Billy Jones notes my copyright is being infringed on

Uncategorized 1 Minute

Yes, Billy, I know my content is being stolen and used on splogs. I’ve given up. Why? Because when we shut down one of these guys a few weeks ago three more splogs sprung up. I don’t have time to fight war with the sploggers. I wish you luck. Translation: I realize when someone has more resources to use against me than I have to use against them. Sigh.

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Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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59 thoughts on “Billy Jones notes my copyright is being infringed on”

  1. Robert,
    Sadly, you’re exactly right. Fact is: the problem is far bigger than you or me either one and until a really big group of bloggers with some big time commercial and government backing gets behind us there’s little that can be done.

    Thanks for commenting so quickly and for being honest in your answers.

    Like

  2. Robert,
    Sadly, you’re exactly right. Fact is: the problem is far bigger than you or me either one and until a really big group of bloggers with some big time commercial and government backing gets behind us there’s little that can be done.

    Thanks for commenting so quickly and for being honest in your answers.

    Like

  3. There’s surely got to be some kind of “watermark” url-tagging which could be developed to allow bloggers to lay claim to their own content.
    One for the wordpress backroom boys methinks?

    Like

  4. There’s surely got to be some kind of “watermark” url-tagging which could be developed to allow bloggers to lay claim to their own content.
    One for the wordpress backroom boys methinks?

    Like

  12. I check my trackbacks from time to time. It’s amusing how some of them actually give you some linklove using your content.

    Block the IP. easy peasy. When their aggregator doesn’t work, they’ll have to move to something else.

    Like

  14. I check my trackbacks from time to time. It’s amusing how some of them actually give you some linklove using your content.

    Block the IP. easy peasy. When their aggregator doesn’t work, they’ll have to move to something else.

    Like

  15. I DO NOT suppose you are right, Mr. Scoble!

    You MUST keep attacking those who steal from you, or your work will be stolen habitually.

    Of course, there are some situations that are more difficult to pursue than others, but do not let the Illegitimus carborundum you!

    Besides, ask your attorney what the effects of a public pronouncement of disinterest are on your future rights.

    (By the way, that old Latin “illegitimus non carborundum est” isn’t really Latin and doesn’t really say anything, literally means nothing — but you get my point, right? Keep fighting.)

    ‘sup!

    Like

  16. I DO NOT suppose you are right, Mr. Scoble!

    You MUST keep attacking those who steal from you, or your work will be stolen habitually.

    Of course, there are some situations that are more difficult to pursue than others, but do not let the Illegitimus carborundum you!

    Besides, ask your attorney what the effects of a public pronouncement of disinterest are on your future rights.

    (By the way, that old Latin “illegitimus non carborundum est” isn’t really Latin and doesn’t really say anything, literally means nothing — but you get my point, right? Keep fighting.)

    ‘sup!

    Like

  17. In some instances I would feel a moral imperative to continue to fight them, or to delegate or jumpstart that fight…

    then again, I’m not cool enough to have splogs stealing my content (with the exception of one russian one, once).

    Like

  18. In some instances I would feel a moral imperative to continue to fight them, or to delegate or jumpstart that fight…

    then again, I’m not cool enough to have splogs stealing my content (with the exception of one russian one, once).

    Like

  25. Pingback: RSS feeds and Copyright Infringement | David Brunelle: Geek for Life

  28. Robert,

    Be careful, Billy makes rash judgements about context and people and tends to go with the crowd. He may want to latch on to you to promote him.

    History, not revision:

    Allen posted this on his site, and did not delete replies, unlike Billy who has. Billy wants people to think what he thinks, to control and manipulate the direction. Allen left all comments and his original post intact.

    Billy’s original post on the matter, in which he calls Jenkins a fake, is excerpted below.

    Allan Jenkins is in the business of Corporate Communications (or so he says) but Allan Jenkins is a fake and I can prove it.

    Professional communications specalists don’t engage in taking the statements of others out of context or call them names when they do. Allan Jenkins does both right here.

