Friday, 26 February 2010

Content Theft

I was intrigued the other day to find a link to my site from Tesco.com so I went to check it out and saw that Tesco has a search facility for internet content. Cool...

However, visitng the search section which was already populated with the results I noticed that one of my blog entries was there, but that the address wasn't my own website - it was one called Health Fitness Support!

At first I thought "ahh that's nice, somebody like what I wrote and decided to quote me" on some other healthy resource, and then I found that, not only was it the ENTIRE post, there was no mention of where it came from and, worst still, there were others!!

I was horrified to discover that whoever runs "Health Fitness Support" has been stealing my blog entries and posting them on their own site - without any mention of where they came from and who wrote them - for about 4 months!!

LOOK!!

These are all MY posts!

http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/quick-update-on-short-term-goal
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/its-0340am
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/fruit-and-nut-bars-take-1
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/official-maxitone-launch-party-wednesday-27th-january-2010
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/product-review-maxitone-sculptress-bar-plus-some-thoughts-on-long-term-health-and-happiness
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/a-list-hollywood-party
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/product-review-9-bar
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/to-the-person
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/introducing-maxitone
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/snacktastic
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/weekly-roundup
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/christmas-in-the-wood
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/january-detox-tasty-trade-offs
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/a-tasty-mess
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/most-of-december-in-pictures
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/festively-plump-2
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/festively-plump
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/seasons-greetings
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/merry-christmas-2
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/would-you-like-to-see-some-pictures
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/catch-up-part-1-gigs-performances-and-concerts
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/still-here
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/charity-week-cycle-challenge
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/training-labels
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/mmm-new-protein-bar
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/wow
http://www.healthfitnesssupport.com/happy-friday

And these are just the ones that I know of, how many more this spineless person (or people?!) has taken from my site I don't know.

I have tried to find contact information for whoever runs the site but there is none, I have left numerous messages in the comments section but these are yet to be answered and my content is STILL there! >:-(

The thing that pisses me off the most is that this site is run by someone who is using it for financial gain. Every entry is littered with adverts. I don't get paid a penny for what I write. I know I talk about Maxitone and Maximuscle a lot but that's because I both like and USE their products - but they don't pay me to write about that fact!!

So some scumbag is using MY words, MY pictures and MY experiences to line their pockets! And they don't even have the BALLS to reply to me?!

Has this happened to anyone else before? Am I the only one?

Clearly I'm not the only one targetted by this creep as there are numerous other blog entries from other people that are being siphoned away from the rightful source. I think I might contact those people and ask them if they're aware that another person is using THEIR words to make them money!

I've written to wordpress so hopefully will hear back from them soon, but the cowardly criminal has hidden their details, I can find out the IP address: 85.17.239.36 but that's it... I don't know how they're getting my posts or what I can do about it.

I'm so upset, I put my heart and soul into this site and some faceless bastard has been stealing my words and passing them off as their own - all to make a quick buck?!

GET A JOB YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!

So upset :'-(

TJx

10 comment(s) on this post:

  1. Absolutely disgusting!!!! Hope you can get this sorted out Tara :(
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  2. absolutely shocking & completely out of order. Hope you get it sorted out.
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  3. ARRRGGG! Thank you for pointing that out to me. How frustrating. Keep me posted if you hear ANYTHING from "them" or about the issue. I'll do my best on this end too, and let you know what I find out.

    Hoping we get this righted,
    amy ellen from healthbeginswithmom.com
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  4. I can't believe that, I'm shocked!!!! I hope you find the culprit, so out of order!!!
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  5. Hi Tara,

    Really frustrating problem, and really common because they think they can get away with it.

    Contact Google at http://www.google.co.uk/dmca.html and they'll have the offending pages removed from their search results.

    Also, you might want to remove those links above, just so you don't send them any extra visitors.

    @ncikjohnston on Twitter
    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the support guys, and thanks for the link Nick, will get right on it, very helpful, cheers!! :-)
    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Tara,

    I see that the jerks are still at it. In fact, my own blog has been a victim too. Here's what I'd recommend:

    1) NEVER post a hyperlink to their site on your site or any site. Even though you want to show others examples of the offending content, Google is pretty dumb about these things. Ironically, by linking out to their site, you are helping their site rank even higher in Google.

    2) As Nick said, the proper course of action is to file a DMCA complaint against them to get them removed from Google for your posts. See here:

    http://www.google.com/dmca.html

    Keep doing it until they take down your content. They are pretty clever (I notice they not only steal our content and make money off it--but they also modify it so that it provides no benefit back to us).

    Keep up the good work!
    ReplyDelete
  8. That's awful, I hope you manage to get it all taken down.
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  9. How awful! I had this too, I don't if they've been doing it recently. I found out as they were copying the links in my posts back to my recipes and I got a pingback from a few. It's why I started signing off my posts with a link back to my homepage. Didn't stop them but at least it was credited back to me.
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  10. I think the site might have actually been shut down - hurrah!! I clicked on the links in the post above but they don't seem to go anywhere so fingers crossed somebody got pissed off enough to report them to the relevant authorities... I would have but haven't even had the time to blog lately!!

    Stella - were your posts stolen but this particular site or was it another one?

    x
    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog! :-)

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