Category Archives: Splogs

Flu cures r us

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Attempts to censor details of controversial influenza experiments that created a highly infectious form of bird-flu virus are unlikely to stop the information from leaking out, according to scientists familiar with the research.

says the Independent and many others. This means one absolutely guaranteed outcome. Hundreds of splogs tagging and spamming like mad to get those clicks. It happened with Bird Flu and it’ll happen for this. Let’s hope the virus gets them first.

That last post I wrote about Videoswiper and their spamming? It’s #2 in a Blog search on Google UK. Wonder if they’ve noticed. I hope so.

Feed reader and exclude by source

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Example:
I subscribe to a tag feed or blog search and the tag/search term is ‘green-rabbits’. I know spammers use this tag which is why I’m following it but then I discover that you also use that tag, and so do a dozen other blogs that I know are good, not spam. So what I want to see is the tag results minus good blogs. I want it to download whatever it finds but then remove what I have determined are the good blogs.
I cannot find such a program and I do not think it exists or does it?

Alternately I have looked at something like Feedwordpress to see if I can exclude by url. I’m sure the spammers will have this all worked out but if there is a script I don’t know what it’s called. I could then use the blog posts as the material I need.

Blogger: a help-free site

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I find yet another blogspot blog stealing my posts. I login and decide to see if Google have yet changed their absolutely stupid rules regarding stolen content displayed on their domain:

See the Help link?

Google has no help

Takes you here:

http://help.blogger.com/bin/static.py?page=start.cs
Google has no help

See the Help Center link? Takes you here:

Google has no help

So not only do Google help spammers and sploggers by making it just about impossible to remove them (flagging stuff is a joke. I’ve flagged many blogs and many youtube accounts and it’s has not made the slightest difference) but it also does not let you find out.

And the DMCA?

To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail — not by email, except by prior agreement)

As they don’t provide free fax, and as they probably know fax machines are not easily available they choose to use it because it slows everything down to what must be a complete stop for your average blog creator. That’s being pretty evil to your average person.

Edit:
http://www.google.com/dmca.html

If you are sending a large number of URLs in one removal request, please also send an electronic copy of the notice to removals at google dot com.

Why don’t they have an actual email link there? Don’t they trust their own spam software? Are the people on the end of that email afraid of, well, work?

Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred).

So they want the easy way but you take the hard way?

Apparently Google are hiring. I looked through several pages of their jobs. I couldn’t find a single one that was focused on user support. Now what does that tell you?

Theft in Kalamazoo continues

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I blogged this last week because the owner of that site was stealing other people’s content. Reminder of the whois:

Registrant:
Nicholas Weinberg
8548 old oak circle
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49009
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: IDEAHUSTLE.COM
Created on: 12-Jun-06
Expires on: 12-Jun-08
Last Updated on: 12-Jun-07

and I was happy because the host Liquidxhost.com closed the site because I sent a dmca notice their way.
Well.. it’s back. I think what the site owner said was “Okay, so I’ll not steal content from those blogs, I’ll steal it from everything about paintball.” Which is what he is doing – it’s a Paintball Directory.
In the header:
“content=”Copyright (c) 2006 by IdeaHustle.com. All rights reserved!”

It’s still theft, his host is still abetting it (wouldn’t you watch a previously dmca’d site?) and even though he protested that the site is not his it is still in his name. This time I get your pub-ID – I was daft not to last time.

Nicholas Weinberg of Kalamazoo, Michigan

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ideahustle.com is a splog. It is stealing content and earning the blog owner (AND google) money from other people’s work.

WHOIS for ideahustle.com
Administrative Contact:
Weinberg, Nicholas we6936@netzero.net
8548 old oak circle
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49009
United States
(269) 375-0743

His registrar and his host have DMCA notices. His adsense has been reported (like THAT will get any action!). And I have emailed him the details too. We’ll see what if anything happens.

Seeing as most sploggers have the sense to use some sort of privacy, is there a list anywhere for the real low-brow sploggers? Is there somewhere to pin their details surrounded by words such as ‘thief’ ‘scum’ ‘con-artist’ and other choice words? If not, I’ll make a page and Mr Nicholas Weinberg in the state of Michigan can be the first incumbent.

Update#1: from Godaddy

We are not hosting this site. We are the domain name registrar only. We have no access to, nor jurisdiction over the content on this site. The hosting provider is the company responsible for the registered name servers available from a WHOIS lookup.

So domain registrars are not responsible for anything the domain is used for and the DMCA cannot be used in that respect. Useful to know. Very useful.

Update#2 from Godaddy

As the DMCA currently reads it does not extend to registrars where they are not providing domain nameservers for the use of the domain name. As previously stated, we have no jurisdiction over the content that is not hosted on our network. You will need to contact the hosting provider as previously stated.

Again, very useful to know. Of course no jurisdiction does not mean you can’t act.

Update#3 Suspension!
Victory! The domain has been suspended by it’s host and much kudos to them for doing it. The email seems to have done the trick so I’ll make that into a “Fill in the blanks” template. I’ll be checking to see if that splog domain comes back – he’ll probably just move hosts.