Saturday, March 31, 2007

More tedious and annoying scraping

Ok, I find my content being used all over (explosion recently?) but this place really takes the cake.


www - foodmall - dot - o r g

The thief even took the time to download my images and host at their blog and took my entire post.. then this tiny link at the end.

Would like to menace this person, well, in person but 1) thats not REALLY my style, and 2) the whole lot of them are in India.

You can be absolutely sure that a lot of this content will be "sourced" from elsewhere.

You might wish to take a peek around and do your own reportage. I am focusing on their advertisers now and then their ISP/domain registrar thingie people.


This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria



UPDATE: An Instablog admin has emailed me an apology, saying that post has been taken down. The offending contributor has apologized at that entry on my blog but demonstrates that she doesnt understand what she did wrong.. go figure.

14 comments:

Cybele said...

Have you tried emailing them?

It is possible that since that's a group blog, it's just that one user who has erred in taking your entire content. (Okay, I'm being gracious, but it never hurts to approach it that way.)

Write a note asking for it to be removed and for them to feel free to link to your site and posts in the future, but to not repost them entirely.

As it appears the site is not automated, this should be your first step. Especially since they have advertisers, they may just remove your content without comment to avoid any other entanglements.

nika said...

that is always my first step.

in this case, the only way to contact the author is to register, which i did several hours ago but their system never registered me.. i wrote to their info email next.

Kalyn Denny said...

Nika, I do agree that this is completely an unfair use of your content. No one would have any need to click through to your blog after they've published the entire post. (And it was such a great post too, I absolutely think you should object.)

Let us know how this turns out. I believe Foodmall was started by someone who reads Food Blog S'cool, or at least she used to.

nika said...

Kalyn: thanks, appreciate it. I am sorta to the point that I am not that upset by the scrapers that post blurbs (with their google ads) that link to my site. I have tried to do something about that but its like p*&^ing in the wind.

Even this one that is so obviously not right will likely not see any remediation.

If I have no ads on my stuff, I sure dont want someone else making something off it! (just call me spiteful :-) but I guess there truly is little I can do besides kevetch.

cookiecrumb said...

I tried to register -- with a GENUINE e-mail address -- to leave an angry comment. But I kept being told I needed to use a real e-mail address. Mine was real.
Fuckheads.

Anonymous said...

foodmall.org is an 'instablog' property, I had flagged their content for plagiarism when they launched in Oct 2005, and more here and here. InstaBlogs then claimed that all content would be run through Copyscape before being released.

I guess it's back to square one for InstaBlogs if they are back to ripping content from other sites.

Nandini Maheshwari who owns InstaBlogs was interviewed here recently.

And, yes, I *cringe* that they, too, are in India.

nika said...

when I saw the "instablog" name I knew immediately that it was going to be a rip off site.. instant blogging is an oxymoron

Kalyn Denny said...

I'm happy to know it's not the same Foodmall I was thinking of. I would have been surprised if she had done something like this, so good to know it wasn't her.

Kalyn Denny said...

Spoke too soon, it does appear to be the same person I knew of (although certainly not the one who did the post they stole from you.) How disappointing.

nika said...

Manisha: I understand why you say cringe and I wish you didnt have to!

I personally do not think of India when I think of scrapers but I have heard a few things on NPR and read elsewhere about how India seems to be having a lot of internet related plagiarism issues...

I dont get it. Why pour so much effort and investment into blog rip offs when it doesnt even make the originator blog much more than a few copper pennies once in a full moon.

I am guessing one reason that India is on the forefront on this and not, say China, is because your average Indian speaks excellent english and finds english language blogs perfectly accessible and thus they becomes suitable content to steal and "repackage" elsewhere.

I do not think its an Indian thing, its an inevitable thing. Indians may just be the most high profile movers in these early days.

Anonymous said...

Indian companies instead of these petty crimes should consolidate into mega corporations. Install a puppet President who readily does their bidding. Declare wars on sovereign countries. Kill millions of innocent people. So that the greedy people, the stock holders of these companies could get more fat eating more processed food. Take photos, blog about them and when someone lifts them, express outrage and pass moral judgments on other countries policies.

nika said...

Smitha: Maybe I am dense but I am not getting the syntax or wit..? Sure, scraping is not on the same level as the genocidal mania promulgated by our most exhaulted chimperor.. but I fail to see how that has any relationship to me, someone who is not related to or involved with the current ruling junta and one who worked against their coup de estat.

track mobile number said...

Wow, amazing blog structure! How lengthy have you been running a blog for?
you make blogging look easy. The full look of your web
site is fantastic, let alone the content!

IMEI Tracker said...

This is a very good tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Short but very accurate info… Thank you for sharing this one.
A must read article!