I’m being Cloned!

Categories: Social MediaPosted on September 21st, 2006

How’s the phrase go? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

This website is grabbing all of my content (even my pics) and building a blog and setting up ~~adwords~~ AdSense around it.

It doesn’t really bother me (I know it makes Scoble really really pissed off) but what would be the right course of action.

I don’t mind if my content is aggregated into new forms that add additional benefit (like techmeme), but this just seems like it’s scraping everything and adding little value (except from the adwords profits)

For anyone reading this post IN bitacle, this is probaly looking a bit strange. If you ARE reading this post in Bitacle, then please note the real blog is at web-strategist.com.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 5:31 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Jeremiah-
This type of situation is one of the reasons I put my byline in a link (”By Dennis McDonald”) in each of my blog posts. That way at least some name recognition and a linkback opportunity will come trhough when this situation occurs.
- Dennis

Posted by Dennis McDonald on September 21st, 2006 at 6:07 am

I’m very surprised that they are doing what they are doing. They actually have a netvibes clone that is under the creative commons license. I wonder how far they are trying to push this creative commons license. Kevin Burton has contacted the CEO of Netvibes.

Posted by hollyster on September 21st, 2006 at 8:21 am

If you click on their own license link in their footer, you got to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/es/deed.en which states you should give credit to the author. Nowhere on their page does your name or your blog. Check out http://lutrov.com/blog/80/ for some more info on bitacle, including a comment from a bitacle representative.

Posted by brian on September 21st, 2006 at 9:58 am

Hi, Jeremiah.

Well, this appears to be some kind of sleazy splog — as is usually the case with outright content theft these days. It’s up to you whether or not you care about your content being on this site, but personally it bothers me when sploggers steal my content. I hate being associated with such scum.

FYI, here’s the domain info for bitacle.org, via interNIC:

Domain ID:D107134988-LROR
Domain Name:BITACLE.ORG
Created On:09-Aug-2005 11:08:59 UTC
Last Updated On:11-Aug-2006 01:22:58 UTC
Expiration Date:09-Aug-2007 11:08:59 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom401, Incorporated (R21-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:JA7268-BR
Registrant Name:Jesus Angelo Glez.
Registrant Organization:Jesus Angelo Glez.
Registrant Street1:Plaza Espana, n2 - 2B
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Burgos
Registrant State/Province:Burgos
Registrant Postal Code:09005
Registrant Country:ES
Registrant Phone:+3.4628644317
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:info@bitacle.com

- Amy Gahran

Posted by Amy Gahran on September 21st, 2006 at 3:05 pm

Thanks Amy, I’m going to leave this content on Shel Israel’s Blog too.

He’s not happy either.

jko

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on September 21st, 2006 at 3:08 pm

There’s also this great post on what you can do to prevent Bitacle from this. By the way, they are a Netvibes clone too. (The link didn’t seem to come out earlier, trying again).

Also, Val has a great write up on how to prevent Bitacle from stealing your content. And Owen has written an awesome script so this is what you see when you go to a splogged page. Hopefully he’ll post the script soon

Posted by hollyster on September 22nd, 2006 at 4:59 am

[...] More and more bloggers have written about it: Shel is tracking down the guy who created Bitacle… Kevin is contacting the CEO of Netvibes… Val is posting ways to prevent them … Allan is throwing Bitacle into the 8th Circle of hell… Jeremiah is pondering if this imitation is a form of flattery… Plain Jane Mom is feeling creeped out… …and some German blogs are saying something, and it seems like they aren’t too happy (even though I cant read German ). [...]

Posted by » Blog Archive » … and the Bitacle Saga Continues on September 22nd, 2006 at 5:41 am

I’m making the rounds to let folks know it’s ready for testing. I wrote a WordPress plugin called AntiLeech that can be used to foil these sploggers very easily.

The details on Val’s site are good too, if you’re handy with a server or are using a different blogging platform.

Posted by Owen on September 22nd, 2006 at 1:01 pm

[...] Several popular bloggers, including Shel Israel, Allan Jenkins, and Jeremiah Owyang, lately have been voicing consternation over the last few days over what appears to be a large-scale, wholesale theft of their content by a splogger site: Bitacle.org. (No, I’m not linking to Bitacle, you can find them if you want to.) [...]

Posted by Contentious » Why hunting sploggers is a waste of energy on September 22nd, 2006 at 1:51 pm

Hi, Jeremiah

The more I think over this splogger problem, the more I think it’s futile and even counterproductive to try to hunt down and shut down individual sploggers.

They’re not the real problem. They’re just opportunists. The REAL problem is that Google, Yahoo, and other online ad network providers have their programs set up in such a way that actively *encourages* sploggers.

It does no good to stamp out a few cockroaches. You have to stop them from breeding.

I just wrote more about this at Contentious.

Thanks!

