[Tfug] OT : Site Scaper

[Joe Roberts]

Oh, I forgot to address some things you specifically said.

> I spent a lot of time learning what I do and how to market myself online.  A lot of time.
>
> I created a unique site and content and then spent a lot of time doing the Search Engine Optimization.  Because I have a site that shows up under a few search terms some of my peers copy all or large portions of my website and put it up as their own.

What is your site anyway?  (Is it public?)  Just curious.  I'm curious
what it is/why it is people are copying it.

> What does that make them?  Lazy thieves.
>
> Because of what has happened 3 times now I have begun my copyright education and now know the law provides for up to $150,000 for each offense.  Yes you read it right One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars per offense.

Just note that if you proceed down that path, which is your right, you
are putting negative energy back into the system.  Just as pangs of
guilt for downloading music disappeared when music companies started
suing grandmothers and suggesting college students should drop out of
college to pay their fines, so, too, do exorbitant copyright claims.

> Where is the pride in stealing someone else's work and passing it off as your own?

There is none.  Nor honor.  Whatever you do, don't take my comments as
endorsing this.  I'm simply saying that if you lay a wallet down on a
Central Park bench with a note saying, "Don't steal this wallet" and
come back in 24 hours and it's gone, whether you are outraged by the
fact it is stolen or not is probably less relevant than the reality
that it will be.

Also I would say that there are different grades of transgression
here.  One level is copying something, and another is claiming it's
yours, the latter of which I suspect is universally disapproved of.

  -JR