Comments on: Physician-Desk-Reference weirdness

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:30:33 +0000

If you have a problem with the use of your work, you need to take action. It appears that the site in question is a blogspot page and that, in turn, is run by Google. That’s actually pretty good news because Google is very reputable when it comes to removing copyright infringing material.

My advice, if you can, send the guy a cease and desist letter. I have some samples linked on my site if you need them. If that fails, contact Google about the copyright violation, sending them a DMCA notice.

I’ve handled over 200 cases of plagiarism and, trust me when I say that this is the best way.

Just email me if you need any help, I’ll gladly do what I can. It might be a few days before I can reply due to extenuating circumstances. But I’ll do my best.

Take care and good luck!

PS: Have you considered adding a footer to your RSS feed? http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/?p=98 I know it wouldn’t help in this case but it might be worthwhile…

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 07:22:45 +0000

I am not familiar with Blogger, but if this site is running on apache you can use the .htaccess file. Put this file in the directory where you rss-file resides. For more information on .htaccess file read this.

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:45:34 +0000

I strongly suspect ‘his’ blog isn’t monitored, at all. If it was, he’d try to fix the broken links, etc. I’d hope.

By: Greg P

Greg P — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:20:32 +0000

I think one thing you could do would be to make one or more comments in the copied articles, to let “him” know you’re on to him.

I see that his moniker is “Spam Checker”, perhaps a clue that this is a bogus site by intention. His profile is blank, so he has no investment in this blog (which I guess we could have figured out by his lack of desire to come up with his own content).

But why?
Reminds me of a joke I saw maybe 30 or more years ago in Reader’s Digest:
A Texan and an Englishman are sitting beside each other on an airplane.
The Texan quips, “You know, you could fit all of the British Isles inside the state of Texas.”
To which the Englishman replies, “But to what end?”

By: symtym

symtym — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 20:12:31 +0000

If PDR-guy is just plain stupid or naive he needs to be confronted on this. If he knows what he is doing then he needs to be blocked. Unfortunately, Blogger provides the perfect webapp to steal content (no IP to blacklist). I would contact Google/Blogger and see at least if they would facilitate someway of contacting this guy — so you could find out his intentions. As has been pointed out, this smells like SEO positioning to generate ad revenue down the road (there are many examples of this).

By: Orac

Orac — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 14:25:26 +0000

On the on the one hand, I’d be flattered if I were you. On the other hand, this twit is probably violating your copyright. I explicitly claim copyright on my blog with a note that says something along the lines of “all content copyright 2004-2005.”

The only thing I think you could do is to complain to Blogger.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 13:28:22 +0000

Copyright law is a little complex, but as I understand it, everything you write is automatically copyrighted, and may not be reproduced without your permission, even if you do not have a copyright notice associated with it. However, if you do have an explicit copyright notice on your work, it gives you some more legal leverage if you actually decide to go after anybody. It also protects you from well-meaning but ignorant people who think that anything without an explicit copyright is in the public domain.

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 05:22:41 +0000

Thanks to all, and I will be reporting him.

I had a CC license on my MT blog, and let it slip when I moved over to TypePad. Does anyone know if that actually helps, or is just a feel-good for bloggers?

By: Delia

Delia — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 05:18:14 +0000

I don't see a Creative Commons license here on your blog, and I think you should put up the code and badge for the license of your choice. Post the code, then inform Blogger and Technorati about this plagiarism. OTOH, all Blogger will probably have on the guy is a name, which may or may not be truthful. The best you can do is publicize that you're aware of the copying and that he shouldn't show up in in your ED with a femur fx. :-)

By: Greg P

Greg P — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 23:51:46 +0000

I have to say, though, this adds a whole new layer of intrigue to blogging.