Posted by Amy Gahran on September 22nd, 2006 at 2:18 pm

I don’t think that Bitacle is a splogger.

They seem to be a project based in Spain that aggregates blog feeds and provides search/view functions on those feeds. I’ve been reading the actual Bitacle site now (homepage is an AJAX aggregator/home page, ala Netvibes) and exploring their blog in Spanish (I happen to be fluent). It does not look like a splog operation at all. I think a lot of us in the English speaking blogosphere jumped the gun on this one.

In fact, I think the language barrier is a big problem here. A blogger from Cordoba, Argentina recently posted (in Spanish) something about how all the English language blogs are hyper-critical, while Spanish blogs generally praise the service.

I’m not trying to defend everything Bitacle is doing, I’m certainly no fan of the blatent Adsense placements, which in some cases appear to violate CC licenses. And the folks running the project are certainly shooting themselves for not offering at least some English documentation of what the site is about (their English blog is empty). But it seems that the service is basically a blog search engine/personalized home page that then lets you browse feeds.

In summary, I don’t think Bitacle is without its (serious?) problems, but it’s definitely not a fly-by-night hit-n-run splog operation. And those are the folks who deserve the 8th circle.

(I’m posting this comment on a couple other blogs as well, to try to help the conversation a bit.)

Posted by doug on September 22nd, 2006 at 5:48 pm

“Appear to violate CC licenses”? There is no “appear,” here, Doug. CC licenses are crystal clear.

I write and speak and consult for a living. That’s a lot of fun for me, and (I dearly hope) a boon for my clients. But it’s a commercial, private, transaction.

I write on my blog for fun and community. I charge nothing for what I write — much of which is “memo to self” — and am frankly agog when other bloggers pick up my stuff. So when Bitacle comes along, slapping ads all over my “for fun and community” writing, they are ripping me (and my readers) off.

If you are so friendly with the Bitacle gang, encourage them to write. They haven’t responded to anyone’s posts or phone calls. Until they do, they are sploggers, and you are their apologist.

And, yeah… 8th circle works for me.

Posted by Allan Jenkins on September 22nd, 2006 at 6:59 pm

Jeremiah, they even cloned this post.

Posted by shel israel on September 22nd, 2006 at 10:06 pm

I first addressed the Bitacle issue in November 2005 and again yesterday. Where were all the rest of you? Asleep at the wheel, that’s where. Now wake up, smell the coffee, and realize that you are in-part responsible for what is going on. Bitacle sends me trackbacks that look like this (no copyright infringement here) and I get 20 to 30 referrals daily from Biticale– not much for me but a lot of those complaining would love to get 20-30 referrals a day.

Posted by Billy The Blogging Poet on September 23rd, 2006 at 7:20 am

[...] I kept discovering articles of very discontent bloggers (1, 2, 3) and saw that bitacle was in the top ten of searchwords at technorati [...]

Posted by Frenchy’s Fracas » Bitacle and Splogs: Final Thoughts on September 23rd, 2006 at 8:47 am

Billy,

Not sure why you suggest I’m/We’re part responsible. Do you also blame me for other wrong things people are doing around the world before I knew about them?

In any case, we’re all in it together now, let’s try not to cast blame and come up with a solution.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on September 23rd, 2006 at 4:41 pm

[...] http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/09/21/im-being-cloned/ [...]

Posted by Bitacle=poison for bloggers « raincoaster on September 25th, 2006 at 12:08 am

Hiya:
As I said in WP Forum: I don’t get all the tech and defense aspects; I do get: intellectual property rights, theft –of blog #A content put into website #B, adding revenue-generating advertising –that accrues to taker of content. Jeremiah, sorry: it’s not “AdWords” –it’s “AdSense” –Google’s. Big difference.

Since I am way not clear on some aspects: I notified Google, of possible TOS violation, with relevant links, to WP Forum, *Search, NY Times, etc. IF: Google deems bitacle’s action violation, they’ll close his account, keep his earnings; refund to advertisers. IF Google does not view as TOS violation: every thing being said is moot.

If I get more than instant auto reply from Google: I’ll post. Till then: if he’s been doing this since August ‘05 he’s not hit-run splogger; IF NY Times, BBC, Washington Post (–with all their pricey lawyers) don’t have a problem with it, bloggers won’t get any farther, with stopping him, so maybe Billy, Blogging Poet, has some points –or not. Poppy

Posted by Poppy on September 25th, 2006 at 9:57 pm

Hi again, jeremiah

As it turns out, Google has a Digital Millenium Copyright policy related to Adsense abuse. They offer instructions on how they want to receive complaints.

…Unfortunately, this policy is rather vague on key points regarding what will actually get a splogger’s Adsense account terminated.

I just wrote about this on Contentious.

Posted by Amy Gahran on September 26th, 2006 at 7:24 am