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With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

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Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Somebody Stole My Post - The Oriental Garden of Sam Poh Tong, Ipoh



I HAVE NOTHING TO WRITE TODAY.
I AM SHOCKED AND I AM VERY ANGRY!
!@#$%^;*()_+

It has come to my attention, recently, that my old post titled, The Oriental Garden of Sam Poh Tong, Ipoh which was published on 28 July 2009 has been posted by another blogger in another blog without my permission and knowledge. It has the same post title, same contents and images and even my watermark!


My original post link: The Oriental Garden of Sam Poh Tong, Ipoh.

The pirated link: Also exactly the same name. Click here* . The Oriental Garden of Sam Poh Tong, Ipoh, published on 27 April 2010. The link was also posted in Facebook.



Note: The post has since been removed. As the blog is still in operation, I have removed this link*. Clicking on it will redirect the traffic from my post here to that blog which amounts to more advert money and better page rank for it.



Excerpts from my stolen post:
Sam Poh Tong, when translated means The Tripple Gems Cave. Some like to call it The Cavern of Tripple Gems. Discovered in 1890 by a monk from China, this Chinese Buddhist temple was built within a natural limestone hill and managed by monks and nuns. Inside the cavern, there are beautiful Buddha statues, natural stalactite and stalagmite formations and a tortoise pond. There is also vegetarian food and a columbarium here.


(a) It is difficult to accept and understand why some bloggers can just copy and paste to earn money and copy and paste to earn money and copy and paste to earn money or maybe there's no need to, can just use robots or what kind of sophiscated technology that I don't know about.

If it can happen to me it can happen to you too!

Be warned and Beware!

(b) If I don't write anymore, my blog will disappear into oblivion in cyberspace. Maybe it will be of use to some 'smart genius' who can repackage old wine in new bottles from the old blog posts. And then, when visitors go click, click, click, they earn $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ from Adsense, Amazon, Nuffnang, and other advertisers.


(c) This is sad and horrible. Where is the integrity and respect for another person's intellectual property?


CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME?


UPDATED on 2nd July 2010 
The following are some useful links recommended by fellow bloggers:

From Garden Bloggers dotcom:
a) Feed Scrappers III
b) Feed Scrappers II
c) Feed Scrappers - Guest Post by Dave Townsend

RoseBelle of Three Wisdoms blog has written 2 posts on this matter:
a) Protect Yourself From Copyright Infringement here,
b) How To Protect Your Published Contents on Blogger here.

37 comments:

  1. hi Belle,
    Very sorry to hear that someone stolen your post.
    IF its a blog, try click - Report Abuse and report it there - it might help.

    ReplyDelete
  2. James, I have reported to Blogger by filling up the form under "Report Abuse" and also reported to Nuffnang, the advertiser. Nuffnang was the first to respond advising me to take legal action as they are 'not a party to resolve dispute on the internet'. Blogger has not responded yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have also posted comments under the above mentioned pirated post, requesting the owner to remove the post immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Belle ~ I am so sorry someone has done this to you. I hope the situation is resolved soon. There are so many creeps out there, who haven't any kind of conscience at all.

    Bless your heart ~ FlowerLady

    ReplyDelete
  5. Terrible experience, which can happen to any of us. How can they make money when your pictures are watermarked? I hope you will bring the culprit to book.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Autumn Belle how dare this despicable person steal your work! I have left a message on their blog calling them a thief. I am sorry that people will stoop so low. I will wait to see how blogger responds to your complaint.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is a shame and outright theft someone did this to you.
    I also commented on that blog using words i should use about the theft.
    Have a great week.
    Costas

    ReplyDelete
  8. How despicable! The thief will reap no gains when word gets around. Shame on the blogger!

    ReplyDelete
  9. HUgs..i am sorry this happens. I am not sure what do to about this either! If I do I'll get back to you asap! i think it would be great if we all would have on onlging fellow-blogger-"watchlist" of these poeple and circulate it..that way..their names would get known online for stealing and at least poeple will be aware and know thier content is stolen and we can watch out for them all. there should be a way..maybe thier Ip address to alert it as a bad one! I dont know!! I hope something can be done!
    HUgs...best wishes!
    Kiki~

    ReplyDelete
  10. Flower Lady, Lotus Leaf, Helen, Kostas, Keats, Kiki, Aaron.

    Thank you for coming here to support me with your blessings. Thank you for sticking your neck out and putting your brave foot forward to stand up for me. I am really touched by your actions and I appreciate it very much.

