Bloggers beware! There be Pirates abound!

[Paul Corsetti]

Since winter is my slow time, I tend to poke around the net to see what I can do to tweak my online presence… 

 

Just the other day I discovered a website by accident (http://www.azlandscape.com/ ) that is trying to cheat in their Google presence by taking my blog post content and burying it on hidden pages in their site in order to drive up Google search hits for its URL.  At first I decided to try and contact them to ask that they remove my content, specially since they have no credits given to me as the author, no links back to my pages and also using a picture of me in my friend’s backyard sitting poolside in a yard that I helped to create! 

 

If that don’t hold up in a court of law for proof of plagiarized work… I don’t know what will!  Well, as I dug deeper into this site, I found 3 more of my posts being used by them.  These were only found by me copying my sentences from my blog posts, entering them into a Google search and seeing what results came about… Something I suggest you do if you are an avid blogger.  It seems that they have targeted my most popular blog posts…somehow they have be able to see the analytics on which of my posts get the most hits and have used them accordingly.

 

Anyway, as we get deeper into the rabbit hole of the internet and display ourselves more and more to try and drum up business… I feel that we should be more aware of the snakes out there that try to piggy-back off of our work.  Since I had heard no response back to my request put to the site owner… I decided to let Google know that they are plagiarizing my content.  It is a shame for me to see things like this… it just adds further to my cousin’s point that the landscape industry is full of modern day pirates!

 

A statement that I found hard to swallow but as I look around… I cannot deny…. should Google decide to side with me on the issue, they have a strict policy to delete the offending site’s URL from their database.  A high price to pay for cheating… once you get in Google’s bad books, your site is done… game over!  You must redo everything in a new name and new URL with new content in order for Google to even look at you…or appeal their blacklisting of your site as you attempt to prove their findings wrong…

 

The links:

Their site: http://www.azlandscape.com/city-of-toronto-pool-by-laws/comment-page-1/#comment-19613

My  Site: http://landscape-design.blogspot.com/2009/09/city-of-toronto-pool-by-laws.html

 

Their site: http://www.azlandscape.com/a-stone-mason-in-toronto/

My site: http://landscape-design.blogspot.com/2008/11/stone-mason-in-toronto.html

 

Their site: http://www.azlandscape.com/the-evolution-of-a-front-yard-landscape/comment-page-1/#comment-19640

My site:  http://landscape-design.blogspot.com/2009/11/evolution-of-front-yard-landscape.html

 

Their site:  http://www.azlandscape.com/small-urban-backyard-turned-into-garden-room/

My site:  http://landscape-design.blogspot.com/2009/07/small-urban-backyard-turned-into-garden.html

 

[Thomas J. Johnson]

That’s shady…

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Hope this helps:

 

Registrant:
   Justin Phillips

   Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
   Domain Name: AZLANDSCAPE.COM

   Domain servers in listed order:
      NS981.HOSTGATOR.COM
      NS982.HOSTGATOR.COM


   For complete domain details go to:
   http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?Domain=AZLANDSCAPE.COM

[Paul Corsetti]

Thanks Thomas,

 

Hmmmm… maybe I should buy up all the remaining domain names with his business title and just list my blog posts and a little blurb about his site using my content….lol

 

I don’t want to lower myself to that level though…. but if his site remains up with my content I will list his business info on my blog post where I put all the plagiarizers in and shame them into taking down my design plans that they used…

 

This site marks the first time I have to deal with my written words and photographs being used without credit…

 

Paul

 

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Contact godaddy.com they might be able to help you. Or track down Justin Phillips and leave a flaming bag of dog poo on his front porch.

[Jason T. Radice]

Quick question…

 

Did you copyright your work at the bottom of you blog page? If so, you have a legal case. They appear to have advertising on the site, and therefore they are a commercial entity. Since they are making money off of your work, sue them. Simply turning them into Google won’t do anything. You can try to send them a cease and desist letter, but that really only carries weight if it is on legal stationary. Either the person doing this is really stupid, or it is intentional. The letter will determine that. If they are stupid, they will take it down immediately with an apology note, of it is intentional, they will ignore it. Judging by the site and it’s stated intention, I would say this is intentional and they are content theves.

 

In the mean time, you may also be able to go after their domain with GoDaddy and have it shut down.

[Paul Corsetti]

I am not sure how you copyright a blog page?  I do know that Google does indeed shut down sites if they are duplicates of content under different domains… I was warned of this many years ago…

[Jason T. Radice]

All you really need is to place the warning at the bottom of the page stating that the content is copyrighted and then the years active. The site that ripped off your stuff has a copyright of 2009. Your writing is content (like a book) and should be copyrighted to protect your property. It may already be through your host, but you need to take the step and place notice on the page somwhere. You can even put a longer disclaimer…the ‘circle C’, then spell out Copyright 2008-2011 (or whenever you started the blog. You should have records of when your uploads occured, so backdating should not be an issue.

 

Look at the lower left of this page and see the “‘circle C’ 2011”

[Paul Corsetti]

Yes, Blogger has all the dates in the editing area of it’s main page for my account.  2006-2011 for me….

 

I have also found this person’s blog to be linked to the site that is using my content: http://earthlandscapes.blogspot.com/

 

Not sure what his affiliation is towards the azlandscape site….but he has been notified directly by me to remove my content…

[Paul Corsetti]

I never looked before… but blogger’s template design already has a small window where you can put in copyright notice or attribution notices…

 

Thanks for telling me about that Jason…

[Paul Corsetti]

Success!  That site is dead! 

 

Writing to Google with complaints has shut the site links out of Google completely!  I heard nothing from them but decided to check things out this morning and nothing shows up…also, Thomas, I did contact GoDaddy.com and it would seem that the website has been stricken from their register as well.  Thanks for that advice…

 

So there you have it, if you put up your intellectual property on the net and what they call a “Splog” site decides to take your content… making a few squeaks to Google and the site’s Domain register company will get the offender annihilated! lol

 

The webmaster for that site never did reply to my email… too bad…

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