News · 28 Apr 2011 · MTW Editorial Team
Those of you who have been following me on Twitter probably already know by now that some idiots are scrapping my content (my RSS feed) and posting it on there website. I discovered this last night when I saw that a totally unknown site was always ranking higher than me in search results when my posts titles were used as a search query.As it turns out this site uses a wordpress plugin to scrap my feed, Engadget’s, BGR, Android Central and others and automatically strip the link then re-post it. Given that I’m smaller than the other victims I seem to be more affected in terms of traffic. This has apparently started in February and perfectly matches a steady slope in terms of search traffic and ad revenue that I have been noticing lately.
I unfortunately can’t do much though. The easiest way to stop this is to shutdown my RSS feed but this can’t be a solution given that I have thousands of subscribers following it every day. I also have to take all of the stolen content down so I submitted DMCA complaints at Google Search and Google Adsense and a copyright complain at the site’s host GoDaddy (haven’t heard anything back from them yet). Engadget also told me that they have forwarded the issue to their legal team. This can take a while and may or may not get the thief’s site to shut down.
Here’s the thief’s personal info: Update: Took down the thief’s personal info as he has finally agreed to take down all of my content and stop scrapping my feed. Let’s hope that it stays this way. Now it’s up to the other sites to take action if they see fit. I would also like to thank you all for the support and please don’t hesitate to comment below if you have any suggestion for the future of the site.
This is a tough situation for me. Contrary to what some people may think most blogs/websites barely generate any money. Sure I’m getting hundreds of thousands of visitors per month but this barely allows me to pay for the site’s hosting and my phone bill (most people use ad-blockers, the ads also don’t pay much because of the number of thieves and competing blogs covering the same niche who don’t link-back or make up rumors to get hits/traffic etc). I am jobless (for my french readers: je suis au RSA) and maintain MobileTechWorld because I love sharing my thoughts about Windows Phone, Android etc. There’s imply no way I can continue is this current situation. So if you have any idea on how I can get rid of the scrapper site or anything else that is on your mind regarding this situation don’t hesitate to post a comment. Thanks a lot.
Buyer action
Where to buy or check next
Use this as the final check before ordering a phone, changing network or trusting a headline monthly price.
