What limit for relaying blog content ?

[kyobul]

I edit news blog on a daily basis which has a certain success in Google search results - if I write an article, in the 10-15 minutes Google shows the new url in the first results for the appriaite terms.

What makes me bother last days is that I discover other blog that simply copy my headlines and most part of my articles and put a smal-smal link at the end of their post towards the original content. (a link that doesn't mention the source name aka "more" )

I'm asking what reaction should I have towards such websites ? Should I complain ?


P.S. I precise that the point isn't about websites that have the mission to relay / syndicate other blogs. It is just about another full "author" blog

[wige]

I would add a disclaimer to the site, stating that you don't want the content copied verbatim or that you don't want more than a certain amount of content copied. That way when you complain you have a policy statement that you can point to as being violated. Also make sure that any RSS feeds you have on your site do not contain the full text of your articles. A lot of web sites grab those RSS feeds (which really should only contain teasers or article lead-ins) and reprint them, which is not a violation of Google's terms because this is ostensible a "for the user" thing, as in "we are posting articles that our users might be interested in". Often times this is automated, where the articles are pulled from RSS syndication services on the expectation that the RSS feeds would only contain snippets from the article.

Also bear in mind that some of these links are IBLs that may help your ranking. But if they do not give proper credit or if they outrank you, I would complain about it. At the very least you may be able to get a more appropriate link.

[suzstephens]

This is a straightforward, unambiguous violation of your copyright. I wouldn't simply "complain". If the site in violiation is hosted in the U.S., I would simply file a DCMA Safe Harbor complaint with the ISP, asking that your content be removed or that access to it be blocked. Wikipedia has a good article describing the procedure for filing a DMCA complaint.

[alienpest]

I would think that you would want to weigh the effects. It could be having a good by product for you (links) if your site is seen as the authority by Google. I hate finding one of my articles on someone else's site when they don't leave the links in tact. When I discover it, I write them an email, which includes the link. They should give link credit to the original.

[kyobul]

Thanks to all for the advices. I (as my websites are) am situated in France.

I agree with Wige and think that basically my "error" is not to have limited the output size of an article in the RSS feed and to syndicate all as is. I will correct that.

There are some MadeForAdsense websites based only on syndicating RSS and indeed - the fact of not controlling your RSS distribution leads to the situation that (when your site ranks naturally and well) you create yourself an unwanted competition in an easy way.

As Alienpest says it, it can be good it the relaying/copying site has good ranking.

In my precise case, it is a stupid story - I wrote a news about ethnic conflicts and the article in question got relayed on a kind of gentle nazi site. Result - I've got 90% bounce rate on this link and plenty of nazi reading my website. And I hate nazis

[bj]

I have a lot of these rss scraper sites snagging my content. What I've found is that most of the time I get traffic from the idiots, since the person looking for the info realizes he won't find it there and clicks the attribution link. So you might just wanna let it slide as long as the attribution is there and as long as they're only printing an excerpt. Besides, if they are using an excerpt with attribution, it can be argued that it's fair use under DMCA.

[brandrocker]

Originally Posted by kyobul

simply copy my headlines and most part of my articles ...

Its an indication that you are writing substantial content. Keep it up.
How much are being copied? An abstract may not be an issue.

...and put a smal-smal link at the end of their post towards the original content. (a link that doesn't mention the source name aka "more" )

You may add code ( Resource Box type) to let them link to the article direct with the text of your choice. If they are honest enough they would be putting that at the end of the article.
Anyway, so far and so long the link is there you are going to get some hits. I get it.

I'm asking what reaction should I have towards such websites ? Should I complain ?

If you are terribly annoyed, take up the matter direct with the Admin of those websites. Otherwise, better to follow my above suggestions. There is no point in increasing opposition.

[kyobul]

Indeed, increasing opposition is worthless.

I'll be working furthemore on the manner I manage and difuse my content. Thanks again for advices to all of you.

[kyobul]

I found a good way to control the whole thing. My blog is based on Wordpress and I just added a feed plugin that assigns an unique hash number along with copyright to posts in RSS feeds. Quite awesome.

[tomcatuk]

If they leave a "proper" backlink to your site I'd have thought you'd got yourself a good SEO strategy. All your posts are getting relevant, one way non-reciprocal inbound links!

I do, of course, sympathize with the idea that seeing your content on some other idiots MFA website is an affront, but would on the other hand weigh that against my point above. It's a shame Google's duplicate content filter doesn't seem to be working very well.

[markrchisholm]

Have some fun and do what I saw Dave Naylor doing a few months back
Dave's blog (you will have to search his blog for p-u-s-sy as the forum removes this word)

Include certain words on your feed that will mess them up, like Viagra, porn or pus@y (obviously he wasn't worried about these terms appearing on his blog). You could even serve a different rss feed to them if you can identify there ip address.

[Azam.biz]

I would certainly advise you to take action anybody who steals your content. Contact their webhosts, search engines, advertisers and anybody else you can.

There is now a huge chuck of the internet population who thinks they can simply lift content from other people's websites without permission and it's not on.

[sajae102]

I'm sure there is something that you can do about that or somewhere you can complain. Please be advised that this is happening ALOT on the web. In most cases, it is not illegal if the person who is doing this link is not copying a lot of your article peice or just using a snippet with a link to your site.