Scraping and Republishing Full Content from Other Blogs

Dennis G. Jerz / 24 May 2011

A blog called “literacyintheclassroom.com” seems to be scraping the full content of my blog and republishing on their site.

If this post shows up on literacyintheclassroom, we can assume a bot is mindlessly reposting whatever it finds on my site, which seriously calls into question what real value literacyintheclassroom offers.

If this post does not appear, then it may be because a human has read it — in which case, I ask that human to post excerpts and links from my blog, within the bounds of fair use, rather than republish the full content without permission.

Mike
View 24 May 2011
Looks like your site is being scraped by someone associated with Hillel Cooperman and the Jackson Fish Market in Seattle, who themselves are associated with the Children’s Book Council and the iPad-oriented company A Story Before Bed. Seems like a pretty rotten thing to do by a company that trumpets its positive publicity.
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“A Story Before Bed” Publisher Seems to be Scraping and Republishing My Blog Content on “Literacy in the Classroom” — Jerz's Literacy Weblog
View 24 May 2011
[…] “A Story Before Bed” Publisher Seems to be Scraping and Republishing My Blog Content on “Literacy in the Classroom” By Dennis G. Jerz, on May 24th, 2011 var addthis_product = 'wpp-257'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};According to preterite, Looks like your site is being scraped by someone associated with Hillel Cooperman and the Jackson Fish Market in Seattle, who themselves are associated with the Children’s Book Council and the iPad-oriented company A Story Before Bed. Seems like a pretty rotten thing to do by a company that trumpets its positive publicity. –Mike Edwards […]
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Hillel
View 25 May 2011
Hey Jerz:
We’re so sorry that we upset you by including your blog on our Literacy in the Classroom aggregation site.
We’ve not only removed you from our list, but deleted all of your posts from our site.
That said, I do think your characterization is somewhat unfair.
1) We’re not a spam blog. We aggregate blog posts from sites we think highly of to try and have on central place to read about literacy in the classroom.
2) We weren’t trying to claim that we authored the content. We even linked to all the contributing blogs in our blogroll (though I’ll admit it’s buried at the bottom of the page).
3) In addition, we linked back to the original post on every single post we showed on our site. Scrapers and spam blogs don’t do any such thing.
4) You can’t “scrape” an RSS feed. Scraping implies taking content that wasn’t packaged for redistribution and using it as such. RSS feeds are designed exactly for redistribution. Most people who are concerned about their content being redistributed this way package up their RSS content as an abstract and then rely on that to entice users to click the link back to their site. (We’re happy with abstracts or full posts as each blogger determines.)
That said… I understand that given that we’re a commercial enterprise, you feel like we’re commercializing your content, and that since we didn’t ask you’re annoyed.
Honestly, our attention wasn’t to annoy or to misappropriate your content. Please accept my apologies. I’d also be happy to give you a free subscription to our site to help patch things up and to see if you think our service could be used in a classroom setting.
Again… please accept our apologies.
–hillel
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- Dennis G. Jerzreplied:
  View 25 May 2011
  Thank you for your quick response, Hillel.
  1) Your blog fits my definition of a spam blog, though I recognize opinions may vary.
  2) I’m sure that if I made available full copies of your intellectual property on my site, with a link pointing to the source, you would not be satisfied with “I wasn’t trying to claim that I authored the software.”
  3) If someone mugs me, then says “I could have stabbed you while mugging you,” that doesn’t really make me feel any better about the mugging. Using my intellectual property without my permission was wrong, and as publisher — and a grown-up — you should have known better.
  4) Photocopiers are designed to make copies, and guns are designed to fire bullets. It’s your choice to use photocopiers or guns in an ethical or unethical way. I contend that your choice to use my RSS feed in this manner was unethical.
  That said, you acted quickly once I brought this to your attention. I do hope you will offer the same deal to the other bloggers whose content was used without their permission.
  1) Do you plan to publish the comment that I left on your site — the one that my screen shows as “awaiting moderation”?
  2) Do you plan on removing the material from other blogs that you reused without permission?
  If you agree on both counts, I will consider your apology sincere, and I would seriously consider using your astorybeforebed.com as part of a “History and Future of the Book” course that I will likely teach next spring.
  Reply
Dear Jacksonfish.com: Please contact me to discuss your plans for compensating me for this use of my intellectual property. — Jerz's Literacy Weblog
View 25 May 2011
[…] a comment on another thread, quibbling a little with my characterization of what happened, but deleting the republished content, apologizing, and offering a free subscription to […]
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Hillel
View 26 May 2011
Hey Dennis:
To be clear. I used poor judgment. I should have asked permission and used excerpts. No excuses.
1. i pulled down all the content. Not just from you and Jen who complained.
2. of course i’ll offer people free subscriptions.
3. i’ll do better than your comment. I’ll post an apology on my blog. (and i’ll send notes to everyone personally.)
That’s very kind of you to consider using the service in your course. I understand if you think I’m a dumbass/jerk. And I appreciate you not holding that against our service. :)
–h
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- Dennis G. Jerzreplied:
  View 27 May 2011
  Elsewhere on my blog, and in a note at the end of my video, I’ve added an acknowledgment that I’m satisfied with Hillel’s response. I’ll just add that note here, too. I am planning to use this experience in the classroom, not only to demonstrate the power and pitfalls of the remix culture, but also to highlight HIllel’s response as a great example of doing the right thing.
  Reply

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