There are folks out there who like to steal your content with the excuse that they can take it and use it freely because of the RSS feed that we have on our WordPress Blogs.
Recently, twice in the last few months, I have had blogs swiped without permission. My copyright notice on my blog indicates that you need written permission to use any of my content. And anyone who does use my content without my written permission is stealing from me.
What these thieves look for on your blog are commonly used tags. My “Stuck in the Clouds” blog had travel as a tag. My other blog about the “2nd Amendment…” had a politics as a tag.
These folks try to fool you with their disclaimer. Here is the link to the thieves website regarding copyright…Destinary.com Copyright BS. Your copyright still holds, and if you indicate that they need your permission, they have to get it first or they are stealing your content.
Both times my content was stolen by folks who use the web host Unified Layer. I discovered this information by using a site called: WhoIsHostingThis.com. Going to this site to see who they are hosted by, only because I cannot get any information on Unified Layer, indicates that they are hosted by GoDaddy. There is information on WordPress with regard to copyright infringement. This page is useful too. Content Theft – What to Do
People and sites that steal your content have nothing better to do than steal other peoples copyrighted items. Why? It is because they have no imagination, no creative abilities, no morals, no talent. They set up a computer at their location which uses an automated software that looks for certain words in your tags and pull those posts that have those tags.
The problem with these folks, is that they are hard to find and track.
I am pulling my post from today. Their site will give them a 404 error that the content cannot be found.
As a group of bloggers is there anything we can do worldwide to block these lazy a**es that have nothing better to do than steal? Maybe a worldwide protest of companies that host these folks? Suggestions anyone?
Oh, by the way, any use of the content in this email without express written permission will lead to prosecution as can be done as dictated by worldwide copyright law.
Can you afford to do this? Think twice before you do.
Life in the Foothills 
After having The Destiny do this with several of my posts I’ve decided to fight fire with fire by including in all subsequent travel related posts the following little gem:
By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted. The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links back to the original and without full attribution (“by R. Doug” and a nonworking link is not proper attribution) with a rather bizarre interpretation of U.S. copyright law in which they claim I’m responsible for changing my RSS feed settings so that they cannot skim my material for commercial purposes. That would make reading my blog less convenient for you, which I’m not willing to do. As such, I’ll be running this little diatribe on all travel related posts until they cease and desist, along with this:
© 2015 R. Doug Wicker (RDougWicker.com)
All right reserved — that includes you Destinary
Final note: Considering this is a site run by a travel agency, you may want to rethink doing business with them.
Love this! Is it OK if I use your format? Wording will be my own…
Hey, at least you asked first! 😉
Feel free to use that wording any way you wish. We’re all in this together, and I LOVE turning the tables on these people and their skimmer.
Thank you Doug! Skimmers should be outlawed! Rather than riding on the backs of those who have the creative bent, these people should struggle to write their own content!
By the way, if you like this one you should check out the Destinary exposé I did on my blog today — Both barrels. KaBOOM!
Loved it! I left comments! 🙂
Destinary fell for it hook, line, and sinker. They ran in full my latest travel post, including the aforementioned information on their skimming practices. I wonder what their visitors think of them now?
😀 Love it! I wonder if they read what they steal… Good for you Doug!
Thank you for posting this information. This is something for me to think about as I begin my journey as a blogger.
You are welcome! I actually had to go through a take-down on someone’s site for using my photography without asking.
I’m never sure if any of my photos have been ‘lifted’ and like you it appalls me to think that anyone would even consider doing that – yes, what to do…
If you have captions on your photos, use a “key” word and do a google search on that term. Then click on images and scroll through. This is how I discovered one of my photos being used.
Thank you – I’ll do that!
🙂 Hope that you do not find anything!
Me too!
I’ve had photos from my site stolen in the past – even though I put a watermark of my site’s name on every single photo. People think nothing of cropping off the mark and using my photos anyway. I’ve tracked down a few of them and made them remove the photos but it’s so frustrating. Sorry you’re having to deal with something similar…it’s pathetic, isn’t it?
It is pathetic. Those who do this kind of stuff are leaches that want to ride on the coattails of those who have imagination and talent.
You’re so right on all counts!
🙂
i’m sending this via email reply via ‘basic mail’ and it will either arrive with lots of code attached or not at all. am unable to open the link to your post, but i am so sorry this has happened.. of course it happens – there are a lot of cheaters and unethical people in the world… visit with mary of http://oilpastelsbymary.com/ who can share her story and the story of her friend who had his videos stolen…
it might be days before i’m online with faster internet, but good luck.
z
Thank you for your comment Z! It is a sad world that we have to worry about those unethical cheating people, isn’t it? Leaches!
I’m so sorry that is happening to you Barb.
As someone who holds a Communications degree I’ve studied copyright and copyright law in so many ways for so many years, and automated sites like the one you show make me so very angry. They are spouting utter nonsense. The trouble is, laws here in Canada are different than those in the US, than those in other parts of the world, and to stop thieves like these would probably mean costly litigation and a huge time expense, mostly because it’s so very easy to switch the site from country to country, from host to host, and from personal entity to a computer entity which no one takes responsibility for. That’s what these idiots are really banking on. That, and their “disclaimer” that they don’t care about (because they’re a non entity), about who you are, or what your content is and therefore not doing anything malicious, and their suggestion that they are using a legitimate, free sharing service, and the onus is on you to control your content in a way that you don’t share it for them to steal. So ridiculous it hurts.
You know, you might put some pressure on the idiots if you submit your post to WordPress along with the Destinary copyright BS and ask for clarification. WordPress might have some power there. 🙂
The sad thing is that this is not the first time. Depending on the website, I would gladly give permission to use my content as it would draw more traffic to me. But when I find someone has grabbed my content and then they blame WordPress for it, just has me shaking my head. It is the tags that they go after, so does turning off the RSS feed button prevent this from happening? I turned it off today so we shall see. I will submit something to WP today via support…Thanks for the comment V!
I went out to WP to ask about content theft and syndication and WP shut it down when I hit the submit button. What the heck?
That is awful Barb
It is indeed!
Not very cool of them to do that. I guess you should be flattered, but after that you have a right to be outraged.
Not cool and I am very pissed!