The Marketing Technology Blog

I’ve decided to go to war with a splogger who’s hijacked my feed and is releasing my content under his name and website. He’s running advertising and making money off of my site’s content and I’m tired of it. Publishers, including bloggers, have rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

What’s a Splog?

Splog’s are the bottom feeders of the Internet. They steal your content, either by Email or by RSS and republish it. The objective for them is to gain advertising revenue without actually having to do any work.

In reviewing the Splogger’s site, I noticed that they’ve gotten the feed via my RSS feed. This is a violation of FeedBurner’s Terms of Service.

More importantly, this splogger is running Adsense advertisements. Stealing content and running Adsense ads is a direct violation of Google’s Terms of Service.

I’ve contacted Adsense and reported the issue, and have been met with additional requirements to complete:

To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):

1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. For example, “The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.html.”
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. You must identify each page that allegedly contains infringing material by providing its URL.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred).
4. Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing webpages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.”
5. Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the
   owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”
6. Sign the paper.
7. Send the written communication to the following address:

   Google, Inc.
   Attn: AdSense Support, DMCA complaints
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View CA 94043

   OR Fax to:

   (650) 618-8507, Attn: AdSense Support, DMCA complaints

This paperwork will be in the mail today!