depending on how much they are stealing but I’d suggest its content theft.
I’d note that if they are using a small chunk of your material as part of a bigger story (literally quoting you in context) and crediting you, its fair use.
Simple definition: scum use scripts that rip (steal) content from other blogs and automatically post it on their blogs. The post it on their blogs for one of two reasons:
Revenue from advertising on the blog or
Search Engine Optimisation (basically the blog exists only to link to other sites but its got to look good to get the google juice happening).
some link back to the original site, some dont (yes, some thieves are more honorable than others 🙂 )
I’m cant remember what the rules are here for linking to your own content so I won’t, but type in “content theft” into the search box at The Blog Herald (www.blogherald.com) and you’ll see some of the recent stories and cretins I’ve covered.
Moderator
James Huff
(@macmanx)
Volunteer Moderator
One thing to remember is that content thieves can only steal content from your RSS feed. So, if you are using a full-content feed, just switch to a summary feed. This shortens the post in your RSS feed and removes all HTML (including hyperlinks), thus forcing a visit to your blog. Or, if you wish to continue to provide a full-content feed, use this plugin: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-plugin-to-automatically-add-copyright-message-to-your-rss-atom-feeds/
Thread Starter
zia
(@zia)
Hi duncan and macmanx,
Thanks so much for your responses. I don’t think I was clear. It’s not that they’re stealing content to post on their site. With attribution, I welcome that! What they’re doing is stealing phrases, terms, etc, including my name, which then appears on the search page summary only. If you click on the link, none of my stuff appears at all. It’s just porn or whatever stupid stuff they’re selling.
Will changing my RSS feed to a summary one help in this case?
Thanks again.
Switching to a Summary feed will reduce your readers – many people do not like summary feeds.
They can steal content by looking at your site, scraping the content. It is not directly linked to feeds though the increase in feeds has probably helped them get hold of such info.
The behaviour you see in the search engines – just learn to ignore it. It’s a junk way to get you to click, then when you are there subject you to ads / popups / spyware.
Thread Starter
zia
(@zia)
Hi podz,
thanks so much and yeah, I hate summary feeds too. I mean, what’s the point? And I don’t mind the stuff that’s not porn so much. it’s just kind of embarrassing to have a client or potential client (I’m a freelance writer) google me and have my name pop up on some site that features incest and other unsavory stuff. I did delete that particular post, which had the word zootoons-which is a concert series here in Seattle–and apparently means something very different in the porn world. Perhaps it will just go away in time.
Thanks again for helping a newbie wordpresser out!
