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More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:50 am
by ChrisCampbell
Just thought I'd post this email, that I just sent to AssociatedContent (see below). This is the second author I found, that had used my articles. I've since removed my articles from here, as they weren't selling anyway, and decided I could make better use of them elsewhere.

This seems to be a recurring theme with AC. Perhaps the powers-that-be from here should work with the AC owners to put a stop to this.


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I have found more articles on your site that are in copyright violation. All from the same author http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/4 ... jason.html . These articles can also be found for sale on ConstantContent.com:

constant-content.com/MoreDetails/84792-Do_You_Have_an_Allergy_or_an_Intolerance_.htm
constant-content.com/MoreDetails/73762-Five_Considerations_to_Protecting_Your_Home_and_Family.htm
constant-content.com/MoreDetails/85432-Cholesterol_Diets__Diet_Tips_For_Reducing_Cholesterol.htm
constant-content.com/MoreDetails/86502-The_Cartagena_Guns.htm

An additional article http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... ancer.html , was also on ConstantContent, but I recently took it down to use elsewhere, before I realized it had been stolen by this author.

It would appear, that someone has found an easy way to take articles from ConstantContent, and use them on your site, in a way that slips through your QA process. You may want to let your tech group know this is a loophole that needs to be closed.

Re: More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:31 am
by Ed
Have you contacted Support about this?

Constant Content does not allow its content to be indexed by search engines in order to maintain its originality, so content from CC slips by AC's checks. Both sites are familiar with the problem and have worked together in the past to get these issues resolved.

Thanks,
Ed

Re: More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:33 am
by Celeste Stewart
I wish AC had a way to cross check CC in bulk or vice versa. . .

Re: More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:36 pm
by Amy W
Thanks for posting this, Chris! The article on food allergies is mine - I just sent an email to Support. I really wish AC would figure out a way to stop thieves from posting stolen content.

Not sure if this helps Support, but my stolen article posted on AC is incomplete. The AC article is the long summary I cut and paste from my original article - it's missing the conclusion. If the thief stole the long summary, shouldn't Google Alert have caught it? Or is this thief actually typing out word for word what he sees in the preview window of each article?

Re: More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:59 pm
by Celeste Stewart
If the thieves are savvy enough, then they can search for and delete the catch phrase which is a basic preliminary (but not foolproof) defense against this sort of thing.

It would be cool if Google could create a plagiarism check where their spiders index content marked in a certain "first publication but don't index" type of way where their spiders document the first publication but don't add it to their general search results database. That way, the first publication is documented, but the content is not released to the general search results until it is rightfully published elsewhere. If the powers that be, such as Google and Copyscape, collaborated, then Copyscape could check articles marked this was so that sites like AC or CC could see if content has been published beforehand.

If I owned Google or Copyscape, I would create some sort of first publication spidering technology and send out the spiders. Sites like CC could then embed a code similar to the norobots.txt code ala firstpublication.txt. From there, other concerned websites could run Copyscape or similar technologies and see that stolen content is appearing in the plagiarism results even though it hasn't technically been indexed (because someone previously registerd it as "first publication."

I bet something like this wouldn't be that difficult to implement in the mysterious Google algorithm. Plus, there are dozens of sites dealing with this issue beyond sites like CC and AC. Content theft is a growing problem and someone needs to figure out a way to stop it. Too bad I don't own Google or Copyscape . . . but they can have my ideas for free :)

Re: More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:59 am
by Word Gypsy
Celeste- I like the way you think! Great ideas, btw. WG

Re: More Associated Content Thieves

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:26 am
by ChrisCampbell
Looks like Mr. Jason Taylor has gone bye bye.