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This site has stolen everyones blog content as their own

Posted by Wolfbernz • 1/05/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: content theft, copyright, splogs, webproxy

I found this site on my weekly search for junk sites that steal my content and I could not believe what I found!
I think every blog I have ever visited is on this site. Once you get there if you click on someones blog it takes you to another list of blogs all with the right name but the wrong url

www.themesearchengine.com/blogs

I found the hosting company and they are in the USA but the url owner is in India.

The hosting company is www.aqhost.com
the name servers the themesearchengine.com is on are
Name Servers:

ns.aqhost.com
ns2.aqhost.com

The email address for them is Abuse@AQHost.com

If your blog is on their site, let's unite and flood the host with complaints so the site will be shut down.

All the Best
Wolfbernz

User Comments

1/05/08

ghostytwofish

I can't find any of my content there. Just the name of my blog. No articles, no links ... just the title and description.

Weird.

[reply]
1. 1/05/08
  
  Wolfbernz
  
  Yes, they steal your title and description and it gets indexed in google as their own and they get the traffic.
  Not only that google sometimes calls it duplicate content and gets rid of the real blog. So all your hard work is their gain.
  If you read their blog they plan to launch new sites just like this soon.
1/05/08

emiltsch

What a POS site...

[reply]
1/05/08

klawedkillerkitten

yeah, mine is on there too. hmmmm.....

[reply]
1/05/08

jungl

Bastards.
When I searched for the title of my knitting blog that site came up as number 4.
www.google.com/search?q=%22musings+from+a+male+knitter%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8...

[reply]
1/05/08

offendedblogger

Bastards. I'm completely offended now.

[reply]
1/05/08

kellybax

My blog Freelancer For Hire is on there. I will complain.

[reply]
1/05/08

jungl

Here is a similar site www.boysgirlsbabynames.com

[reply]
1/05/08

Caoimhin

Really wierd, what are the implications?

[reply]
1/05/08

Rozie818

Your right, they are using other blogs to create a keyword infested website.
I clicked on pointless banter, and I got a page with all of his postings headers and description, and those had dead links.
If the host is in the US, that is a good thing, you can pressure the hosting company.
Also contact google, cause they are running ads.

Just looked at the host and they look shady as well
they post a us # and a uk #

[reply]
1/05/08

jungl

Bad sites using Google Adsense can be reported here:
www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?search_ask=1&subtopic=&contac...

[reply]
1/05/08

Wolfbernz

That one, boysgirlsbabynames has the same layout as the first one.
I wonder if it's the same person?
I'm Going to look.
Good idea on telling google

[reply]
1/05/08

WT

I sent an email to a guy I know who chases down plaigarists for a living. Maybe he will chime in here on what he thinks of this particular site. I have seen scraper sites before, but not one that appears to somehow work like Wolfbernz described in his initial post. But then I am not that knowledgeable on these sites.

[reply]
1/05/08

Wolfbernz

Yes, it's is on the same server as the other one

[reply]
1/05/08

xtremer

I didn't find my blog there good for me!!
The site is full of nothing, just some pornographic links!

[reply]
1. 3/15/08
  
  webdiggin
  
  I didn't find my site either... Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing (i.e. too small to count.)
1/05/08

Wolfbernz

I use the title of my site found in google and then a space and add just my site name to the end and click search

I am amazed at how many use my exact title and description.

I go through this each week. If you have access to the htaccess on your server you can add this.
deny from 1.1.1.1 the 1. would be the ip address of the server stealing your stuff. And it will not let them access your site.

I use firefox and the show ip plugin to find the ip of the bad server.

[reply]
1/05/08

RecycleCindy

My site is on there too. They have categories on the page with my site's name which has links to stuff that isn't mine. The categories are many of my projects listed at my site. They don't have my actual content on their site but rather are trying to get people to think it's my site. Very strange...

[reply]
1/05/08

cooper

My newer blog is listed. I suggest writing google.

[reply]
1/05/08

cooper

I actually just stumbled them as a fraud, maybe everyone tagging them fraud and writing google and their host.

[reply]
1/05/08

Judeaj

I'll let google know as well. Thanks for posting this, my blog is on there.

[reply]
1/05/08

globalgirl

scoundrels! Mine are there as well!

[reply]
1/05/08

Wolfbernz

I sent Alpha Red, INC.
The DMCA notice about my site, they replied as follows in an email:

Hello,

All files has been removed.
--
--
--
------------
Rolito A. Caguimbal
Technical Support
Alpha Red, INC.
------------

So they are cooperative to remove the copyrighted material. So if you write you will get the same response I'm sure.

[reply]
1. 1/05/08
  
  cooper
  
  What is the email address you used.
1/05/08

mikeny07

I don't see them copying anything really. They just list the names of some blogs it seems and title.

