RSS feed issues/policies

[urb100]

I have a nice site a with RSS with fairly good subscribers.

Recently, I noticed that there is this no-name website that is collecting RSS from few sites like ours and posting the content as if their own and making money off ad-sense and banners ads.

My concerns:
1) How can I protect myself from duplicate content issue.
2) How can I get proper credit to our content?
3) Is this normal?

[HighFalutin]

Hi, Can you reference the offending site? If they are taking your material, you can petition the webhost to help you remove the stolen material. Almost all reputable hosts have TOS (Terms Of Service) forbidding plagiarism. I have successfully gone this route numerous times. This is much quicker than contacting the offender, who probably doesn't care, or the search engines who have more to do than you can shake a stick at. Hope this helps.

As an aside, not to contradict what I said above, you can contact Google Adsense. I'm sure they have a policy against this and may very well cancel the offenders account.

[morestar]

I have successfully gone this route numerous times.

This is much quicker than contacting the offender, who probably doesn't care, or the search engines who have more to do than you can shake a stick at. Hope this helps.

lol sorry that was so funny and so true. That's the best way I've heard of describing why not to bother contacting search engines for such issues when indeed they must have a tons more to do than we could ever consider PLUS see complainers as competition of the sites they're upset with.

Good call.

[HighFalutin]

I've had problems with this since I started back in 97-98 and found web host providers were the most responsive. It's like cutting the head off a snake. Once that's done, the SE's eventually update and delist the site since it's no longer there.

PS - don't forget contacting adsense. No need for them to get away with an ill-gotten gain.

[NetProwler]

Adsense and Google may ask you to file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request. It is best for you to contact the host and request them with complete details to substantiate your claim. Almost all hosts in the US will check out your claim and remove the offending site. For details of DMCA go here: http://www.google.com/dmca.html

A sample of what you will be asked to provide here:

1. Identification of the material:
Description of Infringement:
2. Declaration of the Website Owner/ person duly authorized to act on behalf of the Website owner stating that the above violation was not initiated/endorsed by you.
3. Your complete contact details - including the physical address
4. Indemnification of Host:

[dean]

Is the other site really taking your content, or simply publishing your RSS feed? Do you understand that an RSS feed is a list of links to the items on your site?

[Rajeshthakur]

Change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved by yoursite.com” on your site. This simple change in your site footer make your content safe from duplicate content issue.

[dean]

Without a link or otherwise divulging the other "no-name" website, we can only guess as to what is happening.
If you click any of your titles on the other site, where does it take you? It should take you to the item on your site. If it does, there are no duplicate content issues and you would seem to be getting the proper credit.
When you say the other site is posting your content as if their own, how exactly are they doing that? Are they saying the content is their own? Are they copying it? Framing it?
Is your RSS feed the only content on the other site?

[urb100]

Thanks everyone for the feedback:-

Our blog
http://www.totalmortgage.com/blog/mo...insurance/6804

Here is the dupe from RSS (Note, how it is published by Admin not original author)


http://www.myrealtynews.com/real-est...tle-insurance/



Original:
http://www.totalmortgage.com/blog/mo...oratorium/6889

from RSS feed:

http://www.myrealtynews.com/real-est...re-moratorium/

[dean]

From the examples you posted, this doesn't look like an RSS feed issue to me. It looks more like a copyright issue. The other site shouldn't be copying entire articles from your site. I can't seem to find any easy way to contact them through their site or domain name info, so sending something to lunarpages.com, their host, might be your best option.