Before I embark on my latest rant, let me make it clear that Naresh Joshi is not your run o’ the mill scraper. I don’t really spend much time worrying about or warring with scrapers over stolen blog content. There are a number of ways to use their douchebaggary to your advantage and even have a little fun at their expense, as my pal Gerald Weber illustrated.
This, however, is egregious plagiarism with direct and malicious intent to deceive. Yet another piece of evidence to justify maligning the notion of outsourcing SEO to India. Check for unauthorized reproduction of your content using a tool like Copyscape. I should have been more diligent about doing so. <slaps own hand>
I was checking the backlinks to my sister’s pet sitting site last night when an odd URL appeared in Yahoo! Site Explorer. “Huh,” I wondered quietly to myself, “…why is there a link to Welcome Home there?” Of course, I had to investigate. The next few minutes found me spinning off into realms of pissed off I don’t experience often.
It seems a young man from India named Naresh Joshi (@seonaresh) opted to steal – not merely scrape, but flat out STEAL – my content and pass it off as his own. And not just my blog posts, but content from my “static” pages – like my home page, my SEO audit page, my small business website design page…even my contact page, which he edited – replacing my contact information with his own!
You can assess the flagrant thievery for yourself by visiting seonaresh.wordpress.com (though I doubt the site will be up much longer). Below you’ll find the claim I have prepared for submission to Automattic per the information provided on their DMCA Notice if the content is not removed by 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, 03/14. You may find it useful in creating your own DMCA claim, should something like this happen to you in the future. Or you may just find it amusing. Either way, here it is:
Dear Mr. Schneider,
Please consider this a formal complaint indicating that http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/ is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As suggested by Automaticc’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice, I contacted the blog owner directly and requested the content be immediately removed. I have received no response from the blog owner.
Of the eleven (11) total pages that make up the site (category and feed pages notwithstanding), ten (10) of the pages have been copied directly from my website – https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com, which is obviously my intellectual property. “Copyright 2011” and “All Rights Reserved” disclaimers appear in the footer of every page throughout my website. Despite that, several pages have been reproduced without my permission and without proper credit to me, as the originator of the content.
Furthermore, the only page of the site with content not stolen from my site (http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/request-a-quote/) was copied from http://www.lipsum.com/ – the only substantive difference being that the first paragraph, “What Is Lorem Ipsum?”, was not included. Thus there is not a single page on the offending site that contains original content or content that has not been illegally republished.
The following URLs contain an egregious amount of plagiarized content, having been copied practically verbatim from my site, https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com, as it appeared in July of 2010:
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/about-me/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/projects/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/news-updates/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/contact-2/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/p-1/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/making-friends-and-building-rapport/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/does-your-website-have-direction-and-purpose/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/choosing-the-website-audit-that-is-best-for-your-needs/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/cheap-web-hosting-that-doesn%e2%80%99t-suck/
Here are the corresponding URLs from https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com – all of which can be verified as original (note posted on & comment dates on blog entries):
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/seo-specialist-alysson-fergison/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/seo-audit/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/affordable-small-business-website-design/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/contact/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/making-friends-building-rapport/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/does-your-website-have-direction-and-purpose/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/website-audit-for-your-needs/
- https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com/cheap-web-hosting-that-doesnt-suck/
A VERY small amount of verbiage has been changed on a few of my pages since July of 2010, but the plagiarism is unmistakable. Not only has the content been stolen directly from https://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com, but the contact information was manually changed by the blog owner with the direct and malicious intent to deceive his visitors.
While much of the information that identifies me as the author has been manually changed by the blog owner, there are still several mentions of my brand, “SEOAly” and my nickname, “Aly”, that appear on various pages of the violating site – including, but not limited to the following pages:
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/p-1/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/about-me/
- http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/contact-2/
You will also find that the “Small Business Website Design Sample Work…” links that appear on http://seonaresh.wordpress.com/news-updates/ still link to my development subdomains, providing further proof that I am the originator of the content and that the blog owner has maliciously plagiarized it.
Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Alysson Fergison
[ADDRESS REDACTED]
Jacksonville, FL 32259
PHONE: (510) 473-6259
E-MAIL ADDRESS: aly@seoaly.comIn closing, I (a) believe in good faith that the use of the content that I claim to infringe my copyright is not authorized by law, or by me, the copyright owner; (b) attest the information contained in my Infringement Notice is accurate, and (c) under penalty of perjury, I am the copyright/intellectual property owner.
I request that this site be removed in its entirety. Thank you for your prompt attention to this blatant violation of the DMCA and I look forward to a swift resolution.
Respectfully,
Alysson Fergisonhttps://seoaly.alyssonfergison.com – SEO Consulting, Audits and WordPress Website/Blog Design for Small Business
E-mail: aly@seoaly.com | Phone: (510) 473-6259
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Alysson
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssonfergison
Well, there you have it. If this isn’t an open & shut case, I can’t imagine what would be. It’s unfortunate that Naresh Joshi has abandoned his Twitter account. I have a feeling this would be a great deal more fun if he made some public attempt to defend his actions.
At any rate, Naresh Joshi…if you are an SEO, as you claim to be, you should happen upon this post at some point – perhaps shortly after you realize your WordPress.com blog is no more. When that day comes, know this:
YOU STOLE CONTENT FROM THE WRONG BITCH!
UPDATE: About 7 hours after sending the DMCA complaint to Automattic, Naresh Joshi’s WordPress.com blog was removed. While I expected that to be the ultimate outcome, I certainly didn’t anticipate it happening so quickly. Big kudos to Automattic for taking such swift action to protect original content from thievery!
Bobby McDaniel says
You go get ’em lady! ;)
Beware the wrath of SEOAly!
Alysson says
Thanks, Bobby. Seems this chap is going to have to learn not to steal the hard way. :)
StockbridgeT says
That’s just crazy.
If it comes down to a way to prove you are the original creator other than the comment dates (that could be faked with a bit of effort) a simple phone call to Welcome Home Pet Sitting and asking which one of you is REALLY a partner there would probably do the trick as well. On his about page, also, the link after his claim to be a partner still links back to your site, too. ;)
If this is stuff you already know and were keeping it (or want to keep it) under wraps so he won’t scramble to fix it, feel free to not approve this comment – I won’t take it personally. Hopefully he’ll pull it without need to go further. DMCA works, but it takes time and effort.
Alysson says
Yes, all things I am aware of. Automattic is certainly aware of the avenues available to verify that I’m the originator of the content without relying solely on posted on and comment dates. It appears that both his Twitter account and blog have been abandoned, so I don’t anticipate him removing the content on his own. The claim will be sent and hopefully they will agree that this is a blatantly obvious DMCA violation.