I don't see any actual post being listed in full form.

[reply]
1/05/08

GrimlyFiendish

I found my site there as well (title and description only). I am not pleased.

[reply]
1/05/08

mikeny07

It seems like a directory of blogs or that is what they trying to do. Maybe I am wrong but that is what it looks like.

[reply]
1. 1/05/08
  
  libdrone
  
  but it's not a directory because there are no links to our blogs. It's like all the familiar names and catalog descriptions from Blog Catalog but they are not linked to anything. very strange. But having personally taken on a splogger and a scraper already this week I haven't the energy to do anything about this, even if I knew what to do. (and yeah, my title and description is on there..)
1/05/08

globalgirl

So what do need to do to get our blog name and descriptor off their site?

[reply]
1/05/08

Wolfbernz

Sorry My Mistake, I posted above about "Alpha Red, INC." and had them confused...with aqhost.com

This was the same thing just a different site, Sorry

It's been a long day for me.

[reply]
1/05/08

thelookout

Looks like the person that owns the site has an SU account and has stumbled the site www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.themesearchengine.com/

They also seem to own this blog which is doing the same thing vmarketics.com/

The person lists their email address there as bala@vmarketics.com although the email link is to a gmail account - vmarketics@gmail.com - another word to Google? - i've reported all 3 sites via the vmarketics.com site (if you find anyone running dodgy google ads, all you need to do is click on the 'Ads by Google' logo and follow the links at the bottom of the page to report what's wrong with the site - saves digging around to find the report page on adsense) - maybe other people want to report them to?

@Mikeny - some of your traffic may well filter off to them through google searches - see Jungl's first comment on this thread

Dodgy w***ers!!!

[reply]
1. 1/05/08
  
  crkian
  
  His stumble profile is this one
  
  thuriam.stumbleupon.com/about/
1/05/08

Wolfbernz

Send The hosting company www.aqhost.com this.

1.email that you own the site include your url and site name add your contact info, make sure to be complete
2. Include the url in violation of the (DMCA)www.themesearchengine.com
Along with the Name Servers:

ns.aqhost.com
ns2.aqhost.com

3. Be nice ask for their cooperation in this issue.
4. do a whois search of the url themesearchengine.com notify the owner.
5. Since he is in india I send them to both the owner and the U.S. host company at the same time.

6.Send this after you send the email to the owner of the url...send to the hosting company.

I have tried to contact www.themesearchengine.com without success. So I have to send email notification to you the host, aqhost.com and ask for your cooperation in this issue. This copyright Infringement is on your server or is running through your network. I am asking for it to be removed immediately.
According to the... DMCA " Service providers, however, are expected to
remove material from users' web sites that appears to constitute copyright
infringement."
You are the service provider for this url. so it does apply.

Please read # 5 below

SEC. 202. LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

(a) IN GENERAL- Chapter 5 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by
adding after section 511 the following new section:

`Sec. 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online

`(a) TRANSITORY DIGITAL NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS- A service provider shall
not be liable for monetary relief, or, except as provided in subsection (j),
for injunctive or other equitable relief, for infringement of copyright by
reason of the provider's transmitting, routing, or providing connections
for, material through a system or network controlled or operated by or for
the service provider, or by reason of the intermediate and transient storage
of that material in the course of such transmitting, routing, or providing
connections, if--

`(1) the transmission of the material was initiated by or at the
direction of a person other than the service provider;

`(2) the transmission, routing, provision of connections, or storage is
carried out through an automatic technical process without selection of the
material by the service provider;

`(3) the service provider does not select the recipients of the material
except as an automatic response to the request of another person;

`(4) no copy of the material made by the service provider in the course
of such intermediate or transient storage is maintained on the system or
network in a manner ordinarily accessible to anyone other than anticipated
recipients, and no such copy is maintained on the system or network in a
manner ordinarily accessible to such anticipated recipients for a longer
period than is reasonably necessary for the transmission, routing, or
provision of connections; and

`(5) the material is transmitted through the system or network without
modification of its content

The copyrighted material run through your server is being modified and or stored on your server. as their own content.

Please understand I am not after you the hosting provider. I am sure you are a great service provider, The url owner will not respond.

www.themesearchengine.com is in Violation of the (DMCA) Digital Millinium Copyright Act.

According to the law I must provide you with the following statement.

My name is (your Name here) owner of copyrighted material known as;
(site name here) (yoursite.com),

My address for these matters is po box 1121 USA
My Phone number is 800 whatever
In the USA

I am asking that all copyrighted material owned by me, (your name here), Located
on www.themesearchengine.com hosted by aqhost.com be removed immediately From your server.

