Sunday, February 25, 2007

Has My Blog Been Scraped?

I recently found out through Google Alerts that a site called http://nmbr1gurl.duskdiary.com
is copying entire posts from my blog and giving them her (his) byline. This has been going on since Dec. 2006 and all the posts are mine. Is this what scraping is?

I've sent a complaint to Dusk Diary and to abuse@secureserver.net and really don't know what else to do.
Any help out there?


This Post was written by Christine from CHRISTINE COOKS


12 comments:

Sam said...

I'd really like to stop these scrape example posts, please. By linking to them and visiting them we are increasing their power.

All of us suffer from this problem.

Even I am unclear about how to best stop this, especially if they don't have ads.

If anyone could start a new post called

[Scrapers] How to get rid of them?

or something like that - a post from a pupil who really knows the ins and outs, with all the facts and details and ways of fighting them,

we would all be very greatful.

For a start - how is your work protected?

If it is not copyrighted or protected to disallow this behaviour there is not much you can do.

since my copyright is as follows:

* to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work

Under the following conditions:

*

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
*

Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
*

No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.


I don't see how I can complain about scrapers. Maybe it is time to change my creative commons licence.

Sam said...

PS - I edited your post christine to remove the link - because links give these sites power that none of us want them to have

Christine said...

Thanks for your comments Sam. Sorry about the link, I didn't know what trouble it could cause.

I don't have a copyright clause on my blog because any piece of original written work is protected under copyright law already, no matter that you don't actually say so.

However, I see that making a copyright statement is probably the best thing to do and will put one on my blog today.

I would welcome any information that could be gleaned from a post such as the one you suggest.

L Vanel said...

I am so sorry this is happening to you, Christine. It's terrible.

Elise said...

Interesting. This site doesn't have Adsense on it, but it is linking to a bunch of Made-for-Adsense sites. It's a complete scam. Google hates sites like these.

Basically they are made up pages for the specific purpose of improving the page rank of the other pages with the Ads on them.

Christine said...

Elise,
Thanks for that information. I tried and tried to get links from the site, all to no avail. How did you do it?

Thanks for the condolences Lucy.

Erika W. said...

Christine, I'm wondering if you've had any resolution here yet. I have the same issue right now, and also with the Dusk Diary platform. Interstingly enough, this one also started in Dec 2006. Also, without the adsense, with TONS of links on it to other adsense pages.

I just sent a flag to Dusk Diary, but am unsure what else can be done here. There's no contact information anywhere. And of course, googling my blog brings up this one on the first page.

Christine said...

Erika,
I've tried emailing Dusk Diary to no avail. My blog posts are appearing on the site at the rate of 2 per day. I've not been able to get any contact information for anyone. And, I've been pulled off of this by other things in my life at the moment. The next thing on my list is to contact AdSense and tell them about it. It's the only thing I can think of to do. My knowledge of the tech-y side of blogging is very limited.
Thanks for asking. I'm sorry you're going through this also.

Erika W. said...

Christine, I've done a bit of research, and the Dusk Diary is a fake blog platform specifically for the purpose of acting as a routing site too Adsense ads.

I've found lots of information as far as where this domain is being hosted and the IP address and such, but that's as far as I've gotten. I did find a few other blogs who turned to their friends and had some success getting the fake blogs pulled.

What I've done is follow their lead, and I put a post on my blog asking everyone to flag the suspect blog. Specifically, flagging with the term "stolen" in the complaint. My thoughts is that if enough people do this, eventually the blog will stop. This worked for another blog I found, so I'm hopeful.

Erika W. said...

Score one for the little guy. I managed to get the offending blog suspended. I think they key is to use the word stolen (and recruit lots of help). I will be keeping an eye on things for a while though.

Anonymous said...

Great news! Thanks for documenting it along the way.

It helps to show folks that a little persistence can get these things removed (and before they got to cash any checks from their ads).

Christine said...

Erika,
Thanks to you, the site that had been scraping my blog has been suspended. Thank you so much for your diligent work!
I've been swamped lately with non-blogging issues and hadn't given this any attention. I'm very grateful that you did.