    Professionals don’t post a Code of Blogging Ethics to their own blog and simply ignore it because they disagree with someone else.

    Professionals don’t engage in spreading rumors, they choose to wait until the facts are on the table.

    Professionals don’t lie. In this post Allan Jenkins says he checks his referral logs but in this post he states, “Few serious bloggers worry about, know, or even check their traffic numbers. Why would they?”

    Professionals give proper attribution to those they lift content from but in this post Allan Jenkins lifts content from my post and fails to give me proper attribution. Here it is for all to see:

    “Myth #3: RSS feeds are fresh content for the taking. Larry Borsato exposed some (since defunct) scammers last year. RSS-feeds are publications, just like the magazine that comes through your door each month. See Myth #1.

    SillyBilly #1: Publishing RSS feeds is like leaving your bike at the end of your driveway: You are asking for it to be stolen. No, publishing RSS feeds is like publishing a book, or a magazine article, or making a radio show. Just as I don’t expect my magazine articles to be ripped off and republished — without attribution and without pay — I don’t expect my feed to be scraped. Theft is theft.

    Sub-SillyBilly #1a: It’s your fault for publishing full feeds instead of excerpts. How I publish is irrelevant.

    SillyBilly #2: The splogger is driving you traffic… why complain? Few serious bloggers worry about, know, or even check their traffic numbers. Why would they? In a Long Tail world, I care about who, not how many. What I do care dearly about is my public reputation. A splogger repackaging my content can only harm that reputation by wrapping my words in AdSense ads that may be pornographic at worst, irrelevant at best. Moreover, known sploggers — and more importantly, the sites they link to — are penalized by Google, so my site reputation is diminished by a splogger.”

    So I ask you, is Allan Jenkins the man you want to represent your business or is Jinkins a jinx who will run your business right into the ground? In my book, Allan Jenkins is a fraud.

    And in case you’re wondering just how popular his blog is: Technorati ranks him #22, 416. Me, I’m only ranked #18,012. Need I say more?

    Oh, just in-case anyone is interested I found another splog that links to Allan Jenkins.”

    Like

  29. Robert,

    Be careful, Billy makes rash judgements about context and people and tends to go with the crowd. He may want to latch on to you to promote him.

    History, not revision:

    Allen posted this on his site, and did not delete replies, unlike Billy who has. Billy wants people to think what he thinks, to control and manipulate the direction. Allen left all comments and his original post intact.

    Billy’s original post on the matter, in which he calls Jenkins a fake, is excerpted below.

    Allan Jenkins is in the business of Corporate Communications (or so he says) but Allan Jenkins is a fake and I can prove it.

    Professional communications specalists don’t engage in taking the statements of others out of context or call them names when they do. Allan Jenkins does both right here.

    Professionals don’t post a Code of Blogging Ethics to their own blog and simply ignore it because they disagree with someone else.

    Professionals don’t engage in spreading rumors, they choose to wait until the facts are on the table.

    Professionals don’t lie. In this post Allan Jenkins says he checks his referral logs but in this post he states, “Few serious bloggers worry about, know, or even check their traffic numbers. Why would they?”

    Professionals give proper attribution to those they lift content from but in this post Allan Jenkins lifts content from my post and fails to give me proper attribution. Here it is for all to see:

    “Myth #3: RSS feeds are fresh content for the taking. Larry Borsato exposed some (since defunct) scammers last year. RSS-feeds are publications, just like the magazine that comes through your door each month. See Myth #1.

    SillyBilly #1: Publishing RSS feeds is like leaving your bike at the end of your driveway: You are asking for it to be stolen. No, publishing RSS feeds is like publishing a book, or a magazine article, or making a radio show. Just as I don’t expect my magazine articles to be ripped off and republished — without attribution and without pay — I don’t expect my feed to be scraped. Theft is theft.

    Sub-SillyBilly #1a: It’s your fault for publishing full feeds instead of excerpts. How I publish is irrelevant.

