UPDATE: Looked like Elliott Back was the author of that site, but now I learn he just wrote the software (Elliott just called me and says he’s not involved). This guy John Comokaz (stickybuns@gmail.com) is bothering Elliott too, by dragging his Elliott’s name through the mud. I just did a whois lookup and found the guy who does the crazyfactor site is John Comokaz.
Anyway, now that I have more facts I see that John Comokaz is doing CrazyFactor which is stealing my content without proper attribution, spamming blogs via trackbacks, and doing other crappy things. Anything we can do about this guy?
Sorry to Elliott Back. I should have done a whois to start with.
Robert, Robert, Robert…WTF? cmon man, you know how to do a whois search, I’d also hope you’d be doing more now than just apologizing to Elliot, I’d be sending him at least flowers and chocolates as well
As for advice, Matt hits it in the comments: DMCA his service provider, and if they ignore it (they appear to be a reseller) do an IP check and DMCA the hosts upline, eventually you’ll get the site taken down.
As for this need to vent about this stuff, it does nothing than leave you open to further attack (or in this case legal action for defamation), you’re better off taking action behind the scenes, not in the public domain. If you need some advice drop either me or Jeremy an email, happy to help.
Maybe a signed ping is the solution.
http://blogs.verisign.com/infrablog/2006/08/stopping_blog_spam_1.php
Maybe a signed ping is the solution.
http://blogs.verisign.com/infrablog/2006/08/stopping_blog_spam_1.php
Thank you Robert for linking to my post.
@ Michael and others who think that the site is justified in stealing Robert’s content:
I guess your site content has never been stolen because if it would have you wouldn’t be supporting that site.
Also, I suggest you check out the personal category on that site which has a lot of my content. This is about my personal life which has been scraped off and publish as his own. I wonder if the owner of crazyfactor does the same things as I do?
@Duncan, I sent two emails to the host and got only one pathetic reply. No further replies have been received from then on.
I have even written to Sitepoint to take off the auction, but they have ignored the email totally.
And I have also written to Google Adsense, but I guess they won’t do anything now that there are no ads on the site.
Check out my post about that Robert linked to.
Thank you Robert for linking to my post.
@ Michael and others who think that the site is justified in stealing Robert’s content:
I guess your site content has never been stolen because if it would have you wouldn’t be supporting that site.
Also, I suggest you check out the personal category on that site which has a lot of my content. This is about my personal life which has been scraped off and publish as his own. I wonder if the owner of crazyfactor does the same things as I do?
@Duncan, I sent two emails to the host and got only one pathetic reply. No further replies have been received from then on.
I have even written to Sitepoint to take off the auction, but they have ignored the email totally.
And I have also written to Google Adsense, but I guess they won’t do anything now that there are no ads on the site.
Check out my post about that Robert linked to.
@Duncan and Robert,
I received a reply from Sitepoint saying they can’t do anything about the auction. I have updated the post.
@Duncan and Robert,
I received a reply from Sitepoint saying they can’t do anything about the auction. I have updated the post.
Not, exactly the same, but the Web site Porkbusters.org steals content for its site. I discovered it, of course, when they lifted an entire post from my site. It had a link back to my site, um, but I had not given permission for anything, much less a complete lift of my words.
You’d think being run by two web non-novices, NZ Bear and Glenn Reynolds, they’d know better. I mentioned it at Press Think as a slight aside and NZ saw it and commented that he had assumed since they were a nonprofit, no one would mind.
I said it was an awfully strange assumption.
All this isn’t just about money. I don’t have advertising on my blog. It’s about theft, and that’s a pretty basic concept and construct of society – on or offline.
Not, exactly the same, but the Web site Porkbusters.org steals content for its site. I discovered it, of course, when they lifted an entire post from my site. It had a link back to my site, um, but I had not given permission for anything, much less a complete lift of my words.
You’d think being run by two web non-novices, NZ Bear and Glenn Reynolds, they’d know better. I mentioned it at Press Think as a slight aside and NZ saw it and commented that he had assumed since they were a nonprofit, no one would mind.
