WOW, people can really suck!
I have been working hard on CD completion and monitoring Christmas activity in spare time so I can get orders out before Christmas. Today I was looking at traffic meters and noticed one of my Christmas sites was gone on GOOGLE again.
Quick story is, I found a site with all my content on it listed page 3. I went to the link and indeed, that was my site but there was 4 lame pictures at the top of the page and all the content, visual and type was intact with all the links and urls changed to getwall.com/ a ton of letters.
I am SOOOOO tired of people stealing content. Aside from the misdirection it leaves a visitor with, content thieves use this tactic on sites that rank very high in search engines for many reasons. You might ask why I care or what does it really matter? It could even be a compliment since the content was worth stealing.
The issue is search rank. When a search engine finds numerous sites with identical content, it will either drop both or choose one to be listed high on the search returns. This site had taken my place on the GOOGLE with my content; a Christmas site, during the Christmas Season, now gone. It also loaded very slow and would likely loose visitor for the slow load response. They had stolen everything including all my sound clips, links, and content. The clips took forever to load but did eventually play.
SO, I did some research and a few minutes later was on the phone with the jerk that owns the site. Yes the web is pretty amazing when it is not being used by jerks. I told the guy to pull the site and called him a few names in the process. He told me it was a service and was a proxy site for people trying to search for my site that had it blocked, so they could still go to it.
What the heck is that? He told me none of my content was actually stolen but it was a service. I told him to get my content off his 'service'. I did some research into his claims and found definitions of 'stolen content' and 'fair use' that made it clear that he had stolen my content.
I then found a site with many suggestions on shutting these people down by reporting them to major search engines, sending them 'knock it off' letters, and contacting their service providers with a demand to remove the content from the server. AS I understand it, it is illegal to steal, and the service providers can loose their license for having stolen content on their equipment.
So, I will be having to add a few new tasks to an already busy schedule and burn this guy for stealing content, and I will.
Now, one might ask, "Why is this one guy got you so bothered?"
I have a lot of top ranked sites online. You can see many of them in the right column of this page. I have found dozens of people using my titles, tags and actual content, often hidden on the page but available thru viewing the page source. I have taken the time and fine tuned content and tags over years of research and development. These jerks are walking in and just stealing other peoples work and using it without any permission, and often with malicious intent.
I actually got a virus last week from a site that stole content for high rank in Christmas CDs. I have reported the site but have yet to contact the service provider to attempt to shut them down.
I would say, there are dozens of thieves online that have stolen content from my sites now. Many I have shut down just by contacting them. Over the past 6 months it has gone totally out of control.
SO, I have a CD to get finished. And once it is done I will be working a new side crusade - To SHUT DOWN these lowlifes and help other do the same.
I don't know how many of you are really visible online like I am. I own, work with and manage dozens of sites online. This BLOG alone had 96 spam messages on it from pharmacy sites, spamming the site with ads for every lame drug one can imagine. I get 300-400 spam emails everyday in my primary box. I have a dozen email addresses. I spend so much time reporting spam it is silly. I waste time everyday logging onto my sales sites to check sales because I have reported so much scam from these same URLs that I don't even get the real orders anymore. Wasted time at every turn, thanks to idiots trying to beat the system and steal.
Get a job. You can probably work the same hours and not have to go to jail for doing it, while making the same money. If you take the same time and effort, you can probably make more money in the honest world. It might look like stealing pays better but think about it like this.
You steal for 2 years and make, lets say 200,000 dollars, and end up doing 10 years in jail; or, you take the same 12 year period and at a modest 36K you get 432,000 and no jail. Add to it the fact that every dollar you have when busted gets taken from you so you really didn't make the 200,000 in the first place.
Who am I talking too here?? Sorry. I guess the point is - it makes no sense and it is wrong. I only digress because I do have searches from people wanting to 'learn how to steal' on a page I wrote about stealing the cool stuff from musicians you love. "Stuff" being licks, performance ideas, entertainment, musical styles, ideas and what-not.
SO, spam and crooks are bumming me out again today. I have to get over it and finish tracking some flute right now, but we will see this again I'm sure.
SAXBOY
