If this post were only 50 words long, the entire contents could be published on another site and you could read it without ever stopping by this little URL I call home… at least according to the definition of “fair-use” that is being espoused by the owner of a blog aggregator site that scrapes the first 50 words of a myriad of blogger posts and republishes them on 80 different sites he has launched as part of this “news” aggregator network (a fake news story from Superfunpatrol made the cut). The same blog aggregator also sells advertising, and not the $7 a year AdSense kind… real ads that make the site owner real money.
News-Bitch™, fortunately, is not being scrapped as part of this “online community”, but a number of bloggers that I am friends with in the St. Louis area have had their posts scraped – many times without their knowledge. At least one blogger that I know of (Dana from Mamalogues) was made a part of what the site owner is claiming is a “community,” and it took well over 24 hours after her request before he removed her copyrighted material and restricted trademark from the site. (I forgot to mention that this “online community” is not strictly opt-in… they are opting bloggers in for their blog’s own good!) The site owner’s name and URL is being withheld from this post, but the owner/operator is the winner of this week’s Tony Bennett Thursdays. Please feel free to check out STLBloggers if you are dying to know the who and what.
This week’s winner came to my attention, and the attention of plenty other bloggers, when an online conversation was held on a local major media outlet’s site that opened up a question about the value of this site and what bloggers thought about it. Interestingly enough, the site owner jumped in on that conversation within just a few short comments and began arguing with the lone commenter, but not the the journalist who opened up the question. It stands to mention, the site owner is a former (possibly current?) newspaper journalist and is working to form alliances with the dead-tree media outlets in the “communities” he has introduced his site to and is interested in helping them with their aggregation efforts. It also stands to be mentioned that many marketing groups are now understanding the power of the blogging community and that is where the advertising dollars are starting to flow… aggregating could be a hot seller in that light.
A second time this quesion was posed to STLBloggers, and yet again he was on the site within a few comments, but this time he argued with the person who posed the question, threw a slew of false information that he didn’t retract or apologize for when proven wriong, and (please go explore yourself) he made personal arguments out of what was intended as a conversation within our local blogging community. The conversation was started in earnest, but quickly digressed into a fray when he became involved. This fray seems to be an M.O. from what I have read on other blogs and message boards in communitites where the “service” has been introduced. Considering his distance from the St Louis blogging community that he is aggregating (he lives in VA and is a former Presidential speech writer), it is surprising he knew the conversations were happening before many of the actual members of the community had a chance to weigh in with their opinions or views… and by that time it had already turned into a mud-slinging match.
This behavior, and what looks to me like intentional aggitation, is what pushed all the way to his win. I could only think, as more and more insulting and condescending words scrolled onto the screen, is this a campaign of fire? Was this behavior intended to stir controversy and get more attention and a hire SEO ranking through links from outraged bloggers? It is worth pondering the question, and also the reason his site and name are not being mentioned here.
Not that there needed to be any additional points counted towards his sweeping victory, but, for the first time ever in the history of Tony Bennett Thursdays, other voters helped our winner secure his victory. These voters are writing about his site and practices today as well, I encourage you to check out their posts for more information and opinions.
Congratulations intellectual-property-scrapping-making-money-off-other-people’s-content-while-insulting-people-site owner! You are not only this week’s Tony Bennett Thursdays winner, you are also the first winner by a group vote!
Other Sites Voting/Writing:
Little Bald Doctors
WOBL in Training
Superfunpatrol
The State of Discontent
Mamalogues
Slacker Moms-R-Us
The Broad Brush
Prologos
A Bun’s Life
Highway 61
Courtney Watson
Where Do You Stand
Available Light
1:10 pm on March 13th, 2008 1
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
As of 5 minutes ago my blog was still listed despite Dave’s promise to remove me.
2:58 pm on March 13th, 2008 2
I’ve sort of stayed away from the argument on StL Bloggers, but this kind of thing really, really angers me. I’m looking into solutions to make it less likely for anyone to scrape feeds (Copyscape, et al.), and the sad truth is, if someone wants to make money stealing other people’s content, he will.
3:09 pm on March 13th, 2008 3
For those interested, here is the most recent federal court case about text and fair use — it says the copying of entire works in the google cache is fair use.
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/google_cache.pdf
Actual analysis by actual lawyer here:
http://www.benedict.com/Digital/Internet/Field/Field.aspx
I suggest everyone read the section of the court decision on fair use.
3:36 pm on March 13th, 2008 4
You are comparing apples and oranges, Dave.
3:44 pm on March 13th, 2008 5
OH MY GOD he just won’t GO AWAY. he’s seriously EVERYWHERE. HOW!?
4:03 pm on March 13th, 2008 6
I think it is interesting that this comparison is being made. I have looked at cached versions of webpages and never have seen someone’s entire content placed next to an ad… and the site you are runnning Mr Mastio is far from a search engine for blogs. The last serveral times I have tried to search your site I have not even been able to click into the search field, it has been merely a design element in the header.
People turn to Google to search for information for a variety of uses and Google is ubiquitous. I am not a lawyer or a judge and can’t determine what portions of the analysis you have presented here would be applicable in your case (I know we are a common law society, but there are some limitations to which one ruling would apply to anothr)… you are merely an index with what I percieve to be very little value to users who are looking for search engine type services. You serve a different user base than Google and have a completely different mission than Google. You may work in the same medium, but we also aren’t talking strictly about legality, we are talking about ethics. People don’t win Tony Bennett Thursday by doing something illegal… it is by doing something creepy or unethical.
9:35 pm on March 13th, 2008 7
Here’a tip, code your blogs NOT TO CACHE and get Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. If you need the NO CACHE code, let me know!
9:02 pm on March 17th, 2008 8
Oh I love that you made this your Tony Bennett Thursday post, btw.