Is it ok?

[Richardcasino]

Hello guys,

My first post and I got a question straight away.
I am in the online gambling business for quit some time. Recently I discovered the option to dropcatch expired domains.
But I have a question regarding this subject. Is it etical to rebuild a website using for example Wayback machine? So to rebuild the website as it was before the domain expired and use the same content to rebuild it. I mean feels a bit like stealing because the content is not yours, but after a quick search engine query it seems like the content is no longer used on another website. Just curious what you guys think?

[universal4]

Interesting question really.

I would not trust a google search alone to verify the content does not exist, and suggest a premium account at copyscape to do a more thorough search for the content snippets.

In reality the previous owners still own the content although I am not sure what the ramifications of that is, but they could republish the content on a new domain and probably file a dmca against you for using it.

Chances are the previous owners are not planning to do so, because if they were they likely would have kept the old domain at least for a while.

Will be interesting to see additional opinions.

Rick
Universal4

[magnusbrand]

Usually people who have let their business website expire are not interested any more in it. So most probably that should not be an issue. But there is still a very feeble chance of getting into problems. So one can weigh the options and can then consider.

[chaumi]

a few considerations......

If it's a recent drop then it's possible the content is already on another site but just not indexed yet.
It's also possible the author/owner has plans to reuse but is in process of construction (though as Universal implied, you'd expect they would have kept it floating until a valid time to 301)
Maybe they deliberately didn't reuse because the site was burned/compromised (though I'd guess you checked as far as possible on that before catching)

From what I found, copyright is owned by the author (rather than the publisher, unless there was a written agreement otherwise)......maybe it would be possible to identify the previous owner (easier said than done perhaps) and try to get written authorization to use it.

[wonderpunter]

if the content was good then it probably would not of expired.. I would never use old stuff and start from scratch

[ChRR]

careful with that, for example i had a lot of sites in the UK market, and decided its time to switch markets - i moved the content to other domains in different markets... i think in gambling industry most of the times that content will be used again if the quality is fine ... You won't know until u verify it via copyscape. And if you do it i would advice improving it. Copying only won't help at all.

Now there's another technique - most affs that drop domains will do 301 redirects - so that they can move it safely or just redirect. In my opinion i think google knows this. Bottom line is that I think you will waste your time lol.

The thing is you that you are trying to backdoor your way to the top. I think it will take some time to you to realise that this is not gonna work... Unless u do back-linking or something else. If I were you I would do one from scratch. Thats my advice

[Richardcasino]

Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear from different points of view on this.

[universal4]

From what I found, copyright is owned by the author (rather than the publisher, unless there was a written agreement otherwise)......maybe it would be possible to identify the previous owner (easier said than done perhaps) and try to get written authorization to use it.

Good point and why most site owners should make sure they spell this out when hiring a writer.

Rick
Universal4

[Dsquared]

Tempting as it may be to use the old content, personally I think for my own peace of mind I'd start from scratch. That way you know the history etc of your content. Maybe I'm too cautious but I'd prob worry or at least have it in the back of my mind if I used it.

[Cash Bonus]

As Dsquared said, you should start from scratch, creating a new website and only use your own work in building it up for your intended target audience. Don't rely on the work of others, otherwise, you'll become a cripple and you'll find yourself dependent on others for assistance.

[Strider1973]

Look, if you have to ask if it's OK, it's probably NOT OK...

And of course it's NOT OK to re-use content without the permission of the creator of the content. And while it might be unlikely that someone cares if you re-use the content from a website that expired 5 years ago, you will run into problems sooner or later if you do this on a bigger scale.