Thursday, October 02, 2008

Ripping me off on the web

A couple of weeks ago I received a Google alert that a web site mentions IowaAdmin. (I will not mention that site by name here so as not to give them any additional visits from my site.) So I checked it out and discovered the site has duplicated several posts from my blog -- some credited to me, most not. I posted a few comments on that site politely asking that they remove all these posts because it appears I am the one who is selling geocaching goods on that site, which I am not. The site is also advertising for sale geocaching gear from Groundspeak. When I click them, it looks like lots of copyright violations and re-selling of Groundspeak stuff! So far they have not responded to me. It looks like they removed my comments and now they have added even more of my blog posts. This evening I sent a formal letter of copyright infringement to the Internet provider for that site. We'll see if this helps.

I feel like someone has broken into my house and stolen some of our stuff. Have any of you ever experienced anything similar?

4 comments:

IronGambit said...

Yeah, I literally had someone break into my house and steal a few items while I was out cycling. It was extremely violating!

juliecache said...

I've had both kinds of robberies. They suck. Violated is a very good word. Powerless is another one. I have been nutty about security since 1985.

Just John said...

I've been hosed online before too, with previous web projects.

Being a reviewer must be a tough gig; I don't envy you that assignment. You'd think that in place of a piece of etched glass, they'd send you a new Oregon or something.

Rich G said...

I've had blog posts slurped before and it's annoying. It wasn't a blogger blog but a self-hosted one. I made sure to remove trackbacks they'd pinged me with so at least they didn't get any google-mojo from me. *shrug*

Good luck.