April 15, 2007

Bloggy Question 44: Stay Out of My Life!

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:22 pm

Worse than a Scraper

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . .


You know the problem of people stealing your content. You’ve even handled that before. Every time you found a blog with your content, you’ve managed to sleuth enough to get an address or phone number, some sort of contact where could knock the door. Then you’ve made it clear that the content question MUST come down or you will alert the authorities of the theft. And lucky you, it’s gone your way every time.

But this time it’s different, because the content is totally rewritten. Only it mirrors what you write. Even the title of the blog is Echo Your Blog. Now they’ve started picking up the same stock images and sometime even the occasional family photo or photo of you and your friends.

It’s not only creepy. It’s begun to feel like you have a stalker not a fan.

How do you respond?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Bloggy Question 43: Love or Money?
Bloggy Question 42: Responding to Comments
Bloggy Question 41: The Junior High Sleep Over
Bloggy Question 40: Um er . . . Your Enthusiasm Is Killing Our Ebook
Bloggy Question 39: It’s My Presentation . . . What’s the One Thing?
Bloggy Question 38: You’ve Just Won a New Design!


Filed under Bloggy Questions, Successful Blog |



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22 Comments to “Bloggy Question 44: Stay Out of My Life!”

  1. April 15th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
    Chris Cree said

    That’s just creepy!

    It amazes me how much work some folks do to be lazy. I mean would take some effort to rework everything about post after post. It would probably be less effort to just write from scratch.

  2. April 15th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey, Chris!
    What a great point. People will walk miles out of their way to avoid taking “the long way home.”

  3. April 15th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
    Andrew Flusche said

    It scares me just to read that…

    I wonder if I could get a restraining order to prevent somebody from “blog stalking” me…

    Seriously, though, I would probably contact the author and inquire what was going on there. It’s completely unlikely that it’s a coincidence, but you never know. It might be funny to see what the author said, if accused of “content mirroring.”

    Liz, you’re always thoughtful.

  4. April 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Andrew!
    As a lawyer you’d probably be more comfortable contacting the author than most folks might be . . . would contact the author for me?? :) It would be creepy to say the least. I would have to try hard to forget it existed and ask folks to keep news of it quiet where I was concerned — unless something critical or threatening raised it’s head.

  5. April 15th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
    Jonathan-C. Phillips said

    How would i respond? well it’s hard to say since it never happened to me (and hope it never will), but if contacting the owner of the site doesn’t work, i’d probably write about it on my own site, and see if the stalker would mirror/re-write that post too, it could be interesting to see what happens!

    great post as usual Liz :)

  6. April 15th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi johnthan!
    That would be interesting to see whether and how the mirror would parody or mimic what you wrote about the mirror. You are always smiling.

    Great to see you!

  7. April 15th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
    Dave Schoof: said

    I wonder if there is another approach? What if you commented on the copycat’s site?

    Something like, “Great points! They really resonates with me, it builds on what I said in my post at this link.” Then, some of your buddies (c’est moi) could visit and make comments along the same line: “WOW! - you know, Liz at Success blog has a lot to say about this. Its great you are building on her wisdom!”

    I’d be honored to be on your posse and help out ma’m.

    Kind of like Akido - use the force coming at you instead of pushing against it.

  8. April 15th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Dave,
    I’m honored to think that you would use Akido on my behalf. :)

    I bow before you. :)

  9. April 15th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
    Jonathan-C. Phillips said

    Hey Dave, that’d be a good way of letting the stalker know that you know, prob with that is the stalker could also not publish the comment hehe, but if he/she does i’m sure people would have a laugh!

  10. April 15th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Jonathan,
    It’s an interesting idea to think about. It would be laughable in some ways . . . or maybe not.

  11. April 15th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
    Carma Dutra said

    Good thought Dave, I have heard that the best defense is a good offense.

    When I know I am right, I am not above confronting people openly and very publicly.

    And I like the idea of publicly posting on the offender’s site and in addition I would consult what legal remedies there were and follow through.

    Still, it IS creepy.

  12. April 15th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Carma!
    I’ve publicly posted a site when I couldn’t contact the owner and that got his attentionq quickly. I’m not saying that would work for every blog. But it sure did for this one. :)

  13. April 15th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
    Armen said

    This immediately reminded me of what happened to Chris Pearson when someone quickly ripped-off his Cutline theme and called it Cleanline - http://www.pearsonified.com/2006/11/do-not-steal-from-me.php

    To be honest, I think I would contact them politely, they may not be aware of basic blogging etiquette. If it continued, I would then kindly let my readers know and call for their support and advice.

  14. April 15th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Armen!
    Yes, I remember when that happened to Chris. It wasn’t nice. It’s true folks sometimes aren’t too smart arout taking things. And it’s good to let our readers know about the problem so that ehy might offer a solution to bhe situation. ;)

  15. April 16th, 2007 at 12:59 am
    awannabe said

    Do people really do that?

  16. April 16th, 2007 at 1:56 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi awannabe,
    People do the strangest things. But then, you know that. :)

  17. April 16th, 2007 at 4:20 am
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    Wait a minute .. how do we know that it’s not YOU who are really echoing the other person’s life? Are you really Liz? Are you a man? Can you prove that you didn’t just paraphrase the REAL Liz?

    I don’t trust mobs and their mob mentality and while attacking the other person is the impulsive thing to do, probably 20% of the time it is totally in the wrong, in my opinion.

    cc: To the *REAL* Liz! lol

  18. April 16th, 2007 at 6:15 am
    Steli said

    Never happened to me as a blogger but as a entrepreneur it happended and it WAS and IS a hard question to answer. How do you react when someone steals your ideas and copies your behaviour?

    Well, as long as there is no easy way to steal skills - I am not frightened :)

  19. April 16th, 2007 at 7:04 am
    ME Strauss said

    HART!!
    Wait, are you HART? You could be a google HART. I’m so confused!

    Guess that’s how you know it’s the real Liz.

    Stick around for a while and I’ll make typo in the comments and then you’ll know for sure! :)

  20. April 16th, 2007 at 7:08 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Steli!
    I guess it’s like when we were kids and some kid would echo back everything that we said. First it was irritating then it was creepy. . . . I just wanted to get away.

    You’re a positive man, Steli! Stay that way!

  21. April 22nd, 2007 at 6:26 pm
    Bloggy Question 46: Beware of Making Noise - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] articles Bloggy Question 44: Stay Out of My Life! Bloggy Question 43: Love or Money? Bloggy Question 42: Responding to Comments Bloggy Question 41: [...]

  22. February 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
    Small Thievery with a High Cost – Who Was Your Muse? : Top Hosting Center said

    [...] is not a hypothetical question, but a fact of web life, almost as bad as Liz described with her “Stay Out of my Life” [...]

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