So, we sent a DMCA notice to some folks who run bloghostings.com yesterday. This is how stupid some people really are - - they see something they like on the ‘net, decide they want it, completely rip it and put it up on their own site, yet they don’t bother changing the links in the content they’ve blatantly copied. Someone clicks the link - - ends up on my site. My referral stats show the incoming link - I go look and find that these yahoos have completely ripped our hosting site word for word.
Boys and Girls - if you’re going to plagarize and otherwise steal content from the web, be smart about it, hey? Change the links, idiots! Go a step further and actually change the name of the company that is mentioned throughout the content - - just a suggestion, but maybe rename it to YOUR OWN COMPANY perhaps? Normally, I’m all about increasing my incoming linkage - -however, this site and these folks could be wrongly associated with us at Blogs About Hosting and E.Webscapes - - so this one would be a ‘thanks, but no thanks’ type of situation.
Accompanying screenshots below (click to view a larger version):
Their index page versus our index page:
Their services page versus our services page:
I have more screenshots - but you get the basic picture.
The thieves at bloghostings.com are hosted by 1and1 Hosting, whom we’ve also notified. The guys name is Matt Kwon and he also owns Verelink.com and I assume he also owns and operates DEOGraphics.com - since that is the design group that they are trying (but failing) to link off their total ripoff of a website. (update below)
I’m really glad they think I’m so great, and write such wonderful copy - but grow a brain, already!
Update 2/27/07
After all this fuss and muss, the website was taken down by the hosting provider and still, to this day, does not exist on the web. Chalk one up for the good guys.
ALSO…
I was recently contact by a guy named Mark from Deographics. He wrote and explained that the above named plagerizer, Matt Kwon, is not affiliated with Deographics, in any way. I have taken Mark at his word and am updating this post to clarify that and apologize for my mistaken assumption, in this case. Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to contact me to clear up the matter.
Mark also states that Matt Kwon is not affiliated with Verelink - however, to date, I have not recieved a reply from Verelink on this issue (Matt does not own Verelink, though he is a partner company of Deogrpahics), though I did email them with the DMCA notice twice - giving them ample opportunity to clear up the issue. If/when I hear from Verelink, I will update.
Update 3/5/07
I finally heard from Verelink on this issue, as well. They dropped the following email over to me last week:
Matthew Kwon is an employee of our company and he is currently an account manager for some of our hosting clients. We do apologize for his actions. We as well did not know about the website bloghostings.com that he created.
Verelink is not affiliated with his website for if we were to own bloghostings.com, we would have hosted it on our servers and not on 1and1 Hosting.
Matthew is in no way the owner of the Verelink Incorporation. By legal standing of the State of California, Verelink was created and still owned by our current CEO [..name snipped per request of the CEO in question..].
At this current moment, he has been put on leave for further investigation on any other possible misuse of the Verelink company name. And most likely his employment will be terminated.
I see that amends have been made to Deographics.com and we kindly ask for the same on our part.
So - it seems Mr. Matthew Kwon was using his employers email account to register domains and using it as the administrative contact for the domain WHOIS. Of course, I did contact Verelink twice on the matter back in December - however, seeing as how Matt Kwon is/was employed by them - he could have very well intercepted the emails. So, it appears this matter is all cleared up for everyone involved - except Matt Kwon who is probably out plagarizing other sites elsewhere. People like that never quit, really.
Thanks to the folks at DEOGraphics and Verelink for finally clearing the matter up with me - I do appreciate it a great deal!
My husband often talks about moving to...
7:53 pm on December 13th, 2006
They didn’t even change the title of their pages! Blank page, blank page! Jeez!
11:59 pm on December 13th, 2006
Glad to hear that this one seems to be working out for you. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people can be on the Web about these thing. They feel as if everything is theirs for the taking. How wrong they are.
Let me know if there’s anything that I can do to help!
12:14 am on December 14th, 2006
Thanks, Jonathan - I actually stopped by your site for the first time yesterday when I was looking for information on DMCA.. I’ve never had to send one before now. it hasn’t worked out for us, yet - it’s been two days and their site is still there - - in all of its plagarized glory
12:56 am on December 14th, 2006
As a general rule, I give things about 72 hours before I panic. A lot of companies are just plain slow and they might not be very good at handling these. If it is still up then, shoot me an email and forward me what you sent, I’ll have a look at it.
Hope that helps!
11:05 pm on December 14th, 2006
Oh for land sakes, I’ve had this happen to me so many stinkin’ times it’s not even funny anymore. Good luck dealing with them
5:48 pm on December 17th, 2006
*takes copious notes on plagarizing*
3:05 pm on February 27th, 2007
Hello
I am a co-founder of Deographics Inc. I was notified that this blog posting mentions our company (and our partner company Verelink Inc.) Matt Kwon is not affiliated with either of these companies. An email has been sent to the site owner requesting that the information be updated.
Thank you.
Mark
4:02 pm on February 27th, 2007
Mark - the post has been ammended. I thank you for your contact to clear up this matter. Cheers!
2:11 pm on February 28th, 2007
Hello,
Someone contacted me about this blog. As a managing partner to Verelink Inc, I have sent an email to the site owner as well.
I hope to clear up any misunderstandings.
Regards
12:02 am on March 7th, 2007
William - my apologies for the time it took to get this post updated. Too many deadlines, not enough time in a day, and all that
Thanks for the clarification on this whole messy thing! Cheers 