    SillyBilly #2: The splogger is driving you traffic… why complain? Few serious bloggers worry about, know, or even check their traffic numbers. Why would they? In a Long Tail world, I care about who, not how many. What I do care dearly about is my public reputation. A splogger repackaging my content can only harm that reputation by wrapping my words in AdSense ads that may be pornographic at worst, irrelevant at best. Moreover, known sploggers — and more importantly, the sites they link to — are penalized by Google, so my site reputation is diminished by a splogger.”

    So I ask you, is Allan Jenkins the man you want to represent your business or is Jinkins a jinx who will run your business right into the ground? In my book, Allan Jenkins is a fraud.

    And in case you’re wondering just how popular his blog is: Technorati ranks him #22, 416. Me, I’m only ranked #18,012. Need I say more?

    Oh, just in-case anyone is interested I found another splog that links to Allan Jenkins.”

    Like

  30. Would any of you be interested in a solution that would pin-point a splog that has plagiarized your content?

    I’m in the process of developing a start-up that does just this. Please understand that I’m not trying to plug here, just trying to gauge a better understanding from the community at large what they would like to see when something is reported back.

    Like

  31. Would any of you be interested in a solution that would pin-point a splog that has plagiarized your content?

    I’m in the process of developing a start-up that does just this. Please understand that I’m not trying to plug here, just trying to gauge a better understanding from the community at large what they would like to see when something is reported back.

    Like

  34. Hehe…. man.. I didn’t know so many people wanted to do this. Webscrapers, you pretty much have no chance at it. But the ones that pull the post directly, if you just write a quick script that reads autodiscovery trackbacks and compares it to the post, you can probably get a hit on splogs pretty easily.

    When I get a chance, I’ll write a MT plugin. Didn’t know it was such an issue. It’d be a lot easier if you were running the system off a VPS and could just block any traffic from any IP though.

    Like

  35. Hehe…. man.. I didn’t know so many people wanted to do this. Webscrapers, you pretty much have no chance at it. But the ones that pull the post directly, if you just write a quick script that reads autodiscovery trackbacks and compares it to the post, you can probably get a hit on splogs pretty easily.

    When I get a chance, I’ll write a MT plugin. Didn’t know it was such an issue. It’d be a lot easier if you were running the system off a VPS and could just block any traffic from any IP though.

    Like

  36. Whoa…. hold the horses, Ginger. I don’t know about other folks, but Billy and I are on good terms again. Simple misunderstanding.

    Robert, you and Shel mentioned my code of blogging ethics on the Red Couch a couple of years ago. One reason I feel I have to “go after” sploggers from time to time is because of, well, ethics. I’m under no illusion that I can help shut more than a few sploggers down, but I think ignoring sploggers signals them that the field is clear.

    The real problem, as Amy Gahran points out on her site, is that Google and Yahoo provide an enormous incentive to sploggers, without giving safeguards to bloggers with CC licenses. But surely Google has every incentive to keep its AdSense ads “on the right side of the rules”… I simply cannot believe that those bright people cannot devise a method to do that.

    Or is it technologically impossible?

    Like

  37. Whoa…. hold the horses, Ginger. I don’t know about other folks, but Billy and I are on good terms again. Simple misunderstanding.

    Robert, you and Shel mentioned my code of blogging ethics on the Red Couch a couple of years ago. One reason I feel I have to “go after” sploggers from time to time is because of, well, ethics. I’m under no illusion that I can help shut more than a few sploggers down, but I think ignoring sploggers signals them that the field is clear.

    The real problem, as Amy Gahran points out on her site, is that Google and Yahoo provide an enormous incentive to sploggers, without giving safeguards to bloggers with CC licenses. But surely Google has every incentive to keep its AdSense ads “on the right side of the rules”… I simply cannot believe that those bright people cannot devise a method to do that.

    Or is it technologically impossible?

