First, I’d like to introduce you to my lovely new friend Bonnie, who blogs at Wonderfully Awkward. Isn’t that a fantastic name for a blog? She’s the one who emailed me letting me know my tutorial had been ripped off. Please go visit her and give her a bit of love!
And you guys are SO AWESOME! I have the best readers in the world! I am so, so grateful for all your comments and support these last few days.
I am sorry to be banging on about this, and you must be really sick of it. Good God, I am. If you are, don’t read on, and I won’t be offended in the least!
I’m going to give you the link to the infamous blog, and if you MUST go there, that’s ok. But if you’ve seen that bloody blog already, DON’T CLICK the link! It may be pennies, but AdSense and ‘Mary’ are earning money from our anger. Every time we view it, Google/Adsense gets to charge the advertisers, and pays a bit of that to ‘Mary’. Isn’t that total bullshit?
I’m sorry, I’m gonna get a little angry here. Why the HELL are there still Google ads plastered all over that site? Google/Blogger has removed my tutorial and Bonnie’s as well. I think they’ve removed the blog from the search engines too. Aren’t TWO illegal infringement ‘posts’ enough to make Google withdraw the AdSense advertising? At the very least pending an appeal? Isn’t it AGAINST international law to make money from copyright infringement?
So why are the ads still there? Why is the blog still there? I’ll bloody tell you: $$$$$ is friggin’ why. All the hits our anger is generating (and yes, it is totally righteous!) is still making money and boosting stats, including for AdSense. Hmmm.
So, if you would like to complain, here’s how to do it. Report her blog (http://inthe-garden.blogspot.com/) as a spam blog to Google. Flood them with complaints. It’s easy and totally anonymous!
I tried to comment with this information on her blog, but Blogger is a POS right now, so if your tutorial is still up there, here (for what it’s worth) is what I recommend:
1. Complain to Adsense about money being generated from your stolen content.
2. Then, complain to Blogger about copyright infringement.
3. Blog, Facebook and Tweet about it! If Adsense begins to realise they’re getting bad publicity, they might withdraw their ads. So ask the world: why hasn’t Adsense pulled the ads?
Tutorial Proposal: Finally, my good friend Stephanie from Spontaneous Threads emailed me and suggested I do a tutorial on how to protect yourself and your blog from this kind of theft. (I must admit I have done A LOT of research this week!) Would anyone be interested in it? I’d cover copyright, photos and how to find out if your tutorials have been ripped off, stuff like that. I don’t want anyone to ever have to deal with this.
I think I have a headache now. Going to go sew myself happy! Thank you for sticking around, and here’s another pretty picture as a reward:
© J C Excell, 2011
I have done the spam blog bit – re protecting yourself, do you know about Copyscape? Some bloggers/crafters use that.
Pomona x
Won’t click the link even if it just pennies! I’m so sorry you are dealing with this! I’ve heard of several others who have dealt with the same thing. Mean people suck! I hope it is all settled very soon and robs no more of your fun and joy of creating and blogging about it.
I hope you won’t let this stop your creative juices and your fun tutorials! I’m really sorry you and other bloggers have to face this for any reason.
Is that the quilt you were talking to me about? I’d shell out hundreds of dollars for that piece of art! The flamingos look lovely!! Thanks for posting that pic. I miss you
thank you for the shoutout! It totally made my day. I shared the link on my Facebook page, and here’s what my friend Nick had to say:
I say respond in kind.
Hire a PI. Find out the content thief’s personal data. Put up a website, inviting identity thieves to take it with ads all over it. Start signing up for every discount you can get by agreeing to have magazines and other crap sent to him.
Let him enjoy having his ip, in this case personal information, used for other people’s profit without his consent.
Then write to wired/gizmodo/etc. about it. They’ll link to your ad covered site and you’ll make more than he ever did.
Note: I may be evil.
Nick is wicked smart and funny (and British to boot!), and that cracked me up. I’m so glad more of our tutorials are being taken off. Last I looked (now I feel bad for even clicking!), the Easter chick tutorial from Myrtle and Eunice (http://www.myrtleandeunice.com) was taken down. Her chick tutorial had me in stitches (sewing? Stitches? Get it? HA!) I sew funny… HA!
You go girl!!!! I want a tutorial, but until you get over your headache, here is a bit of help my teenage son gave me…… (I went out looking for “adding watermarks to photos” via google and blogger and I must say I was a bit perplexed by what to do), so, I asked my teenager, (I do not do this generally for REALLY important things, but this seemed up his alley). If you blog and use a MAC you can, take your photo from iphoto and drag it into Preview. Then select Annotate from one of the pull down menus. Then select add text. Type whatever you want to “watermark” your photo with in the box followed by the option “g” key to get the copyright symbol. Select Save and it puts the photo right back into iphoto marked with your copyright. For, now that is what I will do, thanks to Jenna’s heads up and her head ache too. I am sure there is a better way, so I’m waiting for my tutorial. (Hint, Hint). But until then, stinkers beware.
I would love a tutorial if you wrote one 🙂
Sorry you are still dealing with this! Would love a tute 🙂 Thank you for thinking of the rest of us bloggers in the middle of the issue you are dealing with!
I like you thought “oh it will never happen to me”…not sure if it has…I’d be fascinated in a tutorial. You’re right we need to be proactive and protect ourselves!
I just heard on the radio yesterday that there was an Etsy seller who made cool necklaces with a pendant in the shape of the state of New York with a heart cut out. And that Urban Outfitters stole her idea (they are selling them) and that the used the same name and stuff. So you are not alone and you are doing the right things. And I for one do not care if the pics in a tutorial have watermarks, as long as I can see what I need to see! I’m a believer of “what goes around comes around” so someday the universe will get revenge on “mary”. You’ve got a great blog! Don’t let “her” ruin it for you 🙂
Thank you for the pretty picture — I love it. What I do NOT love is being gone from the blogging world for a few days and then returning to find out that someone treated you so horribly. No wonder you are upset!!! That is horrible (–>insert infinity exclamation marks here<–)! That being said, I really look forward to the protect your blog posts you are going to write. I feel like I know nothing about this subject and I should really be far more aware.
Hang in there, sweetheart!