How Pissed Should I Be?

[Frank Benjamin]

Besides the articles I write for clients and my own sites, I write artcles for article directories like EzineArticles.com. Some of the articles have similar titles to ones on my sites, but they are different. I do this because people can syndicate the articles at EzineArticles.com on their own sites and I don't want to be penalized for duplicate articles.

While looking through my Google Webmaster Tools account, I have found 7 recently new blogs that have taken the content from EzineArticles.com and posted them on their site as original content. They didn't remove any links in the articles to my sites though, so they are now giving me backlinks.

Should I be pissed as hell, or should I be just a little pissed because I do have backlinks to my sites from mulitple pages on at least 7 different blogs?

I think the same person owns each blog because the posted dated are the same on each blog.

What is the concensus? Should I go after this A-hole, or hope to reap from the backlinks?

[universal4]

Doesn't the terms of use you agree to at ezine articles gives others the right to do just what happened?

If so, you can not get upset just decide whether you want to continue to post articles there....

If the links get removed then I would say yes go after them...but otherwise.....

Rick
Universal4

[baldidiot]

That's the whole point of article directory sites, isn't it?

I say take the (in content!) links and be happy. Maybe hope for a few more too

[my3sons]

I would agree. I think the purpose of posting your articles there are so you get the backlinks otherwise why would you post them there.

The TOS is that people can republish as long as they credit the original author and don't remove the links. (Maybe you said they took credit for them. That's not cool. But you will need to decide if you are getting any benefit from them)

[Holland87]

Doesn't the terms of use you agree to at ezine articles gives others the right to do just what happened?

Yes, the terms do give others the right to do this. (Remember when I was up in arms about someone using my Ezine article a while back, universal?)

I was really upset about it, sports investor, until I was directed to the fine print.

[Betpartners]

Agree with the above posters, my understanding of ezine is that they can be republished as long as the links remain intact.

see nothing wrong here

[universal4]

Thanks Holland.....I did actually recall us having this discussion a while back but didn.t mention your name in case I was mistaken and remembered something incorrectly.....

Rick
Universal4

[RayUK]

With ezinearticles having other webmasters take the articles and reproduce them on their own sites as long as they obey the T&C and keep the backlinks intact is sorta-kinda the point.

It is when they take the text but don't reproduce the bit with the backlinks (or change the backlinks) that it is very annoying.

[Frank Benjamin]

You guys are missing one fine point, the T&C states that webmasters must also publish the resource box that gives credit for the content.

"Agree to include the FULL Resource box or SIG line at the end of the article."

You can't just take the content from EzineArticle.com and post it as your own unique content, which has been done here.

However, I think I will leave well enough alone since they are backlinks and it will not negatively effect any of my sites.

This all started because I was recently contacted by EzineArticles about a title of an article I posted over a year ago. They changed their policy and do not allow the word Scam in their title and I had a two part article named Scamdicappers. I combined the two article and changed the title. While going through their verifying process they found the article posted on this other site and suspended my account for submitting an article that was on someone else's site. Luckily I had all the emails about this subject and could prove it was, in fact, my article.

They agreed that this blog violated the T&C because they didn't keep the resource and suggested I contact them directly. However, since they link back to my site, I didn't think I should really pursue it.

I was just seeing if I was looking at it wrong. Obviously, I am not.

[RayUK]

OK, I misunderstood - you said in your OP that the sites' had left your backlinks in and I assumed that this was the resource box. Apologies.

[Frank Benjamin]

I just found that on some of the sites my backlinks that are in the body of the article are still there. However, the site that EzineArticle.com directed me to actually removed all links or just cut out the paragraph they were in. My resource box is nowhere to be found on any of them.

The site is hosted on hostgator servers. I have contacted them and reported this site. I am going to check each other site. If the links are there, I will won't say anything. If the links are removed, I will report them as well.

I guess I could look at it that my articles were good enough to be stolen. I don't use other people's content period! Not even from a director like EzineArticles.com. But if I did, I would have no problems citing the author.

I guess I have to start researching my article on EzineArticles more often for this kind of monkey business.

[Betpartners]

I think most of us took it that the links and box at the bottom were one and the same in the sense that we meant both.

If they remove the box then that is as bad as removing the links as well and should not be tolerated.

I would advise that you dont just leave it as is and accept just the backlinks, you deserve that they include everything not just the links.

I would also suggest that to remove the box at the bottom was a deliberate act and therefore should be acted upon,

Have you checked to see if the new sites belong to a member on here?

[universal4]

Thanks for clarifying that fact as it wasn't really made clear in the first post.

I agree though that having the liunks is nicer than not having them, however if this is reqlly the same individual, I think I would "discuss" with him that he is breaking the terms of use of the articles and he should place the resource box to give you proper credit or he would be in violation of the policy to use the content.

Rick
Universal4

[Frank Benjamin]

sorry for the confusion.

no I haven't checked to see if the sites belong to anyone one here. How exactly do I do that?

I have contacted HostGator about the situation. I also contacted EzineArticles.com about the violation of the T&C.

I am going to spend the rest of the evening researching this more. I know of 7 or eight sites as of right now. I all have the same articles on them, so I believe it is safe to say they are owned by the same asshole.

Might be a late night sending emails.

[universal4]

Well, you are a private member so you could post a note in the private section to see if anyone knows who owns the sites in question.

It could be that the person doesn't know they are violating the terms, and if so they might add the resource box.

Obviously if they do understand the terms and decided not to follow them then that should be handled as well....

If you do some whois lookups sometimes that will help determine whose sites they are as well....

Rick
Universal4

[Frank Benjamin]

I did a Whois search and is how I found out the site was hosted by HostGator. The owner is private and it doesn't list a contact name.

There is no contact information on the site or in the whois search. My only option is to file a DMCA notice with HostGator.

[clearlyportals]

I think they should credit you with the resource box, but surprised the left the links in?

They could just be scraping ezine site for content.

Doubt there is much you can really do, and as long as they are not stealing your master content (your actual website content), i'd put up with the links.

[Frank Benjamin]

I was going to start submitting more articles to directories, but I don't know if it is worth it. I would have to do this search every once and awhile.

What are yinz opinions on Article Marketing?

[universal4]

Well, if this is an affiliatye we need to identify them as a content stealer and report to the affiliate programs....

Whether they steal the content from our sites or from the ezine sites doesn't matter, if they refuse to follow the terms then they certainly should be exposed....

Rick
Universal4

[Frank Benjamin]

This person has set his information to private. When I do a Whois search, I can only get the address and a few and the name servers. I have found 11 sites by the same person with my content from EzineArticles.

I don't see any affiliate ads on the sites. All the posts were made May 24 or 25. I don't exactly see the point of what this person is doing.

I have an email into one person that was somehow associated with one of the domains. If I don't hear back by tomorrow morning I am sending my DMCA notice to HostGator.

During my search, I found the one article was reposted the most on each of these sites at other article directories. The "author" obviously used a program to spin the article because many of the sentences do not make sense and have bad grammar. I contacted each of the directories about the stolen content. I have to go back, but I think one person is a Bet365 affiliate. I didn't think about contacting them. I will do that today.