    Like

  38. Blogging was not made mainstream by “righters” and publishers. How can you expect people who may have no clue what you are talking about to “Get it”.
    What was that about the mother of invention? Some folks snatching your content may only understand “copy right, copy left, cut, paste.” Don’t blame Murphy for being “Murphy”. Why did torrent come about? Beeeecause it became illegal to copy music using other methods. If they completely copy and paste the content, shame on them. However, Imitation is what?
    I am sure you can find hundreds of ambulance chasers to help out. Some people may want to keep a personal library of all your words of witt. Will actions to protect content slam those folks? You hard work and effort and content is great. Just keep raising the bar. Job security is actually job insecurity. Is a soap box racer and indy car? Take it as a complement unless it is taking money out of your pocket.
    Where would you be if no one wanted to read or view what you thought was important. Exclusive interview will be given on ABC. CBS copy of ABC. Firebird copies lines of Camero.
    Wow they may be making a copy of content to show key influencers. WOW you just blew a 100 million dollar potential contract by blocking the wrong guy/gal. Poetic justice.
    just a thought. The views expressed by Nietzche’s crazy man are not necessarily those of this station or the writer. lol translated “don’t flame me”

    Once open source becomes realtime, the big guys will have to spell out and define what they feel is fair use of code etc. For now just be happy you are good enough to copy. People don’t copy junk. Zune, iPod. POD? Did I say POD?

    Mr. Scoble, Your new show is great. Still needs a way to fast forward the V-Deo’s or track view time. just another thought.

    One more idea-er. post a small link explaining fair use of content (not written by a lawyer). Eduukate them (KISS 101) 3kindsofpeople

    Like

  39. Blogging was not made mainstream by “righters” and publishers. How can you expect people who may have no clue what you are talking about to “Get it”.
    What was that about the mother of invention? Some folks snatching your content may only understand “copy right, copy left, cut, paste.” Don’t blame Murphy for being “Murphy”. Why did torrent come about? Beeeecause it became illegal to copy music using other methods. If they completely copy and paste the content, shame on them. However, Imitation is what?
    I am sure you can find hundreds of ambulance chasers to help out. Some people may want to keep a personal library of all your words of witt. Will actions to protect content slam those folks? You hard work and effort and content is great. Just keep raising the bar. Job security is actually job insecurity. Is a soap box racer and indy car? Take it as a complement unless it is taking money out of your pocket.
    Where would you be if no one wanted to read or view what you thought was important. Exclusive interview will be given on ABC. CBS copy of ABC. Firebird copies lines of Camero.
    Wow they may be making a copy of content to show key influencers. WOW you just blew a 100 million dollar potential contract by blocking the wrong guy/gal. Poetic justice.
    just a thought. The views expressed by Nietzche’s crazy man are not necessarily those of this station or the writer. lol translated “don’t flame me”

    Once open source becomes realtime, the big guys will have to spell out and define what they feel is fair use of code etc. For now just be happy you are good enough to copy. People don’t copy junk. Zune, iPod. POD? Did I say POD?

    Mr. Scoble, Your new show is great. Still needs a way to fast forward the V-Deo’s or track view time. just another thought.

    One more idea-er. post a small link explaining fair use of content (not written by a lawyer). Eduukate them (KISS 101) 3kindsofpeople

    Like

  40. Robert,

    Explain the situation in a short, comprehensive mail to:
    abuse(a)google.com, abuse(a)adsense.com, abuse(a)yahoo.com and abuse(a)live.com

    Checking takes two clicks, which is less than most usual frauds.

    This not should prevent them not from existing, but from being either findable, or earning any ad-money.

    If those come up everyweek, look for the text of the first line of your last posts; check it’s a splog and send another mail. Blog about it. Repeat until the teams there realize who you are, and how many person you represent.

    What they need to do is to add a feature that checks the texts of two feeds are very close. If you have several feeds that you write, you will need a tool to declare declare them as legitimate copies.

    IMHO, Ad-Sense would be the more efficient corner.

