editorial

Encouraged Blog Content Theft is on the Rise

Irene Watson

... and there is nothing we can do about it. We get Google Alerts on a daily basis and every day we are alerted that  reviews or articles have been posted. The problem is, in many cases,  the link doesn't go to our site but goes to a blog that contains our content, sometimes posted as is but 99% of the time unrelated words inserted in the content.

There is a huge cesspit of people who set up a free WordPress blog, run on others' RSS feeds and harvest posts to publish on their own sites. This scheme is called autoblogging, blog scraping and splogging.

 This would be fine if the posts would link to our or the author's website or a place where readers can buy the books.  Not the case.  They insert keywords that take the visitor to a site selling items such as Viagra, porn movies, or other products.   There are plugins provided by WordPress that go into each post and reword or rephrase content.  As well, hotlinks are inserted so that when someone views their blog, it drains our bandwidth and adds to our CPU load. One such program is called WP-o-Matic. To date 153,406 downloads occurred so that means at least that many are harvesting content just through a plugin offered by WordPress.

There is more.  The blogs are loaded with AdSense.  As well, they use advanced search engine optimization plugins that sift through the autoblogging blog's harvested content to set meta keywords and descriptions to get high rankings on Google.   

So what is the point of all this?  The bloggers make money by getting a cheap domain name, install free WordPress (if their ISP didn't already) and some plugins, leave the program running 24/7, and make money with just signing up for an AdSense account.  A couple hours of work can bring in thousands of dollars on a weekly basis.

For all the hundreds of pages of content that have been harvested off our blogs by this system I was only able to have one removed.  This specific blogger did have a "contact us" form but this is the first I've seen.  The ISPs and WordPress do not respond to complaints. 
There is no law preventing this from happening, nor is there a monitoring body.  Copywriting the content means less than the content itself.  WordPress encourages theft by providing plugins.  There is no one to complain to but I've had authors that have blamed me or tore a strip off me because they thought I posted a bastardized version of their review  or interview on a site, and then linked it to a porn site. Some even demanded I remove the review immediately otherwise they would press charges, thinking I posted it.  Not so.  It's done by those that have no scruples  and are out to make money the easy way.

Here is one example of what I'm talking about.

Maybe we are in the wrong business.  Maybe ethics doesn't matter anymore.  Does anyone have similar experience? Do you use a free blog program that encourages theft?   Tell me here.

featured this week

Fiction - Novel, Gay, Lesbian

The Labrys Reunion

Terry Wolverton

Spinsters Ink (2009)
ISBN 9781935226024
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (08/10) 

Synopsis

How feminism has changed and how valuable its contribution has been are questions that burst forth when young Emma Firestein is raped and murdered. Despite generational conflicts, Emma’s youthful friends and her mother’s 1970s feminist colleagues will rally together to seek justice in Terry Wolverton’s The Labrys Reunion.

These differing generations come together to mourn, seek justice, and to interrogate a feminist movement that had vowed to eradicate violence against women. As challenges to established feminist beliefs surface, so do truths long held secret. And among the younger women are those who possess more than enough rage and radical belief to avenge Emma’s murder.

Read review of The Labry's Reunion
Read interview with Terry Wolverton
Listen to interview on Inside Scoop Live
Visit authors' website

featured this week

Nonfiction - History, Railroads

White Gold Railroad: Plaster City Narrow Gauge

Charles M. O’Herin

Link Pen Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9780977627912
Reviewed by Marty Shaw for Reader Views (07/10)

Synopsis

White Gold Railroad is the story of a private, industrial, three-foot narrow gauge railroad that began in 1922 and continues today. The book’s title refers to the raw gypsum the railroad carried over a twenty-six mile track from the quarry to the processing plant. The book provides a thorough look into the importance of railroads to American industry as illustrated by one small railroad in Southern California.

