Irony is Great

1. 76

   Shadesbreathposted 16 years ago

   So, there's this website dedicated to preventing crime in the neighborhood, and as part of the message of good neighborly conduct, they stole my article to help them with content on their anti-crime webpage.  Ain't irony awesome.
   
   I contacted the webmaster, asked him to remove it.  I can't find anything more obvious than that to contact.  But they do list a police department that they are affiliated with, and so I mentioned that it would be a shame if their police partners found out they were pirating copyrighted material for their site.  Hopefully that will suffice.
   
   My article:
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Top-10-Ways-to- … d-Neighbor
   
   Their rip off:
   
   http://www.thewoodsgarland.org/index_fi … enance.htm

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2. 67

   Christoph Reillyposted 16 years ago

   Yep! That is definitely irony. Sucks, don't it?
   
   I just got warnings on two of my hubs saying they had been stolen from me. One is "My Cat is Trying to Kill Me" hub, and the real sucky thing is there are several sites linking to IT, and not to me! I have asked the original pirate to remove it (don't know if he will as he's not on American soil) and have contacted all the "linkers" and asked them to change their links to point to the original. Hope it works.
   
   Another weird thing about it is that the stolen one is "live," that is, you can leave comments but they show up here at hubpages, but you are seeing his ads on the article instead of mine. It's strange to me.

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3. 70

   Pam Robersonposted 16 years ago

   I'm seeing more and more incidents of hub stealing like this, and it seems like there could be something hubpages could do to reduce a potential thief's intention to copy. For example, everything we publish here is dated from the moment we click the 'publish' button. That date should appear on our hubs along with our name. Perhaps a date on the hub would make a person think twice about stealing it.
   
   It might also help to have an additional capsule to add a banner on our hubs from Copyscape that says "Page Protected by Copyscape Do Not Copy." I think that's free.
   
   While these suggestions won't prevent everyone from stealing, it may help to reduce the number of potential hijacks.
   
   Sorry you two were robbed.

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4. 76

   Shadesbreathposted 16 years ago

   Pam I like your idea, but I think a better idea would be if HubPages put some sort of electrical charge booby-trap into our hubs so that when someone copies it, ten thousand volts at high amperage courses over the Internet and fries the crap out of them, melting their fingers to the keyboard while their bodies writhe and flop like landed fish.  I know that if I worked for HubPages, I would make that happen.  I keep waiting.

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   1. 70

      Shirley Andersonposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      How do you really feel, Shades?

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5. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   
   
   What a bunch of crapants.
   
   Registrant:
   The Woods Neighborhood Watch Group
   
   222 Elmwood Dr.
   Garland, Texas 75043
   United States
   
   Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
   Domain Name: THEWOODSGARLAND.ORG
   Created on: 03-Mar-06
   Expires on: 03-Mar-10
   Last Updated on: 03-Mar-08
   
   Administrative Contact:
   Tillman, Dan wdtillman@verizon.net
   The Woods Neighborhood Watch Group
   222 Elmwood Dr.
   Garland, Texas 75043
   United States
   9722406601
   
   Technical Contact:
   Tillman, Dan wdtillman@verizon.net
   The Woods Neighborhood Watch Group
   222 Elmwood Dr.
   Garland, Texas 75043
   United States
   9722406601
   
   At least they have a telephone number so you can pester them

   replyreport
6. STAFF

   pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

   Pam -- We are in the testing phase of a new feature that will help notify people when their hubs may have been copied on other sites.  Being vigilant about either contacting the thieves, or better yet filing DMCA complaints with the site, the hosting company, or with their advertisers is the best way to make a dent in the problem.  The new feature will help make some parts of that process easier.

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7. 70

   Pam Robersonposted 16 years ago

   Thanks Paul, I appreciate you letting us know, and this does sound like it will help. I was just trying to think of something that might prevent it from getting that far. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to simply add a line at the bottom of my hubs to indicate the date it was published and that no copying is allowed. Although, it appears I have nothing to worry about yet! LOL! I'm working on that.
   
   Of course, the booby-trap idea that Shades had is a much more fun idea. If only we could see the thief getting zapped.
   
   Thanks again!

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8. 70

   Shirley Andersonposted 16 years ago

   Seems like all the piracy I've been reading about on the forums lately has gone through GoDaddy.  I realize that they aren't responsible for it and I don't know a lot about this sort of thing, but is it odd for it to come through the same place?  Or is it just because GoDaddy is popular?

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   1. 57

      nobama is betterposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      the registrar, godaddy (see also ICANN), is NOT responsible for content of the domain, nor the characters which comprise the domain.  They are not thought police.  If you have issues with the content take it up with the domain registrant.
      
      
      
      
      stay AWAY from godaddy:
      
      http://NOdaddy.com
      
      ^^ enough true to life horror stories to last you five lifetimes.  While they seem a viable choice.. when you get burned it will be badly... and you will get burned at some point.
      
