Is someone stealing your blog / web contents?

Thiefs and scoundrels

It's happened to us a few times. Our blog entries show up on some other blog in their entirety. Someone is simply copying all the posts and publishing them on their blog.

Nice, you think. someone thinks what we/I write/produce is so good that they want to copy it.

Wrong!

What they are doing is stealing your work.

Why is this bad? I'm sure there are many more reasons but here are a few:

• duplication of contents is not something Google likes so you're potentially losing Google rank
  
• they may be stealing google juice away from your site (they may end up higher ranked than you)
• they may get ad revenue that you should have had, if you and the thief both have ads on the sites, and if you don't have ads but they do, then they are simply profiteering off your back
• your contents may show up in contexts where you don't want it to be, especially if it looks as if you have contributed it freely.
• and no doubt others...
  

Now it's happened again to us and this time I will fight back.

The Thief

The "thief" this time is a "tourism" site called http://www.gibbstongables.com. It seems to be promoting tourism in New Zealand but is hosted out of the US.

What they do is they "scrape off" the the contents of our videos from YouTube, not only the video itself (which would be OK, that's what the embed code is for - if they put some of their own text/comments around it), but also the text that we have written about the video (what you see if you click "more" on YouTube), and even the comments from viewers. Here's an example:

• Their blog post: http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-kir-yianni-estate-with-stellios-boutaris-in-greece
• My scraped YouTube video page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Ch4C3BH2U
  

(If my plan of action works out well the first link may no longer be there in some time.)

They even have a search function on the site that makes it easier to find what they've stolen: http://www.gibbstongables.com/?s=bkwine

This time I'm fed up with it and I will fight back.

So should you, if it happens to you!

How would one know?

"But how would I know", you might ask, "that someone is scraping my contents?"

One good way to find out (and the way I found out) is to set up some Google Alerts on well chosen keywords: http://www.google.com/alerts. I have alerts set up for, for example, "BKWine" and for our URL. It's always interesting to see if you are ever mentioned somewhere, and it also catches scrapers as an added benefit.

So, I thought I'd tell you the story of what I am doing to fight it.

Who goes there? Whois?

First, I figured out who is behind the site: do a whois lookup. It won't necessarily be of much use, but at least it can be interesting, and maybe it will give you a better contact email than what's on the thieving site. Enter the URL Here's what you can use:

http://www.whois.net/

In my case that didn't give much information so instead they suggested to use:

http://who.godaddy.com

... and it turns out that the thief is (or at least the thieving site is owned by) someone called "Domains by Proxy, Inc" in Scottsdale, Arizona. If you happen to be in Scottsdale, would you go check 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353. Might it be a post box? Perhaps not. Funnily enough, only a stone's throw away from GoDaddy. Here they are Google Maps.

And they do list a contact email. But I'll come to that later.

The details:

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: GIBBSTONGABLES.COM
Created on: 21-Apr-04
Expires on: 21-Apr-10
Last Updated on: 11-Jun-09

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration GIBBSTONGABLES.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598

Technical Contact:
Private, Registration GIBBSTONGABLES.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598

So at least now we know who is stealing our contents and who we're fighting. Sort of.

What to do?

Having come this far, what can I do to fight back? I found a good description of a course of action on how to fight scraping on ProBlogger.net. Not all of it is relevant to me, so here's what I've done:

Here are some more info:
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/

1. Complain to Google

Google is not happy with people doing this kind of things so the first thing to do is to report the culprit to Google. If Google takes notice they might even block the site from searches. How to do it is described on the ProBlogger site.

2. Complain to AdWords

If the thief is trying to make money from Google AdWords / Google AdSense you might want to send an abuse alert to them too. That's also described on the ProBlogger page. In my case they did not have any ads on the page though.

3. Alert the hoster of the site

It's also a good idea to notify the hoster of the site. This can be done under the framework of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a so called DMCA Copyright Infringement Procedure, f you think it is relevant.

The hoster in this case is "The Planet". On their site they have a Legal page with contact information and info on what to do. They even have a good instruction on how to file a DMCA complaint (pdf). You should not do that "frivolously" without knowing that it is actually stolen contents (you might be liable for legal costs if you file complaints that are not in good faith and incorrect). But if you know you're right it seems to be a good thing to do. If you do, and follow the rules, then they are obliged to remove the infringing material and notify the site owner. He in turn may respond and defend his position.

Here's the kind of notice that I will send to them (I've tried to follow the instructions that the Planet has. I imagine that if you don't they won't take notice of it).

To: ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc. and all subsidiaries
Name of Agent Designated to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement – Andrea Z. Almeida
1333 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 110, Dallas, TX 75207
Telephone Number of Designated Agent (214) 782-7800
Facsimile Number of Designated Agent - (214) 782-7756
E-Mail Address of Designated Agent copyright@thep....

Notification to the Designated Agent, Andrea Z Almeida

Subject: Notification of copyright infringement by site supposedly hosted by The Planet.com

Date: XXXXX

Dear Sir,

I am the owner of the copyright of material published on the YouTube “channel” bkwine: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine.

