I was just checking my webstats for my webmaster blog and came across the following url (as a referral): http://www.freebusinessads.in/blog/index.php Needless to say there are 3 of my blog articles published on this site - is this a case of my content being stolen? Obviously duplicate content is bad so what should i do about it?
I don't see any links or attribution to your site, so technically yes. "Admin" made a comment on his own blog re: the Rackspace article to "good information keep it up" so it might be that this person doesn't know what he or she is doing and thinks that any content on the web is free for the taking. I would contact the person and politely point out that the content is your copyrighted material and that he/she must either remove asap (or include clickable links and credits your site) or face legal ramifications. Before you contact the owner, make screenshots of the posts on his website to back up your position. If the person refuses to comply, contact his hosting company and as long as you can prove the posts are yours, they'll shut him down. If it turns out to be an honest mistake, that's fine. View it as another backlink (provided he inserts the correct resource info). Duplicate content isn't necessarily a bad thing, that's what all the article marketing is about, but outright content theft or copyright infringement is never acceptable. Good luck.
I managed to get in contact with the owner, apparently they had only used the content as it was a brand new blog design and they just wanted to test out the design with some content to see how it displayed (apparently) - either way content has now been removed. Problem solved.
Duplicate content across the web on multiple domains does not have much weight. Duplicate content within your internal webpages is where the problem starts. Fighting this guy with Google is a waste of time. The guy site is only using your feed. You have total control of your web feed and can change the settings so that only a summary is displayed. Using feeds is legal and natural. If exteranal duplicate content was an issue then there would be no such thing as syndication. News is a form of duplication, because it is intended to travel quickly amognst the masses. I would suggest just asking the guy for a link back to your website. But if you go the Google route then I would like to hear the outcome. Good luck!
i agree with rocketmedia but the google route wil be hard and unfruitfull since you must specify every single serp they rank for with your content(i am disregarding rss for now which is completely legal) and even then time taken they flow back into se's but trying their host is off course not a bad idea also try blogging about them making them shame mas media is very powerfull next thing you know everyone who searches for them knows of their thieving hehe trust me it works i brought a few stealing Fake "designers" down this way GRINGRIN
So, that will serve a lesson to you Sabian, and to us all too! The next time you produces unique content to your site, make your to copyscape that! Any motion from you, Guys?