    Tony,
    If you can automate that process, or obtain trust from the big ones to check for them and just send them a URL-to-ban list, you are rich.

    Like

  41. Robert,

    Explain the situation in a short, comprehensive mail to:
    abuse(a)google.com, abuse(a)adsense.com, abuse(a)yahoo.com and abuse(a)live.com

    Checking takes two clicks, which is less than most usual frauds.

    This not should prevent them not from existing, but from being either findable, or earning any ad-money.

    If those come up everyweek, look for the text of the first line of your last posts; check it’s a splog and send another mail. Blog about it. Repeat until the teams there realize who you are, and how many person you represent.

    What they need to do is to add a feature that checks the texts of two feeds are very close. If you have several feeds that you write, you will need a tool to declare declare them as legitimate copies.

    IMHO, Ad-Sense would be the more efficient corner.

    Tony,
    If you can automate that process, or obtain trust from the big ones to check for them and just send them a URL-to-ban list, you are rich.

    Like

  42. Darkmoon,

    Track backs are almost dead as there isnt any real type of verification solution. Also,sploggers are not just doing this for fun. There is a lot of money to be made in scraping some else’s hard work.

    A splogger will use a bot to scrape bits of a blog post or in some cases the whole thing and then use synonyms to make it slightly different.

    The algorithm that we have come up with has taken almost 6 months to get right. We can now scan 6.5M blogs in 24 hours and then show results based on several metrics.

    The problem is very complex and isnt easily solved by any means.

    Google has something to benefit from the sheer number of splogs within Blogger. They can show to an advertiser that they have x number of blogs and charge accordingly. What would happen if that number of blogs could be reduced by X million?

    Follow the link and drop me your email and I will be more then happy to have you beta when we are ready.

    http://www.blogwerx.com

    Like

  43. Darkmoon,

    Track backs are almost dead as there isnt any real type of verification solution. Also,sploggers are not just doing this for fun. There is a lot of money to be made in scraping some else’s hard work.

    A splogger will use a bot to scrape bits of a blog post or in some cases the whole thing and then use synonyms to make it slightly different.

    The algorithm that we have come up with has taken almost 6 months to get right. We can now scan 6.5M blogs in 24 hours and then show results based on several metrics.

    The problem is very complex and isnt easily solved by any means.

    Google has something to benefit from the sheer number of splogs within Blogger. They can show to an advertiser that they have x number of blogs and charge accordingly. What would happen if that number of blogs could be reduced by X million?

    Follow the link and drop me your email and I will be more then happy to have you beta when we are ready.

    http://www.blogwerx.com

    Like

  44. Allan,
    Thanks for setting Ginger straight. To all who read this, Allan Jenkins and I had a misunderstanding because I jumped to incorrect conclusions. It was all my fault. Thankfully Allan has forgiven me and I, Allan.

    Like

  45. Allan,
    Thanks for setting Ginger straight. To all who read this, Allan Jenkins and I had a misunderstanding because I jumped to incorrect conclusions. It was all my fault. Thankfully Allan has forgiven me and I, Allan.

    Like

  48. Tony. Already signed up. While Matt@WP has actually be very formidable at working the Akismet line, they’ve dropped the ball on the “officially supported for MT” plugin. It’s too bad.

    Now, I just need to figure something out for a redirect for when my blog gets digg or slashdot effect and I’ll be good to go. 🙂

    Like

  49. Tony. Already signed up. While Matt@WP has actually be very formidable at working the Akismet line, they’ve dropped the ball on the “officially supported for MT” plugin. It’s too bad.

    Now, I just need to figure something out for a redirect for when my blog gets digg or slashdot effect and I’ll be good to go. 🙂

    Like

  50. Robert, Allen, et all.

    Billy Jones works behind the scenes to trash other people; I’ve seen it in action. His comments to Allen were way out of line, calling him a liar and a fake because Billy jumped to conclusions regarding the context of Allen’s remarks. Allen may have forgiven him, but I have not.