Anyone interested in railroads will find White Gold Railroad the perfect read. Charles O’Herin intended to create a book that would “give railroad hobbyists, enthusiasts, and historians equal consideration of their interests” and he has succeeded. Every facet of the railroad is explored from its creators, to its technical detail, its role in industry, and how it has adapted over nearly a century while still performing the original role intended. The vintage photographs and the thorough commentary make the sounds of steam engines, train whistles, and men pounding railroad spikes come to life on the page.

Read review of White Gold Railroad
Read interview with Charles O'Herin
Visit authors' website

Spotlight - reader views literary awards winner

KarenVillanueva Award for the Best Global Book of the Year

At Home Abroad by author Nancy Henderson-James

Plain View Press (2009)
ISBN 97809110516747

Nancy Henderson-James’ defining childhood years were spent in Angola, Africa where her parents were missionaries. Every five years the family spent a year in the United States. Her book, At Home Abroad: An American Girl in Africa, covers the happy, confusing, carefree, angry years between 7 and 21, a time when children clarify their identities, and when she worked out her allegiances to Angola and America. Coming to the US in 1961, she found a home in the civil rights, women’s, and anti-war movements, and a way to define herself as American.

She was educated at Carleton College and Pratt Institute, and worked as a librarian for 30 years. She has written essays and compiled Africa Lives in Soul, based on a survey of missionary kids. A chapter of At Home Abroad was published in Unrooted Childhoods. She received honors from the Southern Women Writers Conference and the North Carolina Writers’ Network. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Synopsis: At Home Abroad: An American Girl in Africa goes to the heart of growing up inside and outside a culture. It is a story of how a child born to American missionary parents and a transient intercontinental and intercultural life, struggled to find her homeplace: spiritually, geographically, and emotionally. The theme of wanting to belong, connect, and be anchored runs throughout the book.

The book covers the author's life in southern Africa from ages seven to twenty-one (1952 to 1966). The story includes an ocean voyage complete with fairy magic and the anguish of a sailor's sudden death. It ends with the return, after a five-year absence, to war-torn Angola. It explores the conflicts raised by going away from home to school at age nine, the disruptions to family life brought about by the constant presence of guests in our house, the question of which among the many surrounding cultures she belonged to, and the bewilderment of fitting into, at ages twelve and sixteen, an America scarcely interested in her African life.

Read review of At Home Abroad
Visit Nancy's website

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This week's video

Lost Relic of the Gods: The God Conspiracy (Volume 1)

Jeffrey A. Friedberg

Jeffrey A. Friedberg (2010)
ISBN 9780615384924
Reviewed by Marty Shaw for Reader Views (08/10)

Synopsis

Thriller! Leaves no political or religious System unscathed! Jack Vane, a retired private investigator and ex Green Beret, is burnt out from his past. Even with a young, pregnant wife whom he credits with saving his life, Jack's problems make him feel like an old man. But all that changes forever when Charmant, the leader of a secret global organization, calls upon Jack for his help. With her talk of conspiracy, mysterious shadow governments, UFOs, and a lost ancient relic of incredible power, the woman strikes Jack as crazy, so he refuses to assist her.

Immediately afterward, Jack finds his wife murdered. Did the secret organization kill her as a warning for him to be silent? Is murder part of a conspiracy plan to make him find the lost relic? Can he track down his wife's killer? With his brother-in-law, Little Boy, a spiritual Native American and ex Army Ranger, Jack sets out on a vengeful quest to discover who murdered his wife. He doesn't realize his journey will lead him through a monstrous landscape of moral, spiritual, and physical transformation, to a discovery of ancient secrets and mythic truths-and ultimately, a chance to save the world.

Follow Jack through a labyrinth of mind-searing coincidences, doom-confronting situations, shadow-governments, the menace of a world overlord, and a climactic battle with an ancient Power. In the end, Jack must solve the enigma of which secret organization are the good guys, confront his destiny, save his soul and all of Humanity. 'Action-packed thriller meets mythic fantasy, with a paranormal film noir atmosphere. It plays vividly like a movie in your mind. Take this riveting ride to discover Jack's ultimate power and destiny.

Read review of Lost Relic of the Gods