I said it was an awfully strange assumption.
All this isn’t just about money. I don’t have advertising on my blog. It’s about theft, and that’s a pretty basic concept and construct of society – on or offline.
Ajay
sending you an email now.
Ajay
sending you an email now.
Now if only you posted content worth stealing…
Now if only you posted content worth stealing…
Found him. Cool! (not the copying part) Robert knows why.
Found him. Cool! (not the copying part) Robert knows why.
Dear I hate JOhn Comokaz,
I like bite size finger foods that have, “ZEST.”
Signed,
Manbeast.
Dear I hate JOhn Comokaz,
I like bite size finger foods that have, “ZEST.”
Signed,
Manbeast.
Account suspended. It seems it is no longer a problem
Account suspended. It seems it is no longer a problem
Haha, I hate John Comokaz too!
Haha, I hate John Comokaz too!
[...] Finally Scobleapologized [...]
[...] In this issue I’m talking about Darren Rowse, Performancing, 9rules/b5media, The Daily Telegraph, The Blog Herald and Robert Scoble. [...]
I wonder how long it usually takes.
The Daily Mirror in the UK did steal a blog comment of mine without attribution, and so far out of context it needed its own passport to get home, but it was so ridiculous that I just let that go.
I wonder how long it usually takes.
The Daily Mirror in the UK did steal a blog comment of mine without attribution, and so far out of context it needed its own passport to get home, but it was so ridiculous that I just let that go.
[...] A commenter on Scoble’s post complained about four of my sites, calling them spammy and auto-generated. Ignoring some of off-context commentary on me as a person, Matt wrote: I wouldn’t blame Scoble that much, Elliot’s [sic] homepage links to a number of really spammy looking things: [...]
The software Elliott Back wrote has one real purpose: to be sold to sploggers. That makes him part of the problem in my book.
The software Elliott Back wrote has one real purpose: to be sold to sploggers. That makes him part of the problem in my book.
[...] It appears that Robert Scoble has just shut down CrazyFactor a site that was ripping his feed. [...]
You’re a fucking moron for accusing him before taking 2 seconds to look into the matter.
You’re a fucking moron for accusing him before taking 2 seconds to look into the matter.
[...] Respond to Complaints Quickly: Though major players, such as Robert Scoble, are able to get their Adsense complaints attended to quickly (even without a DMCA notice or even the correct party), most of us have to wait days before receiving any kind of reply, if one is forthcoming at all. Google’s slow and lackluster response time is legendary in this area. Sites that violate Adsense terms are often allowed to continue for weeks or months before being shut down. Worse still, with all of the metrics Adsense provides, Google should be able to track suspicious patterns in traffic volume, type and location. Though such features are rumored, there are still far too many spam bloggers using Adsense to assume that they are effective. [...]
[...] Error: As Rob Scoble found out when he accused Elliott Back of plagiarism, it’s easy to make a mistake and point the finger at the wrong person. Not only does this cause a major embarrassment to both [...]
The same software with Elliott Back’s name on it has been ripping content from my site, too. And there are others. I get pinged by at least a dozen scrapers a day now.
We ALL need to fight this crap by telling Google about incidents of feed scraping for AdSense. With luck, Google will turn off the AdSense accounts for these creeps and cut their revenue streams. You can find more details here: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=18386
The same software with Elliott Back’s name on it has been ripping content from my site, too. And there are others. I get pinged by at least a dozen scrapers a day now.
We ALL need to fight this crap by telling Google about incidents of feed scraping for AdSense. With luck, Google will turn off the AdSense accounts for these creeps and cut their revenue streams. You can find more details here: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=18386
Robert, I can’t believe you apologized. This guys is one of the worst sploggers ever. He’ll lie you into the ground to deny his splogging.
Robert, I can’t believe you apologized. This guys is one of the worst sploggers ever. He’ll lie you into the ground to deny his splogging.