Yet Another Scraper Stealing the Entire Site

1. 40

   Writer Foxposted 11 years ago

   This forum post discussed the scraping site ALLTOPIC.com:
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/115379
   
   I have found another site which is scraping most of HubPages, right down to the HubPages-Tutorial-and-Community Section:
   
   http://    all-topic.com
   
   (Notice the hyphen in the name.)
   
   I didn't find any of my Hubs there, so I'm not filing anything.  If you find yours, the Host is GoDaddy, and you file a complaint here:
   
   https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/Abuse … p;ci=22420
   
   This is the guy who owns the site:
   
   Nguyen Huu Hai
   Cau Giay
   Ha Noi
   NA
   10000
   Vietnam
   Phone: +84.978922690
   Email Address: tips4all.net@gmail.com
   
   And this is what he looks like:
   http://vn.linkedin.com/pub/nguyen-huu-hai/14/ba4/54
   
   He's a freelance computer programmer.
   
   Happy Hubbing.

   replyreport
   1. 95

      Alison Grahamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I found one of my hubs there but entering the domain name without the gap and with the hyphen gets this message "Invalid domain name format"?????

      replyreport
      1. 40

         Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Of course, I don't want to make the link clickable, but just remove the spaces and paste it in your browser.  I just did and here's a screen shot.  All the Topic Pages are on the left:
         
         

         replyreport
         1. 66

            Lastheartposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I found my hub accidentally in that same page. Now my hub comes through them and not by HubPages. I lost it. I didn't want to keep searching another of my hub, because it will give him or them a visitor.
            You made a good job here Writer Fox.

            replyreport
      2. 91

         Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         When I enter the name without the gap I get nothing. So I used www. and got to see the front page but on clicking on my hub the screen went blank.

         replyreport
         1. 40

            Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            With the hyphen, all-topic.com is still online with all of HP's content.

            replyreport
   2. 64

      Froggy213posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks my friend--It was his site that I had noticed and mistakenly put alltopics without the hyphen. Good job on finding this dude. He must not have realized he put my wife's copyright notice with what he copied.

      replyreport
      1. 40

         Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         He may have had it under the domain without the hyphen and moved it to the one with a hyphen.  Guy's like this won't stop until they hear from the CEO of HubPages.

         replyreport
         1. 64

            Froggy213posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I know, and many of us wonder why our views have went into the crapper. I have found that many of my articles are not showing in Google search like they once did. Hubpages, it is time for you all to go to battle for us. I have considered buying my own website and my wife and I may just move all our material out of here.
            At one time, I was making some ok money here. It has went down to nothing and I feel something quite questionable happening here at hubpages. With over 600 hubs, I should be at payout every month. Not so.
            I hope some changes happen soon, or I will be making some changes.

            replyreport
         2. 74

            jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            As said once before, API data pulls are very common in the programme world. In fact all social sharing is based on pulling partial or whole units of data from one location to another. This fellow, like the other junior programmer, is testing to see if the code works and obviously it does. Try to conact him first and ask him to remove the resulted data.
            James

            replyreport
            1. 77

               ologsinquitoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               jacharless,
               
               Are you saying this was done inadvertently? If so, then contacting him directly would be the best bet. I guess what's difficult for non-techies to understand is how someone could do this by accident.

               replyreport
            2. 64

               Froggy213posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Oh c'mon. He isn't checking code by copying a whole site. No way. Apathy can be your biggest enemy. He knew what he was doing.

               replyreport
               1. 74

                  jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  shakes head. Not all things are done with malicious intent. Especially when it comes to hacking (programming). What he and many programmers, myself included, often do is test new programming techniques. Scrapes are very common. In fact if you have ever shared an article on FB, Twitter, Stumble, Reddit, etc you are are scraper. This fellow, like the Frenchman, used Google's JavaScript API directly from HP to recreate the page. He did a great job, actually. I did not see any independent adverts which means he is not trying to profit from the hack. In short, never assume until you have all the facts. Drop him an email first. And while everyone is at it, delete all the scrapes you have
                  ever used without the writers permission, enabling yourself or third  party platform to benefit from.
                  
