Australian site steals SPCR article!

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 12:50 pm

I just received an email from a friendly stranger, who wrote:

You don't know me, I don't know you, but during my research into options for a new and silent computer I read your excellent review of the Hush Mini-ITX. Then a few minutes later I stumbled across the exact same article on a different site:

http://php.technobabble.com.au/article370.html

Of course for all I know they may have permission to use the article, but it looks a bit suspicious, so I thought I'd let you know.

Of course, I have never heard of this technobabble site before, they have never contacted me, and the link points to a word-for-word, photo-by-photo illegal copyright-breaching copy of my article.

I suppose I could take this as a measure of my success -- if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery... But this is much more than imitation: It is outright THEFT!

I am hoping that SPCR faithfuls can join me in barraging the site admins, publishers and editors with emails & posts in their forums to cease and desist this shameless theft of intellectual property. Thanks in advance everyone.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:06 pm

Grrrrr...

I get to deal with online plagiarism everyday, working at an independent study school, with most of our students taking online classes. I guess these folks never got to deal with the likes of our teachers.

I'll definitely be firing off some artillery for this barrage.

Lilla · Post by **Lilla** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:42 pm

MikeC, I posted on your behalf using their feedback ink.

However, I noticed that none of their articles give the author's name. This makes me wonder if all of their content is stolen?

Another idea: email their sponsors too. To do this just click on the link in the upper right hand corner titled "Ads by Google" and post your feedback there too.

Lilla

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:43 pm

A link to my post on their forums:

Open letter to TechnoBabble, re: Stolen review of Hush ITX

A copy of the text:

To the owner/editor of TechnoBabble:

I thought that folks could respect the work of other people and not have to copy someone else's writing for their own. I guess I was wrong, and plagiarism is alive and well.

I am referring to your 'review' of the Hush Mini-ITX system. I find it annoying, no, I find it WRONG that you have simply copied the review from Silent PC Review (www.silentpcreview.com). Copied every word, photo, and most of the layout. That was a review done and worked on by SPCR owner Mike Chin, and you have done nothing to give proper credit to Mike as the author of this review.

Providing a source of reviews is great. Mention the review and provide a link to the original site. Websites such as HardOCP do that all day long. But to completely copy a review and show it as your own work is very, very low.

I would like to see this review removed from your site.

Ian Hoffman
aka Zyzzyx
- active member of Silent PC Review
[email protected]

pdf27 · Post by **pdf27** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:46 pm

They've got a fairly general disclaimer,
T E C H N O B A B B L E is not responsible for any of the Articles, Comments, Reviews, or User Names, as the poster of the particular Article, Comment, Review, or User Name on T E C H N O B A B B L E assumes full responsibility.
which strongly suggests to me that ALL their material is stolen, and they're trying to dodge out of it. It's still their server, however, so they haven't got a leg to stand on.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 3:07 pm

This is also posted under their 'Legal Notices': ( I couldn't find where you copied the above quote from)

Unless otherwise specified, the services & downloads provided by T E C H N O B A B B L E are for your personal and/or commercial use, provided that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the original materials.

The materials at T E C H N O B A B B L E are copyrighted and any unauthorized use of these materials may violate copyrights and/or trademarks.

These documents are for our protection and yours as well. Please read them carefully.

Ayup, the materials are copyrighted, BUT NOT BY YOU, Technobabble!

pdf27 · Post by **pdf27** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 3:14 pm

That bit's bad enough. The bit I copied the quote from is on one of the links under that notice. They've blatantly trying to say that they can put anything they like on their server.
http://php.technobabble.com.au/gate.htm ... disclaimer

DanOnKeys · Post by **DanOnKeys** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:37 pm

Hmmm. Someone just posted a whole bunch of messages at that site under the username TechnoBabbleIsAFraud that goes something like this:

TECHNO PLAGARISM AND THEFT

I am shocked an appalled at the downright blatant plagarism committed by this site. Furthermore, I am outraged that a very civil and sincere open letter calling this site's foul was CENSORED. Someone noticed the plagarism and pointed it out, and Techno Babble deleted the letter.

Shame on Techno Babble!

The article in question is:
http://php.technobabble.com.au/article370.html

Stolen from Mike Chin of Silent PC Review (silentpcreview.com):
http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.p ... 123&page=1

Plagarism is theft and is unacceptable.

Remove the stolen review!!!

I did notice that Zyzzyx's open letter link is dead. No idea who posted all the messages above, though (although that user is now banned from the forum). The post quoted above was added to every single thread in the first couple of forums . . .

DanOnKeys · Post by **DanOnKeys** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:50 pm

Yeah, my IP is now banned from the site, but the contact email address if I think I was banned by mistake is:

[email protected]

If any of you guys are discouraged that it looks like our protest is being cooly ignored and censored, at least there's an email address to visit . . .

mfeingol · Post by **mfeingol** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:59 pm

It looks like they're linking to the SPCR article now, so our massive demonstrations paid off.

DanOnKeys · Post by **DanOnKeys** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:01 pm

Is that true? If so, maybe I'll try requesting that they lift my IP ban so I can see the change . . .

moving shadow · Post by **moving shadow** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:08 pm

DanOnKeys wrote:Is that true? If so, maybe I'll try requesting that they lift my IP ban so I can see the change . . .

just use the-cloak.com

http://www.the-cloak.com/login.html

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:08 pm

Now, page 1 is the technobable site, page 2 and 3 link back to spcr.

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:09 pm

they added a link here (in a very sneaky manner, without actually saying who wrote the review)

but they still have full review posted here

bastards..

