Someone Is Stealing My Blog Posts!

Just by sheer luck when I was checking my stats at Technorati, I noticed something strange in the data. I followed a link to a blog page and discovered someone was stealing my posts outright from Kano's eCoffee House and my other blog, Blog Adrift, and re-blogging them as their own.

On this guy's blog I found that he had just started his blog recently and has been posting the same posts multiple times. Probably most or all the posts are stolen. A little research and I found that this is a widespread tactic called "Splogging" and has become a big problem. The motivation of course is to get high in the search rankings and generate income, in this crooks case, from Google's Adsense.

Any of you bloggers out there are vulnerable to these predators. Take action to stop them. They are stealing, and copyright infringement is a crime. Unfortunatly it's a real hassle to pursue these fools through legal channels. These guys usually only use a few posts from each victim, making it not worth the trouble to do anything about it.

However, there are other things that can be done to help put the brakes on a particular sploggers plans.

*Go to the splogger's site and flag the content. With Blogger, the flag button is on the upper toolbar. Just click and that's all there is to it. Tell everyone you know to do the same. A few flags probably won't attract Google's attention, a lot of flags will and hopefully they will see the multiple same post entries and do something about it.

*Go to the advertisers on the sploggers page and complain. If they have adsense, go to adsense-abuse@google.com and report the splogger's URL.

*Go to the blog host and report as spam. If they use Google's Blogger/Blogspot report the URL to them using their spam report form.

*Send the splogger an email if you can find the address and let them know you are on to them and demand they cease and desist.

*Write a copyright notice at the bottom of your posts and at the bottom of your blog page.

*Put somewhere in your posts a link back to your blog.

*Go to the splogger's site and write comments on the stolen posts. Let them know you are on to them, that they have been flagged, and that they must cease and desist and they must remove the stolen posts. He just may leave your posts alone after that. But like I say, he is most likely only going to use a few of your posts and move on to the next victim. Still, don't let him get away with it, pursue the bastards!

My particular splogger is randyspawn. His blog is called "Simple Motorcycle Blog." Please join me in going over to his blog and flagging him. Thank you.

For more detailed information on how to deal with sploggers and how to find out if you have been the victim of splogging check out this excellent post at Blog Herald.

copyright 2007 N.Kano Miles, Kano's eCoffee House

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