Under the penalties of purgery all statements are true and correct that I am
the owner of the copyright material For the following websites
(your sitename) (your url)

Violation locations:
www.themesearchengine.com/blogs
www.themesearchengine.com

Thank you for understanding the importance of this issue.

Reguards,

The email address for them is Abuse@AQHost.com

This is the short version and works 99.9% of the time

Wolfbernz

[reply]
1/05/08

thelookout

*** I just found the site owner - he's listed as an SU friend of the guy I just mentioned:

thuriam.stumbleupon.com/about/

he also has a linkedin profile (found it through searching on his phone number!!):

www.linkedin.com/in/thuriam

If you check out some of his other sites you'll also see this footer on one of them:

Copyright © Thuriam.com 2005. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction or unauthorized use will be prosecuted under The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

Is that not just too much?!?

I've not really got any experience with doing anything about this kind of thing - anyone want to take this from here?...

[reply]
1. 1/05/08
  
  jungl
  
  "Certified Google Adwords Professional" lol!
2. 1/05/08
  
  thelookout
  
  Ha! I missed that one - this guy's too much!?!
1/05/08

tetsujin

This is ridiculous they even have me on there. I am pretty sure this means war.

Cameron

[reply]
1/05/08

crkian

mybloglog profile

www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/thuriam/

Gender: Male

Company: themesearchengine.com

Yahoo: Yahoo notesbala

MSN: notesbala@hotmail.com

Google Talk: notesbala

[reply]
1/05/08

beinki

I'm not on there. I guess I'm nobody.

[reply]
1/05/08

yhc

That's happened to me before. I take it as imitation being the highest form of flattery.

[reply]
1. 1/06/08
  
  libdrone
  
  I'm so 'flattered' I may become apoplectic.
1/06/08

JamesV

wel buddy theycant get done

[reply]
3/15/08

Pentad

I'm on there as well.

[reply]
3/15/08

sellytapgirl

Not only does it have bogus links to blogs, it also links to "little girl fuck vedieos". Not a good thing.

[reply]
3/15/08

Pentad

I reported to Google, and wrote that there were a considerable amount of blogs involved, and how this person was posing his site. I also wrote the owner himself thru Stumble.

[reply]
3/16/08

veryheaven

hi all,
just checked the site for music, and it spit out the blogsites of billyvvharhols´billion dollar balloney(BC member) -> www.themesearchengine.com/blogs/billion-dollar-baloney.html

and underneath billy i fond suburbans queen site....
www.themesearchengine.com/blogs/suburban-wifes-daily-dollar-diary.html

*my guess: you search for your site in there, and so they have you indexed. please don´t look for veryheaven :-)

[reply]
1. 3/17/08
  
  BillyWarhol
  
  What are U Listing my Blog for??
3/16/08

Greekgeek

If you're using Firefox, I recommend navigating to the "fake" page that's copying your blog, then go up to the Help menu and report a Web Forgery.

(The Help menu reports on whatever URL you're currently viewing, so don't report BlogCatalog by accident)

This isn't quite normal phishing, but it is a forgery!

Google is associated with Firefox's anti-phishing campaign, and if a lot of people give Google proof of the forgery site, I'm sure Google will take steps to drop it from searches.

[reply]
1. 3/17/08
  
  clioandme
  
  Cool! Thank you for that tip. Never noticed that feature before.
  
  Update: So I used the button and also included a link to this thread by way of explanation for the report.
3/17/08

VampireFaust

I've noticed quite a few sites out there with spiders that troll for content. I've tried to locate the owners of these sites but they all seem to lead to a dead end. It's frustrating as hell and really pisses me off..

[reply]
9/12/09

writings

some people can do any thing for money and fame

[reply]
9/12/09

PussDaddy

If they really want my blog they can have it.

[reply]
9/12/09

PussDaddy

It looks to me like a search engine. Why wouldn't a blog show up in a search engine. Your blog can show up in lots of places. So I don't get it.

[reply]
9/12/09

PussDaddy

One of the links I am on because I bought a greeting card from the person. What exactly is fishy about this?

[reply]
9/12/09

lostrose160

which site?

[reply]
9/12/09

PussDaddy

You're kidding, right?

The site linked in the OP.

[reply]
1. 9/12/09
  
  MadameX
  
  Just guessing, PussDaddy, but maybe some things have changed in the 21 months since this thread was posted? When I click on the link above, what I see is nothing like what the posters here were describing back in early '08.
9/13/09

brooklynposh

im definitely not on there. maybe because i dont have adS?

[reply]
9/13/09

PetLvr

* This is an example of an old discussion thread that should not have been resurrected.

[reply]
1. 9/13/09
  
  timethief
  
  Agreed. If I do not have a meaningful comment to make or an informational update to post, I do not resurrect old threads. However, other members seem to have some other criteria.