Is having copy stolen worth an inbound link?

[DXL]

I was doing a check for inbound links via Yahoo and came across a site for an overseas design firm. Apparently they copied a few paragraphs of content (generic designer stuff) from my site and added it to two of their pages, but they never bothered to remove the active absolute links I had pointing to other pages on my site. Its a small firm with no real portfolio and a templated site, would it be worth some of you to send them an email asking them to remove the four small paragraphs from their site, or would you rather be silent and enjoy a one-way link from a related site?

[KenB]

I usually ignore a few sentences of copy but if the paragraphs were long I'd probably issue a cease and desist. It all depends upon if it really is in the spirit of fair use and if its a good backlink.

[gndv]

I've had quite a few of my sites scraped and got back links out of some and nothing out of others. There is a fair use issue at play here so you may want to consult a lawyer or at least read up on it before you contact the webmaster.

Outside of that I think you'll naturally have a good feel for whether a scraper site is bad or will likely have no effect. I'm usually quick to fire off a cease and desist letter if I think someone is trying to piggy back my copyrighted material, but some scraper sites I'll let slide if the content they scraped is minimal and they're linking to my site.

What really bugs me though is when they scrape my content and then link the title to their own content or an ads page.

[edited by: rogerd at 11:14 pm (utc) on Mar. 28, 2007]
[edit reason] No URLs, please... [/edit]

[Frida]

I was doing a check for inbound links via Yahoo and came across a site for an overseas design firm. Apparently they copied a few paragraphs of content (generic designer stuff) from my site and added it to two of their pages, but they never bothered to remove the active absolute links I had pointing to other pages on my site. Its a small firm with no real portfolio and a templated site, would it be worth some of you to send them an email asking them to remove the four small paragraphs from their site, or would you rather be silent and enjoy a one-way link from a related site?

DXL,hello,

I think you'd better contact this website and ask them to remove these even small paragraphs from their site. Why? Because it is your content anyway and, what is more, you have no benefit at all from their link to your website for you say they are a small firm and probably don't have a high page rank. So I guess it is more a question of copyright here and it is much better you keep your rights on the content reserved.

All the best,

[seospecialist]

A few lines I would just let it go. If it were the entire site, then I'd go after them.

[domni]

It seems unlikely to me that this inbound link would be of any real benefit to you. I definitely doubt the small value that this inbound link may offer outweighs the detriment of the stolen copy. I'd contact the "copy thieves" asking them to paraphrase and give your site credit. This way, you both win: they are able to offer the information in a legal way and you keep the inbound links. :)