Identification of infringed copyrighted work

As example, I own the copyright of the following video and, equally, to the accompanying text:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Ch4C3BH2U
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ7cq-5nPhQ
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75gpOInRtY

You will find a more extensive list at the end of this notification.

Identification of infringing material

The website http://www.gibbstongables.com/ , that according to my information is hosted by you, in your facilities, is infringing on my copyright of this material. They practice what is generally known as “scraping” or "splogging", in this case scraping contents from YouTube, thereby using the original material in its entirety without permission. (This is different form simply “embedding” a video which would not in itself constitute copyright infringement.)

As example, the above mentioned material is being used without my permission on the following pages:
1. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-kir-yianni-estate-with-stellios-boutaris-in-greece
2. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/a-short-visual-visit-to-v-innocenti-winery-in-montepulciano
3. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-herdade-do-esporao-interview

I request that you remove the infringing material or disable access to it.

I hereby affirm, as the complaining party, that I believe in good faith that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright holder, its agent or the law. In fact, I am the copyright owner and I have not authorized such use.

I hereby affirm, under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on behalf of the holder of the exclusive right that I claim to be infringed.

In addition to the above mentioned, it seems that several other copyright owners have their material used in an inappropriate manner by the said site.

Sincerely yours,
signed, with contact details

Annex 1:

List of pages found on http://www.gibbstongables.com/ with infringing material to which I own the copyright. The list may be incomplete. The list does not include material from other copyright owners:
1. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-kir-yianni-estate-with-stellios-boutaris-in-greece
2. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/a-short-visual-visit-to-v-innocenti-winery-in-montepulciano
3. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-herdade-do-esporao-interview
4. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/a-visual-vist-to-candialle-az-agr-in-chianti
5. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-domaine-boucabeille-interview
6. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-domaine-de-nizas-languedoc
7. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/a-visual-visit-to-tenute-nardi-winery-in-tuscany
8. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-mount-athos-wine-tsantali
9. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-interview-at-h-do-peso-vineyard-on-grape-varieties-etc
10. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/visual-visit-to-malhadinha-nova-winery-in-alentejo

Annex 2:

I attach pdf printouts of the pages referenced above.

I will also include pdf prints of the pages, just in case they would have been removed. (Which would be good, of course, but may cause confusion with the DMCA).

You can also use the DMCA form referenced on the ProBlogger pages that you can find here: DMCA and Cease and Desist forms. On this page you can also find some additional useful links!

4. Notify the infringer

The above done, my last step is to notify the infringer and request that he immediately remove the infringing material.

In my case they have contact web form on their page but no email. However, the WhoIs lookup through GoDaddy had a contact email address. I will use both those to send them a notification. Depending on what's happened you can send a full fledged Cease and Desist notification (see the template in the link above) or some other sort of notification.

I will opt for sending them a simpler message:

Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598

Date:

Dear Domains by Proxy, Inc,

It has come to my attention that you have made unauthorised use of my work.

The site owned and/or managed by you, according to current WhoIs lookup information, http://www.gibbstongables.com, practices what is generally called “scraping” or “splogging”, thereby copying contents from other sites without the permission of the copyright holder.

As example, I own the copyright to the following videos and, equally, to the accompanying text:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Ch4C3BH2U
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ7cq-5nPhQ
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75gpOInRtY

The above mentioned material is being used in an inappropriate manner without my permission on the following pages:

1. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-kir-yianni-estate-with-stellios-boutaris-in-greece
2. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/a-short-visual-visit-to-v-innocenti-winery-in-montepulciano
3. http://www.gibbstongables.com/uncategorized/e-herdade-do-esporao-interview

This is just a few examples. There are many other occurrences of such inappropriate use of material, mine as well as that from other sources, on your site.

I request that you remove the infringing material or disable access to it within five days and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future.

For information, this copyright infringement is also the subject of a DMCA notification as well as an abuse notification to Google.

Sincerely

With that I think I've done a reasonably good effort to stop the thieving.

5. Spread the word

But I'm not the only one who have been the subject of their illegitimate use of material. I will also try and track down the others that I find on their site and alert them to that their contents is being scraped.

Good luck to you if it happens to you.


PS: Doing a bit of internet digging it turns out that the owner of the domain, Domains By Proxy, Inc is owned by the CEO of GoDaddy internet hosting. They advertize their business as

Did you know that for each domain name you register, anyone - anywhere, anytime - can find out your name, home address, phone number and email address?

Sounds completely above-the-board, doesn't it?

UPDATE:

A quick response the my DMCA notification: I have received a notification from The Planet that the offending site has removed my contents. Well, they have. But they have also made a new post that scrapes my contents.

I have also had some response from other people which have been the subject of scraping by this site, with varying result: some say thanks and will take action (good!), others say that their happy that anyone uses their material in any way at all (bad!).

So I will just have to
a) follow up with the hoster and complain again
b) watch the http://www.gibbstongables.com/ and see if they continue to steal my contents