I hate like hell to write this, but this is what I see today. I wanted to believe Don Crowther made an honest mistake. Now it really looks like he is stealing other people’s work for his own profit.
Sadly, Don Crowther’s “fix” of his three news aggregate sites just isn’t good enough. And he hasn’t touched the PR blog aggregator that started the whole fracas. You have to click through two screens on Crowther’s ad-supported sites before you get to the original post by the original author. And in the meantime, Crowther creates a unique URL for the stolen post with HIS site before the originating site.
This is rich!
The site seems to be programmed to pick up posts automatically and this morning he has a post that is actually the New York Times exhortation not to steal its photos. You can’t make this stuff up!
Crowther’s post has the headline CENTRAL PARK AFTER BLIZZARD, 2003 (NEW YORK TIMES); the post — that actually says:
“Copyright **2005 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Photographs are for personal use only. Publication, reproduction, use in advertising or for purpose of trade is prohibited without written permission.”
Then there is a link to a page on Crowther’s site with even more Google ads, and it has the URL http://businessknowledgesource.com/marketingnews/central_park_
after_blizzard_2003_new_york_times_009712.html That means that when you look up “Central Park After Blizzazd” in a search engine you would get a listing for Crowther’s site, as well as, and maybe before, the Times site. If you click yet again on Crowther’s second screen, you finally get to the Times’site.
Let’s hear him explain this away. I’m sure lawyers will find his explainations interesting.
Crowther “Fix” Sure to Lead to Legal Trouble
BL Ochman | April 11, 2005 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) | TrackBack (
Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/gnp0fnhzxcgi/domains/whatsnextblog.com/html/wp/wp-content/themes/WNO2/single.php on line 32
0)
Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/gnp0fnhzxcgi/domains/whatsnextblog.com/html/wp/wp-content/themes/WNO2/single.php on line 32
0)
Categories: Blogging and Moblogging, Business Communications, Commentary, Marketing Strategy, Worst Practices
Tags:
Tags:
Y’know, while I don’t necessarily endorse what Don’s doing, how is it any different from what Google’s doing with Gnews or My Yahoo does with RSS feeds showing up right beside ads?
the difference is that Yahoo! and Google News, etc. show the source of the stories and provide a direct link to the original. zuntil this hue and cry from bloggers, he wasn’t even showing the source of the material on the first screen.
Crowther seems to be trying to boost his own site’s search engine rankings by using other people’s material and not linking to the source until a third click. That’s not cool at all.
And despite the fact that I gave him permission to sell Press Releases From Hell and How to Fix Them, changing the title of my report and putting his company’s name on it is more than a violation of my copyright. It’s just plain wrong.