with on the internet it would all be focused around the appearance of several large scale affiliate sites like CJ and then came along AdSense which pretty much sealed the deal.

Remove the low hanging AdSense/affiliates fruit from the equation and most of the problems would go away IMO as the easy money scraping GRQ scheme motivation would be gone.

Think about it, we probably wouldn't have had Panda or Penguin either because the SEs wouldn't have had nearly as much motivation to go to such extremes without such money grubbing scraper pollution clogging the web.

[viggen]

He was out-ranking me in Google using my content exclusively.

...this is the problem....

[beren]

This has been possible for years. I've filed so many DMCA complaints and seen so many sites remove their AdSense altogether and replace it with another ad service.


One of the small pleasures of the 21st Century is getting sleazeballs kicked out of AdSense.

Everyone should try it.

[Planet13]

@ incrediBILL:

I think you are right about the main needs for Panda / Penguin: It was google that created this mess, now they are trying to get out of it.

~~~~

Not an adsense issue, but for me the biggest scraper of my content is amazon - actually, it is the info pages that people post on amazon.

I'm tired of filing DMCAs against amazon. Can't they get their act together and have things automatically run through copyscape when a user posts something new?

[Lame_Wolf]

It was google that created this mess, now they are trying to get out of it.

No, dishonest webmasters started all this.

[StoutFiles]

No, dishonest webmasters started all this.

Greed brings out the worst in everyone.

[mrguy]

No, dishonest webmasters started all this.

No, Google started this by giving dishonest webmasters a way to make money with adsense and allowing MFA sites to show in the SERPS for so long because they were making money to.

[Lame_Wolf]

Just because someone dangles a carrot, it doesn't mean you have to take a bite of it. I still stand on my original remark that it is the dishonest webmasters fault.

Yes, Google could to a lot more their end by...
1: authorizing every site you want your code on, not just the first.
2: Ban certain countries from having it.
3: Disallow adsense on blogs and free servers.
4: Minimum 1 year wait for a new site/account.

[Leosghost]

I'd agree with those except #2 we all think we know which countries "abuse" adsense the most..( and the USA would be in the top 10 )..and disallowing everyone from a country because of the actions of some would be discriminatory..

I'd substitute "banning sites which plagiarised or scraped, or used copyright material without written proof of permission".. which would take care of ( remove ) ehow etc..and about 90% ( IMO) of all adsense sites...

Isn't going to happen ..but it would clear away the problems, fast..

[StoutFiles]

I still stand on my original remark that it is the dishonest webmasters fault.

I don't consider people why copy/paste sites, or make a single landing page with keywords and a keyword domain as webmasters. There are webmasters, dishonest webmasters, and then MFA scavengers.

[Leosghost]

make a single landing page with keywords and a keyword domain as webmasters.

I have some of those ..but they never get adsense or other ads on them..they are just very precise pages for certain business I run.. with the name of the business, the service or item and the contact/ login information for customers..1 page EMDs ..but no ads, nor adsense..

For some business, products or services, more than one page, is "fluff"..