Content stealers and link spammers

anti-spamIt shouldn’t be necessary, but I have added a copyright notice to my crossposts.

This isn’t through any inflated ego, or delusions of grandeur. It is simply that I have discovered sites that are taking my content, putting it on their own website, to make it look real, and then attempting (and failing) to spam the comments on my original website with links back to “my” article on their site. Which, of course, carries advertising.

From the footer of the articles, I can see they are mainly grabbing it from LiveJournal, although they have the brains (or automation) to link-spam the original source. One assumes this is an attempt to boost their Google status.

The thing that really annoyed me is that the latest site I found (I will not give them a link) looks quite professional in a CMS sort of way. Under the subject of my article is my name, with a link to all other articles “written by Chris Malme”. Which are not written by me.

I know I don’t need a copyright notice to make my articles mine. But if it makes taking these buggers down easier, in future, it is worth doing.

Fair use allows anyone to quote and link my stuff, within reason. But if you don’t know me, and want to republish a whole article, please ask. I’ll say yes to anyone with a genuine reason, and it will be good to hear from you. Plus, it’s only polite.

If you want to use my content to promote a commercial site, particularly one carrying advertising, my rates are very reasonable.

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