                  James.

                  replyreport
                  1. 95

                     wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Sorry, cannot go with you here, James.  It may be common to scrape others work and publish it as a test, but so is stealing.  That it is common doesn't make it OK.
                     
                     It may or may not be with malicious intent, but that doesn't matter either.  It is harmful, it is illegal and it is unethical whatever the intended result.
                     
                     Finally, there is an adsense ad at the end of each stolen article.  The thief (and it is a thief!) is indeed earning from his stolen content.
                     
                     Off to file DMCA's with GoDaddy

                     replyreport
                     1. 74

                        jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        That ad has HP's doubleclick publisher number...awkward. Also, technically, he hadn't stolen anything. He, like FB, Pinterest, etc is ccurating content as a third party platform.
                        Again, before crowing thief, get the facts and then back up your firm position by removing every scrape you have done accidentally on purpose to increase your profit options.

                        replyreport
                        1. 95

                           wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           No, he's not curating hubs.  He is reproducing them and publishing them.  While copyright law allows reproduction of small portions of published work, reproducing the entire article, or a significant portion thereof, is prohibited.
                           
                           So, thief is the proper term.  Not curator, not exhibitor, not software test engineer.  Thief.

                           replyreport
                        2. 98

                           EricDockettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           Someone does not need to be an intentional thief, or even make money from their actions, to commit a copyright violation.  By copying a Hub he is tarnishing the uniqueness of it, and thereby reducing the author's capacity to earn money from their own work.  If his action has the ability to impact the creator's ability to earn from their work, he is committing a copyright violation. 
                           
                           This is all aside from the fact that we seem to be having trouble with copied content outranking Hubs these days.  If his "curated' content outranks yours, he's taken money out of your pocket.  Just because he isn't making money himself doesn't make it okay.

                           replyreport
                           1. 74

                              jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                              Am not disagreeing with you.
                              But other "legal" curators and syndication services are doing exactly the same thing?! Even writers are syndicating fellow writers content. Essentially all are in violation and most of the larger ones ARE hugely outranking other writers, not to mention lowering revenue potential for the writers while increasing their own profits.

                              replyreport
                              1. 98

                                 EricDockettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                                 I'm not sure what you mean by legal syndication services as it would pertain to HubPages.  Most I can think of would just post a link, or at the very least a link plus a few paragraphs.  If they are doing anything more they are violating copyright, and therefore what they are doing is not legal.  Whether they are some clown with a Blogger blog or CNN, they can't reproduce my work without my permission. 
                                 
                                 I'm a bit unforgiving with sites and bloggers who think it's okay to stretch the limits of copyright laws and Fair Use these days. Getting tired of seeing my work plastered all over the web.

                                 replyreport
                              2. 40

                                 Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                                 Syndication is not content theft; it is done by permission and often by payment do the syndication service. 
                                 
                                 Stealing content is an actionable offense in violation of U.S. law and of International Law in violation of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 166 countries.

                                 replyreport
            3. 40

               Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Why don't you send him an email.

               replyreport
   3. 81

      Alisha Adkinsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      McAfee gives me a "Suspicious Site" warning when I try to go to all-topic.com.    The site is disreputable in many ways, it would seem.

      replyreport
      1. 40

         Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         You can count on that.  Run Superantispyware (free) after you visit.
         http://www.superantispyware.com/

         replyreport
   4. 78

      LillyGrillzitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you two more stolen I just filed on healthylivingbox dot net. To find your stuff put on Google search alltopic space your writers name...ta da

      replyreport
      1. 78

         LillyGrillzitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         2 more filed against Alltopic.

         replyreport
         1. 78

            LillyGrillzitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            http://l iverpoolwallpaper. net/large-size-sweatpants-for-tall-men-paul-edmondson-on-hubpages.html
            http:// adf.ly/211953/http: //edweirdo.hubpages.com/hub/Nicolas-Cage-Movies
            http://a df.ly/211953/http:/ /dorsi.hubpages.com/hub/Money-Orders-at-Walmart
            http://adf.ly/2 11953/  http://lillygrillzit.hubpages.com/
            http://liverpoolwallpaper .net/why-is-my-refrigerator-too-cold-steveomc-on-hubpages.html
            http://adf.ly/211 953/http://lillygrillzit.hubpages.com/hub/ Why-It-Has-Been-So-Hot-In-the-South-Summer-2010-The-Gulf-Coast

            replyreport
            1. 78

               LillyGrillzitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Maybe since such important people are being hit we Hubbers as a whole will get more assistance from HP. You are welcome. :-) There were many, many others there it starts as Liverpool wallpaper, then adfly. On my stuff alone, hundreds of hits. This is major theft.