    ReplyDelete
  11. We really need to group together and support each other. As I know, the advertiser is still under obligation to pay that owner of the blog as long the terms and conditions of their contract is not violated. They can't arbitrate nor can they do anything at the moment. This copyright matter is between me and that blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AutumnBelle - I can understand why someone might want to steal your posts - they are so beautiful and worthwhile. But really it is unforgivable to do so and so sorry to hear it has happened to you. Blogger is useless in responding to anything I'm afraid. Does it have anything to do with spam probs you had recently I wonder.

    thanks for this post - a warning to us all but not sure what the solution is, other than name and shame in the social networking community.

    Laura x

    ReplyDelete
  13. p.s. I've tried picking your posts on Blotanical a couple of times but always comes up with an error. Have you contacted Stewart about this - other people have the same problem e.g. RothschildOrchid

    ReplyDelete
  14. Autumn Belle: Sorry that you have to experience that. I just went to that site and left a comment there to condemn that blogger, and I saw there are many who already left the similar comments there. I think that would be a good idea for we all to go there to tell him/her that is a shameful thing to do!

    ~hug~ from Ami in Florida

    ReplyDelete
  15. This sickens and upsets me. Plagiarism is a horrid practise dogging authors of all creative works. I feel for you Autumn and I hope this never happens again to any of us.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We have visited the ugly site.

    That site gains more traffic through your link.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Autumn I cannot believe people have the stupidity and nerve to steal other peoples work to gain from it.

    Since the thief is on blogger you would think they would come up with a way to block that persons email address from future postings all together than just taking it down. I have never been on Facebook so I do not know if they use an email address to sign in or not. If a person had to change their email address each time they used Blogger or Facebook to steal at least this would make it harder for them and maybe costlier for them.

    Kiki's Idea of listing on our blogs a list of "Wanted for Plagiarism" is a way to keep us checking on them.I am up for this one on my Blog.

    I do not know Autumn it is so frustrating and I hate it for you girl.
    I did leave them a scathing comment. I cannot believe they are stupid enough to post them.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm going to contact my son who's a lawyer.

    I'm not sure writing anymore comments on a 2009 post will work. I'm wondering if he'll even notice - but I suppose he'll see that widget of his and everyone is going to the same post. Fantastic comments by the way by everyone so far.

    I think we should start complaining on his most recent posts. If he's stolen yours AB who elses has he stolen plus look at all those flickr photos he's got - I wonder if they are all his?


    (Sent you a pm via facebook)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Shortening your blog feed to 256 characters (or whatever the short-version limits the feed to) may make your blog less attractive to feed scrapers.

    Adding an introductory paragraph along the lines of, "This post was written for the blog My Nice Garden," etc., (Mr. Brown Thumb does this) can also make it more trouble to duplicate posts.

    I also find that a certain amount of "non-professional" writing (vulgar language, big words, difficult-to-reproduce formatting) makes a blog less likely to be scraped. The scrapers are looking for professional-sounding language that can be cut and pasted with minimal difficulty. The more obstacles you can put in the way of that, the less likely you are to be scraped. Though it should be noted that there's really nothing you can do to prevent it altogether.

    Some sites like Fairshare will search the web periodically and give you reports about what other sites are re-using your text, and how much of it is being reused, though sometimes one would prefer not to know.

    ReplyDelete
  20. grrr, I'm sorry about this too! I will also go and let that person know what I think.

    I know I'm a little tech stupid, but I don't even really get it. I mean, how does it help the person gain money by doing this?

    Either way, it sucks that someone's going to just steal something from you.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hey Autumn the thief's blog is no longer up and running. There is strength in unity. We will stand with you and put up a good fight.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi Autumn Belle I am sorry you too have had this happen, it is particularly nasty as many garden bloggers are such lovely people, we are not used to nastiness in our garden blogging world.

    When it happened to me last year I read about reporting abuse but then found that if the offending blog was closed and they challenged my report I could end up with legal fees. That put me off.

    I soon calmed down though in the overall scheme of things I find there are so many atrocities going on over the denial in Lyme Disease, clearly something that particularly concerns me I soon got over my garden blog theft but rather wished they would theive my Looking at Lyme blog posts because the more coverage they get the more chance of others protecting themselves and saving years of illness by treating on a few weeks antibiotics at the time of a tick bite.

    Hope you soon get over this and that the culprit moves off and leaves your posts alone. Hugs Joanne

    ReplyDelete
  23. Good Morning everyone!

    I have received a reply from the Blogger Team at DMCA - Copyright Legal Support centre informing me that they have have reviewed the allegedly infringing content in question. The content has been taken offline in accordance with their policies. They have also notified the blogger of the complaint.

    Blogger has also said that "Should the allegedly infringing content reappear at this post, please let us know and we will take further action".

    I filed the DMCA notice to Blogger on June 26 and they had taken action by June 29.

