What would you do if your husband called you from work and told you to do a Google search for a piece of property? Both of you search Google Images at the same time on different computers and find pictures of the property. BUT as you scroll through the photos, you see pictures of yourself, your cats, places you've been, photos you took yourself?
Freaky, right? That's what happened to me today. I am very pissed off. I clicked on one of the photos and it was able to link to the web site (not mine) where my photos and all my blogs have been duplicated. (See below.)
It looks like someone has copied all my blog posts, along with someone else's blog posts into a blog titled "Travel Information." That is not the web address they've given it. Enter: "Travel Information The Twilight Bark Blogspot.com" into Google. When "Travel Information shannonspet-sittingtwilightbark blogspot.com" comes up as a search result, go to that site. Look in the archives. You will see what I am talking about. Approximately 95% of the content is mine.
I don't know who the person given credit at the top of those blog posts is (for sure it's not me), but he has other sites as well. The name of the blog itself looks like it came from someone else. I have written to the lady whose blog name is similar to the blog name this person is using to let her know as well.
Have you ever checked to see if anyone is stealing your blog content? I feel violated. I am shaking right now.
Whoever this person is, they are not ethical. They along with their blog have been reported to Google as copyright infringement.
You may want to check your own blog to see if anyone is using your stuff!
What would you do in this situation? I'm at a loss.
Please give me feedback if you've had any experience with this and how you dealt with it.
Thanks. I feel fortunate to be part of our close-knit blogging community.
A stunning wildflower meadow on our summit hike at Mt. Revelstoke, B.C. - Friday, August 2, 2024
A stunning wildflower meadow on our summit hike at Mt. Revelstoke, B.C. - Friday, August 2, 2024
That is biZarre! I've heard of this happening but never seen it...and how the heck do they do it? How did Bob find it?
ReplyDeleteLisa
Lisa,
DeleteHe was doing a Google Images search looking up photos for a piece of property his boss is buying. As he scrolled through the photos, he saw my photo from when my face was broken. He called me right away and had me get on Google Images and do the same search he did. I was shocked when I saw my photo there along with some other photos I had taken. The photo link did not link to my blog, it went to that other site!
Aack!
Susan
Have not heard of that happening but what a violation of privacy. I keep hearing that anything on the Internet (including our beloved blogs) are open to the public.
ReplyDeleteOpen to the public to read, but not to steal and plagiarize. I don't mind if people quote me with permission and proper documentation, i.e., link to my blog and mention where it came from. But just stealing it and publishing it as their own is illegal and criminal.
DeleteI have started to add our name to our photo's, but I don't do it all the time. I will try to remember to do this in the future. At least my photo's will hopefully be protected. I had heard about photo stealing, but never blogs. Maybe we can copyright our blogs. Maybe Google can help.
ReplyDeleteBob
Wow, that is terrible. I hope Google does something about it.
ReplyDeleteI'd feel violated too. I checked it out and your words have definitely been stolen. I wanted to leave a nasty comment but was afraid the site is trolling and would follow me home (so to speak). That is just unreal. Hope Google does something about it.
ReplyDeleteI tried to leave a comment asking them to remove my content, but their comment form does not work. It's there for looks only.
DeleteI should add that Google recommends you ask them to remove the stolen content. I tried. Couldn't.
DeleteDo you copyright your pictures? I have noticed several bloggers have been but I just figured if they knew how to steal them they would be able to photocrop out the copyright. Do you know? I am so sorry this is happening to you. I know that the anonymous comments have tripled on my blog and that is getting scary because I know they are zooming in. Please keep us up to date. Again I hope you can find out who is doing this.
ReplyDeleteTammy,
DeleteI would like to put the copyright on them, but I don't know how. I use Windows Photo Gallery and I'm sure there must be a way. More research is in order!
WOW that is weird for sure. Not sure how you can protect your writing but photos can be watermarked. Here is a link to do this. http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com/how-to-embed-copyright-information-in-your-work/
ReplyDeleteErin has several great 'how to' tutorials that I've found helpful. Adobe Photoshop Element ($69.00) or Adobe Lightroom ($119.00) are inexpensive photo editors that allow you to do this. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BG9VLK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=digiphotformo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007BG9VLK). Lightroom is easier and is quicker to learn.
Hope this helps.
I think if it was just a picture here or there it wouldn't bother me. I use an occasional image from Google images when mine are not good, but a gross copy of an entire post content is or a lot of pictures is wrong!
ReplyDeleteMerikay,
DeleteIt wasn't just a post that was stolen, every single one of my blog posts from 2011 until April 17, 2013 is on that site. Really bad!
What is the purpose of doing someting like this? I don't understand!
ReplyDeleteWow! I can just imagine how shocked you must have been. Definitely freaky! Glad you reported it. Yes, please keep us updated. We'll have to do a little checking ourselves. Thanks for the alert!
ReplyDeleteThis is so bad Sue!!! I've seen artists posting online about their creations being used without permission, but this is the first time I've heard about a blog. Hope you get it straightened away soon.
ReplyDeleteI just don't understand why someone would do that. What do they get out of it? Very, very strange and scary.
ReplyDeleteSusan, this just stinks!! Us bloggers put so much of ourselves and our lives on our PERSONAL blogs that it's just plain creepy to have it so blatantly stolen!! Will you change your blogging habits to prevent this from continuing to happen or happen again?? If you find a way for us to protect ourselves please share!!
ReplyDeleteXOXO
Kristy
OK Kristy, I will. I am looking at what can be done. Mostly I want the other site shut down. And it makes me wonder how many other sites have my stuff.
DeleteThis is an eye opening story and I am going to begin monitoring for my sites to see if anyone is stealing my content.
ReplyDeleteEntirely possible it's just some hacker or "content skimmer" stealing random bits and pieces of text, photos, etc. Probably to attract hits to a scam/spam page to drive advertising revenue or some other such thing. Might not be a "real person" behind it, so much as some kind of automated script that just crawls the web and grabs random snippets of text, images, etc., then posts them elsewhere...
ReplyDeleteHey kiddo,
DeleteIt wasn't just "random bits and pieces of text, photos, etc." They posted every single one of my blogs and all my photos from when I started it two years ago until April 17, 2013. As far as I could tell there was no advertising on their page. They just titled their blog "Travel Information" and used my content. It looked like they possibly used content from a couple of other people too, but my content was about 95% of their blog.
Love,
Mom