               replyreport
            2. 78

               LillyGrillzitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               DONT CLICK ON ANY LIVE LINKS I BROKE THEM UP BEFORE PUBLISHING AS YOU CAN SEE LIKE THE REPTILES THEY ARE LITTLE BITS ARE ALIVE ON THEIR OWN...CREEPY. NOT YELLING JUST WARNING.

               replyreport
               1. 66

                  Lastheartposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I love the way you said this.

                  replyreport
                  1. 78

                     LillyGrillzitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Thank you. :-)

                     replyreport
   5. 87

      moonlakeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I saw one of my hubs on all-topic but when I clicked to check it out. I got a blank page. Wondering if they could be taking some of their stuff down. I have filed so many DMCA lately I may have alread y filed on this person.

      replyreport
   6. 85

      Rock_njposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I can't believe that Google actually indexes and ranks these scrapper sites.  How lame is that?  Google should blacklist these sites and make it as though they don't exist in their rankings.
      
      Also, I've been to websites that do not allow simple copy and past functions.  Some kind of code is written into the pages to prevent easy copying.  Would this help if HP implemented this copy prevention method, or are these programmers able to get around it by downloading the source code of the page and recreating it on their servers?

      replyreport
      1. 95

         Alison Grahamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Well it looks like we can all stop worrying about this one - I am getting a blank white screen when I type in the url so looks as though the site has been taken down.

         replyreport
2. 77

   ologsinquitoposted 11 years ago

   One of my hubs is there, word for word, pictures and all.

   replyreport
3. 99

   chef-de-jourposted 11 years ago

   Many thanks Writer Fox. There are many hubs from many hubbers. I've filed a complaint thanks to your link and hope that others will too. Let's keep at these thieves. It feels like they're in our front rooms.

   replyreport
4. 74

   jacharlessposted 11 years ago

   PS, the API pulled all 15000+ articles wrapped in an iframe header. Thanks to Google's generous creation of the API callback.
   So, best to file a thief report against  Goo for allowing this process to happen in the first place. Go to the source of the problem, yes? Cut off the head of the snake makes more sense than picking at its scales...

   replyreport
5. 82

   Felisa Daskeoposted 11 years ago

   I just visited the alltopic.com site and there's a message at the top left saying, "the domain alltopic.com may be for sale by its owner.  I wonder why.

   replyreport
   1. 66

      Lastheartposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My hub is still there completely:
      
      

      replyreport
      1. 95

         Alison Grahamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I thought this site was taken down because I was just getting a white screen but have checked again and it is still there! GRRR!

         replyreport
6. 40

   Writer Foxposted 11 years ago

   Put a hyphen between 'all' and 'topic' and the site is still there.  This could explain some of the lost traffic to HubPages.
   
   He has copied 20,800 pages!

   replyreport
7. 63

   Anamika Sposted 11 years ago

   This is frustrating. I found more than 50 hubs of mine copied. I am wasting my time on filing DMCA. I find this exercise so tiring... so I divided it for 5 days. Send for 13 today.

   replyreport
8. 73

   LeslieAdrienneposted 11 years ago

   I have found 13 of mine so far.... arrrrrrgh!!! This guy is a thief... I am starting the reporting process tomorrow....

   replyreport
   1. 95

      Alison Grahamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      what is the quickest way of detecting these copied hubs on the site? Is it a question of putting each title into the search one by one or is there a better way? thanks, Alison

      replyreport
9. 60

   Mavis Hazeltonposted 11 years ago

   Yes would be good to know best method of checking

   replyreport
   1. 40

      Writer Foxposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Check the topic pages in the left column.  They are identical to HubPages.

      replyreport