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SOPA: Alt view - You need to be Shakespeare or Picasso to Avoid Content Scraping

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vlastimil:
Having content scrapped can make one angry, but SOPA would not help in this case. Your friend would need to get a court order and then the machinery would start moving. US search engines would have to block the domain from their search results, US ad networks would have to stop dealing with the domain, US ISPs would have to block access to that domain. And the scrapper would not really care much. Spammers know their domains will get caught sooner or later and are prepared for that. They have dozens of web sites and when some get banned, they just move on. In short, with SOPA, a lot of effort would be wasted and nothing would be accomplished.

BTW you can send DMCA to Google ( http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-dmca/19256/ ) to have the offending URLs removed from search results. Content is scrapped mainly to feed the Google-bot and denying the scrapper their price is the best way to get what you want. This would probably accomplish the most, but I am still not sure it is really worth the effort.

Stoic Joker:
Search the server logs to find out what IP the scraper is coming from. Then setup a redirector that will send that IP/them something they will never forget (like 90GB of garbage files) the next time they come by for a scraping.

TaoPhoenix:

What about somehow dynamically assembling content like tiny little pictures of letters so that they just happen to form words but in fact there is nothing there to scrape? Anyone know how to optimize that so it loads just as fast as a regular page?  And would it work?

40hz:
@40hz, problem is that the images and content clearly shows that it is her property. I mean it's obvious that your pic is YOUR pic which is hosted on your blog, right? If any scraper is copying that content and asking you to prove that if it's your property (even after getting an email from the same scraped domain email) then it is offensive. Hostgator removed that content from above site and is taking further action on webmaster. Problem with giving proofs to such scraper is that, if you look at their scraped sites content, there is no need for giving any proof to thieves. It's like giving proof to murderer who is standing next to the corpse with blood on his clothes and knife.
-mahesh2k (January 27, 2012, 10:56 AM)
--- End quote ---

I feel her pain and understand where you're coming from.

But as Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, US courts are courts of law - not courts of justice.

And like it or not, the accused has the benefit of the doubt - and the accuser the burden of proof.

In this particular case, I'll agree it leaves a lot to be desired. But doing it the opposite way (like DMCA takedowns do) is even worse in the long run.

As for ownership clearly being proven by the fact it's on your own site...I'll have to disagree.

I once had something (an infographic) taken down from a friend's site by someone who filed a DMCA on my buddy because he had supposedly 'swiped' it. As proof, they claimed it was clearly hosted on their site for over a year - and further, they claimed they held a copyright for it.

Fortunately, I had a fully registered copyright on it. Signed, sealed, and delivered by the Library of Congress no less! Yowza. :mrgreen:

I got in touch with the people who were hassling my friend, explained that I was the legal owner of the graphic in question, and asked them what was up with that. I explained I didn't want to file a DMCA on them - or suggest my friend take legal action against them for knowingly filing a false DMCA takedown (which you can btw) - but I would appreciate knowing why they felt the need to harass my friend over something that wasn't theirs to begin with.

After a few emails with some rambling talk about how infographics weren't copyrightable (wrong) - and a vague threat about suing me for "tens of thousands" (not millions? they apparently think small) because I was engaged in "a clear case of defamation" against them (wrong again) - and a complaint to my friend's ISP about being harassed (I think they thought my friend and me were the same person) - it all stopped just as quickly as it started.

My friend went through the necessary actions needed to get the takedown removed. And my infographic disappeared from the other site in the meantime.

I understand that other site did eventually get shut down by their own ISP following numerous DMCA complaints filed against it. Guess my piece wasn't the only thing they borrowed. But I just can't help but wonder why they were so stupid as to draw attention to themselves by filing bogus takedowns if that was the case. Everybody knows somebody on the web. And it doesn't usually take too long for word to get around.

 8)

40hz:
Search the server logs to find out what IP the scraper is coming from. Then setup a redirector that will send that IP/them something they will never forget (like 90GB of garbage files) the next time they come by for a scraping.
-Stoic Joker (January 27, 2012, 11:45 AM)
--- End quote ---

Not worth it. All it does is start a pissing match and chew up bandwidth you're paying for.

It can also provoke something really nasty (like a DoS attack) if whoever is doing the scraping just so happens to speak Russian or Chinese, and is having a particularly bad day. (Not that I'm naming names or pointing fingers. ;) )

That's a major headache that can cost an ISP or web host hassles, downtime, and money.

If your host has to deal with one of those, and their admins (who are all closet BOFHs) spotted you were playing amateur cyber-vigilante games with some jackass before it happened, you're very likely to get your account closed.

And I wouldn't blame them.  8)



 ;)

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