Is Sharpy News Stealing Your Blog Posts?

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 07:30:15 PM EST
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Via John at Square State, I've found out there's a site called Sharpy News that has no original material and is misappropriating the blogposts of hundreds of blogs, reposting them without proper attribution or authorization, allowing people to comment on our blog posts at its site, and inserting hotlinks within our posts that redirect the reader to its site.

Example of some TalkLeft posts reproduced at Sharpy News (with their tags inserted):

Can Evangelical Voters Win Colorado For Mccain?
(TalkLeft version here.)
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Day In Gitmo Court (TalkLeft version here.)

Go check them out and see if your posts are there. John says they are also misappropriating material from OpenLeft.com, Firedoglake and fivethirtyeight.com. [More...]

Sharpy News is making money off its unauthorized misappropriations of our blog posts through Google's Ad Sense. You can also ask Ad Sense to remove them. John has a sample letter in his post.

You can also complain to Sharpy News' hosting company. John has the appropriate letter for them as well.

Add2Net, Inc
Lunarpages Division
100 East La Habra Blvd
La Habra, CA 90631
Fax: 714-521-8195

Sharpy News has no contact information. John got the site's WHOSIS information and complained. He received a voicemail from a (phonetically)Lon Baffman who claims to run the site. John has posted his phone number since he left it in the voice-mail.

Sharpy News is relatively new and is doing this by reproducing the full content of our posts from our rss feeds and then inserting links within our posts to its own site. In TalkLeft's case, they are using the Feedburner feed, which makes me think Feedburner should also be advised of this.

Here is the Sharpy News list of latest "blue" blogposts and "red" blogposts they have posted on their site. Here's the WHOSIS information I found, but I'm not sure it goes to Sharpy News as opposed to an agent.

< A Tie Goes to McCain (According to McCain) | John McCain: Gamblin' Man >

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Is Sharpy News Stealing Your Blog Posts? | 17 comments (17 topical)

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Well, this is one of the pitfalls (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by andgarden on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 07:36:52 PM EST

of having an open RSS feed. Remember, one of the meanings of RSS is "Really Simple Syndication."

I very much enjoy being able to see whole posts in my reader. However, one of the reasons that some sites only publish "above the fold" content to the RSS feed is to prevent this kind of theft of material.

Are you going to send the host a C & D letter?

Gaaah please restore the feed (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by MikeDitto on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 08:59:11 PM EST

Sue the crap out of these people for copyright infringement, but please don't punish all of us by crippling the feed. I don't have time to visit TalkLeft's web site to read every post. That's why I use an RSS reader.

ok, I'll change it back (5.00 / 2) (#14)
by Jeralyn on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 09:17:48 PM EST

give me a minute.


I love you, you know that right? (none / 0) (#15)
by MikeDitto on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 09:41:34 PM EST

: thanks, Mike (none / 0) (#16)
by Jeralyn on Sun Sep 28, 2008 at 12:36:17 AM EST

and thanks for all you've done for Mark Udall this year. For those of you new to TalkLeft, Mike was our webmaster (before we moved to Scoop) and spent hours and hours with me designing the current look of the site (when we moved to Scoop we kept the design, just not the inner workings.) Mike is the Online Communications Director for Rep. Mark Udall, who hopefully will be our next U.S. Senator from Colorado.

Oh no! (none / 0) (#13)
by andgarden on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 09:04:54 PM EST

That is really disappointing. . .


From whois.net (none / 0) (#2)
by Edger on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 07:50:36 PM EST

domain: sharpynews.com
reg_created: 2008-08-29 03:21:00
expires: 2009-08-29 03:21:00
created: 2008-08-29 05:14:28
changed: 2008-08-29 17:19:56
transfer-prohibited: yes
ns0: ns1.lunarmania.com
ns1: ns2.lunarmania.com
owner-c:
nic-hdl: SW81-GANDI
owner-name: 'SFSB,Inc.'
organisation: 'SFSB,Inc.'
person: Shadow Woods
address: PO Box 51587
zipcode: Fl33074
city: Lighthouse Point
state: Florida
country: United States of America
phone: +95.44199781
fax: ~
email: monsterwd@yahoo.com
lastupdated: 2007-09-27 13:01:52

interesting because (none / 0) (#3)
by Jeralyn on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 07:53:38 PM EST

a reverse search of the phone number John listed goes back to a Samantha Woods in Simsbury or Granby, CT (the voicemail told John the caller was calling from CT.)

The Whosis says "Shadow Woods" and Florida.


Well, I suppose (none / 0) (#4)
by Edger on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 07:55:51 PM EST

If she also has legitimate FLA & CT addresses she could have used either for the domain registration?


I just thought it was funny (none / 0) (#5)
by Jeralyn on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 07:57:44 PM EST

that the site tracks blogs and she calls herself Shadow.


: :-) Maybe a shadow of something else? (none / 0) (#6)
by Edger on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 08:02:12 PM EST

Googling "SFSB,Inc." produces interesting results, too.

Sounds like (none / 0) (#7)
by eric on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 08:11:23 PM EST

"willful infringement" of copyright to me. Good damages there. Up to $150,000 in statutory damages, even without actual damage and the possibility of attorneys fees.

can you correct link? (none / 0) (#8)
by Finis Terrae on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 08:14:43 PM EST

Jeralyn, the TL link to the "Evangelical vote in Colorado" piece is not working for me.

Can this be corrected?

just fixed it (none / 0) (#10)
by Jeralyn on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 08:30:17 PM EST

thanks, it's here.


: Thanks. (none / 0) (#12)
by Finis Terrae on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 09:02:07 PM EST

Predictable, really. (none / 0) (#9)
by Fabian on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 08:24:43 PM EST

Sorry. My outrage button is broken, due to overuse I think.

Actually, they are crediting TalkLeft (none / 0) (#17)
by JavaCityPal on Sun Sep 28, 2008 at 04:45:46 PM EST

for the stories from here.

Hopefully, Palin will be back in Alaska in 45 days, instead of saddling the rest of us with her opportunism, her distortions, her extremism and her lack of preparedness to lead.
Read more here at this outstanding news source.
Share and Enjoy:

They link the reader to TalkLeft in that second paragraph.