I don't know how many people are familiar with http://www.experiencefestival.com but it's getting to be quite big and comes up on page 1 in Google for a lot of new age type search results. The thing is though all the content is taken, without permission (they put a little label like Courtesy of blabla.com, but I know they haven't actually asked permission) from other websites and the pages are awash with advertising - in fact there's so much advertising it's difficult to find where the actual information is, like here for instance: http://www.experiencefestival.com/buddhism_enlightenment. I don't understand how they can get away with it, or how they can get page 1 results with 99% copied content? I'm surprised they're allowed google ads on there also. I found this guy talking about the same thing just now: http://www.hinduwebsite.com/general/essays/pirates.asp so I know others are aware of it. I find it more distateful because it's going under the guise of 'enlightentment' and good natured thinking, when really it's just a glorified scraper site, pimping out other people's hard work and beliefs for adsense cash.
Adsense isn't really the issue, I'm just surprised they're allowed to use it, as they would just use some other advertiser instead. I get the feeling they're a pretty big organization anyways and other people must have tried reporting them already. They're probably using a bunch of legal loopholes to get away with it, just bothers me that they are getting away with it and doing quite well out of it at the same time.
I wouldn't get in an uproar over it. It is possible that the information on the site is syndicated, making it readily available for reuse, or that the authors have submitted the articles in exchange for the link, or that they actually have permission to use the content. You can't assume that they are stealing content. It looks to me like they are building an authority site, and that usually means gathering content from many different sources. Usually that little disclaimer "Courtesy of ...", means that they have had contact with the owner and they requested credit for the photo, or article...I have to use that all the time, but on the other hand, T.V. News does that all the time...would you say they are stealing content or providing information?
Then he should say something about it. Very few webmasters will ignore you if you threaten to tell their hosting company, but it also depends on what country they are in...some people in certain countries, don't care, they will steal from all of us.
Very few webmasters would ignore it, but I don't think this is a small-time webmaster but rather a large company or organisation. I get the feeling, from time to time, that companies turn a blind eye where larger amounts of money are involved - i.e. large hosting contracts and large amounts of ad revenue being generated. I also suspect that a lot of the webmasters wont even know their content is being used, so being reported won't even come up. Anyways I filled out the hindu guy's contact form to ask if he got anywhere contacting them. Edit: scratch that, his form doesn't work, I just got a 'Delivery to the following recipients failed'.
wow, disturbing.. I did a search on my site and found some taken content as well.... I had no idea this site even existed, thank you for informing me.