    Thank you very much to Blogger and Thank you very much to you all.

    There is "Strength in Unity" like Helen (Islandgal246) said. All of you who had read my post are the witnesses and your comments are proof that the post contents and images were indeed mine.

    Please accept my 90 degrees bow.

    ReplyDelete
  24. You are welcome Autumn Belle and if someone hurts one of us, they have hurt all of us!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Helen, I am so proud of you and all the rest who came to help me.

    That blogger was one of my blog Followers in Google Friend Connect. I have since block this member. I have learnt my lesson that many followers may not be a good thing. We must be watchful of who they are and what they are doing/blogging. It is good to keep track and check on them. Last year, I blocked 2 followers linked directly to porn sites.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Mr Sub,

    I was so relieved to see you coming here too with your 'electric chainsaw' which is great for my protection!

    Thanks a lot for the smart links and advice.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I really wish there's something that can be done to prevent online plagiarism. I check the offender's blog, it's been deleted or so. It doesn't work. Why don't you put up Copyscape on your blog? I know it would not protect your work completely but at least it lets would-be offenders know you monitor your contents.

    I wrote about protecting yourself not too long ago. I provided Copyscape link in the post. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hi Autumn Belle, i came here last, already after the storm. I've been out for 4 days and there's a lot already going on. I salute the solidarity of the blogger friends you have here, most of them are mine too. I can't open it anymore so yes it responded already to the posts and maybe because of the early response of Blogger. Maybe we are not aware of those who stole ours because we have not looked for them, but maybe we all have thieves. I only encounter some Chinese characters linking to porn sites, which i delete whenever i see them. However, i dont check the old posts, but who will be looking for them in old posts!!! Thank goodness it is deleted, but i am sure they will resurface anytime among us. Can you tell us the blogname of the thief.

    ReplyDelete
  29. RoseBelle, I have inserted Copyscape since I first started this blog but that didn't deter the scrappers. I have also recently reinforced it with My Free Copyright. Yes, you do have an informative and timely post about protecting copyrights.

    Andrea, you are right that my tears has dried up and my adrenalin cum BP had returned to normal levels but you are also our friend. If it happens to you, we will help you too.

    I chanced upon this pirated version while doing a google search on my old post. I was preparing a draft post about a revisit to this garden. That blogger tagged it under tourism in Malaysia.

    Regarding my old posts, those related to travel and plant profiles are still being read. Some tourism sites have asked for permission to link to my old posts and where appropriate, I will let them do so.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Andrea, I have sent you an email message. Others who wish to get further details can send me an email request.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I'm sorry to hear somebody lifted your entire post and made it their own.

    On the brighter side, it means it's so good that somebody just reprinted it as is. The problem is they didn't get permission first.

    Good to know the offending site has been removed.

    More power to you Autumn Belle!

    ReplyDelete
  32. This is horrible and I'm so sorry it happened to you. I unfortunately know the feeling. When I blogged for Today.com I found that my entire blog had been plagiarized on a daily basis. They completely scraped all the content for months. I was horrified. There are some things you can do. First, you can contact both Google and Adsense letting them know what has happened. Adsense will investigate and ban them from ever using Adsense again. You can also online find a cease and desist order and send it to the plagiarizer. You can also go to the whois website and get information on the blogger using their domain. Once you find out who they bought their domain from you can contact them and eventually they will shut down the blog. Of course if they don't have a domain, it can't be done.

    If they are in the US, you can contact a lawyer and threaten a lawsuit. All of these things may be a bit much but these disgusting people need to be stopped. It's really very sad that these people have no artistic mind or even one ounce of creativity an have to steal content just to make a penny.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Sorry to hear about this plagiarism. At least with http://www.copyscape.com/ you can quickly check if your blog has been copied faster & can take action faster I think ?!

    All the best

    Ibrahim

    ReplyDelete
  34. Sorry to read that you're a victim of plagiarism. I salute you, Autumn Belle in your determination and success in thrashing out this awful violation, and thumbs up too to all your wonderful friends who have come out in full force to support you.
    I've experienced this too on 3 occasions at our garden website and the culprits had the copied posts removed when I left a stern message on their blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Thank you very much for the support and helpful advice which I find very useful. A friend in need is a friend indeed!

    I'd like to add that the said blogger does not have a Google Adsense account, maybe Adsense already terminated the a/c.

    ReplyDelete
  36. This Caribbean living legend does fears not the possibility.

    No juan could bottle this old abrasive, misanthropist, anarchist aged wine register into new bottles.

    Or the out of focus, not meaningful photos.

    But I share your concern. Good luck
    in your future projects.

    ReplyDelete

Words are like the voice of the heart... Confucius

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