Post by **Rusty075** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:09 pm

Yeah, it is true, they now reprint the first couple of paragraphs and then have a " read more at SilentPc" link

Actually.....all of thier articles are now that same format, every single one. I didn't look around that site much the first time, but I'm almost positive it wasn't that way a few hours ago.

Mike, did you send the lawyers after them? Or Tony the Enforcer?

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:25 pm

Real easy path to find the full article still posted there.

Editorials -> Hardware -> Hush Mini-ITX PC

gets you to the link Elliot posted, http://php.technobabble.com.au/contentid-24.html

Looks like they changed the naming structure on the site. When I was looking at it mid-day, I'm quite sure it was all /article###.html and now all the main linked reviews are /contentid-##.html. Ooooh, big change... Whoopdie doo...

Hrrm, a bit more looking.... pages available under 'Editorials' have the article### name format, the pages under 'Articles and News' have the new contentid-## naming.

They're getting there, but still have aways to go yet, IMO.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:53 pm

Hey thanks for all your support, everyone!

Great to see concerted action that is obviously making an impact. the web is still very much a wild and woolly place, as Ralf often likes to point out to me, and this is very mcuh the kind of community-minded action that can help make it more civilized.

Folling Lilla's suggestion, I sent this off to Google:

To Google Ads:

My comment is about the CONTENT of the site http://php.technobabble.com.au/ which Google Ads appear to help support. They are outright plagarists, stealing content from other sites without hesitation. There are at least half a dozen instances of this practise; it could well be that the entire site's content is essentially lifted from other sites in dubious coypright-breaking ways.

It appears that as a result of today's actions by forums members from www.silentpcreview.com, http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=59696, there has been some slight modification of their lifted stories in that the first page of the articles now begins on their site and then continues via link to the original site. The fact that this is probably still being done without the permission of the copyright holders makes the practise not only wrong by illegal, and Google's unintented support of this site seems unprofessional. Please stop supporting this site until these matters have been completely resolved. Thank you for your attention.

Mike Chin,
Editor/Publisher
Silentpcreview.com

We'll see what google has to say.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:02 pm

Very nice, Mike. That definitely will be interesting.

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:36 pm

Editor's email address:

Domain Name: technobabble.com.au
Last Modified: 17-Aug-2003 16
Registrar ID: R00015-AR
Registrar Name: NetRegistry
Status: ok

Registrant: karim bauer
Registrant ID: NSW BN 172595769

Registrant ROID: C1291053-AR
Registrant Contact Name: karim bauer
Registrant Email: [email protected]

Conspicuously, it's not listed anywhere on their site.

EDIT: this is not an invitation to harass him. Just showing where you can send your complaints.

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 10:53 pm

he-he

http://subvers.com/index.html redirects to techobabble.

There is also http://subvers.com/indexpolitical.html

Scrolling down the page:

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 11:39 pm

*cough**BULLSH..***cough*

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 12:05 am

A little more digging... A little button link on the top right of the front page of the site says it is hosted by AUSWEB. Folloing the link gets us to http://ausweb.com.au/ a web hosting company that has the usual commercial razzle-dazzle. A WHOIS search of the AU domain registry for ausweb.com.au revealed:

Domain Name: ausweb.com.au
Last Modified: 17-Nov-2003 03:40:13 UTC
Registrar ID: R00015-AR
Registrar Name: NetRegistry
Status: ok

Registrant: Bauer Media
Registrant ID: NSW BN bn98017221

Registrant ROID: C1397165-AR
Registrant Contact Name: karim bauer
Registrant Email: [email protected]

Tech ID: C0573762-AR
Tech Name: Dominic Main
Tech Email: [email protected]

Name Server: ns7.nethostco.com
Name Server: ns8.nethostco.com

So. Karim Bauer also happens to not only own technobabble, but also the company that hosts it.

Next step is to report this to the AU registry.

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 12:32 am

Karim Bauer just emailed and agreed to remove the Hush m-ITX article and any other unattributed links to SPCR or articles from SPCR off the technobabble site. So the concerted effort seems to have worked, though, of course, the article has not been removed. I am sure everyone here will help monitor the situation.

This makes me consider the other sites which also appear to be copyright infringed by technobabble. Do we now simply move on, having protected SPCR's rights?

ruprag · Post by **ruprag** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 1:55 am

It might be worth the effort to send a notice to AU-registry just for a heads up.

Also keeping the complaint to Google-ads migth be wise to since even if he pulls this article there is nothing stopping him from stealing another one later.

jib · Post by **jib** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:04 am

I think it would be polite to inform the other sites like 'friendly stranger' informed us, and leave it at that.

When informing them make sure to point them to this thread and also explain how you handled it, who you emailed and so on. If those sponsors and affiliated companies care about their reputation they'll be quick to pick it up from there.

In my experience publicity and marketing power easily wins to legal action when it comes to copyright infringement of this kind.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 3:34 am

You might be able to avoid this stealing crap by inserting an SPCR logo somewhere in each picture......since the pictures are an important part of each article. There are several sites that do just that with most/all pictures....even stuff for sale.

An example

Calv · Post by **Calv** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:24 am

To my fellow forum members. As an Aussie i must say this info is very embarrassing

and disturbing

. This is simply not right! However due to the crapness of internet laws in Australia you'll find that it will be hard to impact this site. You seem to have come up with alot of creative ideas. Hopefully one of em will work

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:16 am

FYI.

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:28 am

Interesting, they also deleted my 'Open Letter' thread. Not too surprising, I guess. Never got any email from them though.

I definitely like the idea of putting an SPCR logo overlay on pictures in the reviews. See that all the time at other sites, never noticed that we don't have it.

DanOnKeys · Post by **DanOnKeys** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 8:13 am

Thanks for the link, Ralf! It looks like another job well done by our SPCR community. We have to take care of Mike: he's our leader!