    He’s attributed comments to me that I’ve never said, twisted and put words in my mouth by innuendo and taken things out of context that I’ve written, all while wearing a false face and describing himself as a “friend”. It went so far that I asked him to take a lie detector test on the matter, one I also agreed to take, to prove some of what I’m saying. He refused to do so, citing a “lack of funds”.

    I’m not perfect by any means, far from it, but I am not going to be lied about by Billy either behind my back or to my face and/or see others trashed also by him and not speak out about it.

    Like

  51. Robert, Allen, et all.

    Billy Jones works behind the scenes to trash other people; I’ve seen it in action. His comments to Allen were way out of line, calling him a liar and a fake because Billy jumped to conclusions regarding the context of Allen’s remarks. Allen may have forgiven him, but I have not.

    He’s attributed comments to me that I’ve never said, twisted and put words in my mouth by innuendo and taken things out of context that I’ve written, all while wearing a false face and describing himself as a “friend”. It went so far that I asked him to take a lie detector test on the matter, one I also agreed to take, to prove some of what I’m saying. He refused to do so, citing a “lack of funds”.

    I’m not perfect by any means, far from it, but I am not going to be lied about by Billy either behind my back or to my face and/or see others trashed also by him and not speak out about it.

    Like

  52. Robert, just as a reminder, a lot of people count on you and your blogging success to represent them against the evil doers. I know it’s a burden and a time waster in many respects, but a lot of people look up to you and figure if he can, I can. And if he won’t, there’s nothing I can do.

    All it does take is a couple of CC’d emails to the right folks to add to a mountain of evidence against the evil doers. I have mine waiting in my draft box as form letters, just fill in the blanks and send. Lending your voice with the rest of us “small” voices does make a difference.

    Like

  53. Robert, just as a reminder, a lot of people count on you and your blogging success to represent them against the evil doers. I know it’s a burden and a time waster in many respects, but a lot of people look up to you and figure if he can, I can. And if he won’t, there’s nothing I can do.

    All it does take is a couple of CC’d emails to the right folks to add to a mountain of evidence against the evil doers. I have mine waiting in my draft box as form letters, just fill in the blanks and send. Lending your voice with the rest of us “small” voices does make a difference.

    Like

  54. I’d imagine that some of you friends could put together a system for automating splog detection and reporting to ISPs. It could work much like the spam detection at the major mail portals. When enough people report a splog then it gets shut down. ISP that don’t shut down splogs get blacklisted.

    Like

  55. I’d imagine that some of you friends could put together a system for automating splog detection and reporting to ISPs. It could work much like the spam detection at the major mail portals. When enough people report a splog then it gets shut down. ISP that don’t shut down splogs get blacklisted.

    Like

  58. My Free Copyright will be launching at the end of November and should help with this issue: http://www.myfreecopyright.com

    You can go there now to find out more details.

    It is a third party date registration service which among other things allow bloggers and podcasters to enter the URL to their feed and every entry the publish will be downloaded and date registered automatically.

    With a date registered copyright including Blogs and Podcasts, a blogger can then send a legitimate cease and desist to the sploggers.

    If you do not have a copyright registered, by law you are unable to pursue legal action with copyright infringement.

    Find out more on how you can protect your original digital creations at http://www.myfreecopyright.com/about_this_site

    Like

  59. My Free Copyright will be launching at the end of November and should help with this issue: http://www.myfreecopyright.com

    You can go there now to find out more details.

    It is a third party date registration service which among other things allow bloggers and podcasters to enter the URL to their feed and every entry the publish will be downloaded and date registered automatically.

    With a date registered copyright including Blogs and Podcasts, a blogger can then send a legitimate cease and desist to the sploggers.

    If you do not have a copyright registered, by law you are unable to pursue legal action with copyright infringement.

    Find out more on how you can protect your original digital creations at http://www.myfreecopyright.com/about_this_site

    Like

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