      ICANN rules require you to have current contact information in whois.  If you're using public whois you CAN used munged contact information like
      
      f9a9s9c9i9s9t9s@a9c9l9u.o9r9g--remove9sandeverythingafterdashes.com
      
      which any intelligent sentient person can resolve into
      
      fascists@aclu.org
      
      if godaddy wants to take your domain they allege the automated spambots were unable to reach you at the published whois.  And right well they shouldn't: that was the point.  A REAL person could have contacted you.  Godaddy will snatch your domain.  If you're on the receiving end of slightly less fascism you will have the 'opportunity' to pay an excessive extortion fee to recover your domain.  lucky you?  no.
      
      
      
      moniker.com is nodaddy.com forum recommended but doesn't provide hosting and have elusive tech support.  While they suck the least they too have inane policies.  The best is password expiration that requires you to call them.  They keep super fantastic phone hours that makes that one a real joy.
      
      Use 'cheap' as your primary criteria?  You're going to get hosed.
      
      
      ---------
      
      godaddy (http://NOdaddy.com) web hosting is a joke.
      
      Go ahead and try to use the space YOU'VE PAID FOR.  Go ahead.   If you interact with support EVER you're account is flagged for routine 'inspection'.  If no interaction you may well be flagged anyway.
      
      You'll get a delightful "stop using your hosting" letter saying that you cannot store files on your account.  Godaddy hosts appears to have ZERO  understanding of apache, a webserver technology.  Files are stored and the software serves them up to requesting visitor's web browser.
      
      Can't store files?
      
      You ain't got not website.

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9. 88

   Patty Inglish, MSposted 16 years ago

   One of my articles was stolen by a site from Ukraine (a workforce site) and one from an Arab nation (a university), neither of which used GoDaddy. None of the emails listed on sites or registrations worked.

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   1. 70

      Shirley Andersonposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Well, that blows my observation outta the water.  There's no connection, obviously.
      
      Sorry to hear you've been taken advantage of, Patty.  Do you honestly think that if we put a copyright message in our hubs that they will stop doing it?  I'm asking because I'm not sure it will stop folks outside of North America.  Or even some in North America.

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10. 70

    Pam Robersonposted 16 years ago

    I'm really sorry to hear of your experience Patty because it sounds like there was nothing you could do at that point.
    
    So I've been thinking, again, and I remember there used to be a fairly simply script that could be inserted in the html of any webpage that would prevent a visitor from highlighting and copying text off the webpage. It exists, I've seen it, I just need to locate it again. But having an option like that would be awesome because if someone wanted to copy and paste your work, they couldn't - they'd have to write it all by hand.
    
    I still like the electrical charged booby-trap zapping idea though.

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11. 88

    Patty Inglish, MSposted 16 years ago

    The two international sites in question looked chaotic or unprofessional and I hope they get little traffic. I'm not going to worry about them. Other domestic and international sites that I have contacted have immediately removed my content that was stolen. I'll do what I can accomplish in fighting theft and let the rest go.

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12. 76

    Shadesbreathposted 16 years ago

    A copyright message might scare some tentative thief with a murmering sense of guilt sitting behind the curtains of his conscience, but the fact is, you don't need a "copyright" disclaimer or even the little © symbol.  Once your work is put down "on paper" which includes published as an Internet article, it is copyrighted (at least here in the U.S. and in most of the civilized nations of Europe).  Actually getting an official copyright only gives you litigious extra stuff about damages and stuff if you sue, but the right to own your work and prevent people from using it is already yours legally.

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    1. 70

       Shirley Andersonposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Writers know that but plagerizers either don't know it or don't care.  I guess the little note is to warn them that it does bear copyright protection.
       
       Oh, I don't know.  To the best of my knowledge, my plagerized stuff has gone into print mags.  I haven't come across internet theft, yet anyway.  Hopefully never.

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13. 65

    Mishaposted 16 years ago

    I used to freak out about this, but now I don't really care
    
    Too much hassle with all those DMCA, it's not really worth it. Try to imagine filing like 174 of them, like here: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22remem … p;filter=0
    
    
    
    Actually it is a good method of getting backlinks - if you are smart enough to insert links to your site(s) into your content - most of these guys copy word for word, including images and links

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14. 65

    Mishaposted 16 years ago

    Umm, I actually went to explore at least some of those thief sites, and found this "summary"
    
    http://www.obzokee.com/commute/what-are … rices-soar
    
    Shirley, the funny thing is - I think you should know the owner
    
    (Shirley is NOT the owner, but I know she knows him)

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15. 76

    Shadesbreathposted 16 years ago

    Well, the webmaster at that site emailed me back saying they took it down, so, good enough for me.  It worked.

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16. 75

    sunforgedposted 16 years ago

    relating to the comment about the stolen info on an oversees university site with non-working registrant info: I have read many horror stories about sites being taken down due to non working registrant info: If you really cared you could contact ICANN or the universities hosting company make a complaint about their fake registrant info: and they could be completely pulled
    
    http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/lofiver … t9491.html
    
    doesnt seem worth the effort, but may be an effective method to strike back

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