Is FeedSpot reprinting my copyrighted blog content without my permission???
I received an email today from some website named FeedSpot. I am trying to check my email for a source link for a student to grade papers. I come across this distractor in my email. First off all, my name starts with a capital A, not a lower case a.
Here is a piece of the email:
Here is a piece of the email:
Hi, analisa
My name is Anuj. I'm Founder of Feedspot -
A Google Reader replacement
with built-in Search and Sharing features. http://www.feedspot.com. We recently launched Feedspot and got
reviewed by TechCrunch. I'm writing this to let you know that your
blog 'on Fire, on Impact, and
Enough!' has started getting new followers on Feedspot. You can view
your blog and its followers on Feedspot from here. If you need detailed monthly/yearly analytics on how your blog
is performing on Feedspot, please let me know. As your blog is adding value to Feedspot,
I'd like to give you one year Feedspot Premium subscription for free. Please use xxxxxx@xxxxxx.com as the...........
So, I googled this websource. My Norton tells me the site is okay. I click the link in the email once my antivirus software tells me it is okay to do so. Then I see ALL OF MY POSTS, ALL OF MY PICTURES...from my blog, my information, posted on their site. Okay, so it uses my name and credits me...but it does not link to here. This is my blog. These are my posts.
The email wants me to join their site to see my blog posts on their site and to see my feed information on their site. I think this is theft. So, this post is to see if FeedSpot notices this post and cares to respond.
By the way, if you are a follower on FeedSpot for MY BLOG...please go follow me on my real blog - not here. My real blog link is www.biguniversesmallworld.blogspot.com. FeedSpot has taken my posts without my permission. I should not have to subscribe to something to see my stuff. It is mine. As far as I am concerned this is a violation of copyright laws.
So, I googled this websource. My Norton tells me the site is okay. I click the link in the email once my antivirus software tells me it is okay to do so. Then I see ALL OF MY POSTS, ALL OF MY PICTURES...from my blog, my information, posted on their site. Okay, so it uses my name and credits me...but it does not link to here. This is my blog. These are my posts.
The email wants me to join their site to see my blog posts on their site and to see my feed information on their site. I think this is theft. So, this post is to see if FeedSpot notices this post and cares to respond.
By the way, if you are a follower on FeedSpot for MY BLOG...please go follow me on my real blog - not here. My real blog link is www.biguniversesmallworld.blogspot.com. FeedSpot has taken my posts without my permission. I should not have to subscribe to something to see my stuff. It is mine. As far as I am concerned this is a violation of copyright laws.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWendy - had you been blogging a month when your blog info was posted there or did it take a month for them to remove your information once you complained?
DeleteI cannot even find a copy of the terms and service on the website for them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHi Ladies...I just got this email now and did as you did and ALL my posts and pictures are on this site....I recieved the same email....why did this happen and what can we do?
DeleteJanice
Hi, Janice and Wendy. Earlier today I called the webhost of the server that houses the IP address of FeedSpot. There was nothing he could really do to assist with this, although he did provide some helpful insight. Apparently, FeedSpot is nothing more than an RSS feed and it is pulling from the Blogger RSS feed. My main and chief complaint is that I want my items to link back directly to me and followers to be here. I do not like that there are followers out there and that they can comment or respond in a manner that is openly expressed within the blog itself. I know Blogger feeds each blog post that is public into its RSS feed and this is FeedSpot is pulling from to try and be like a replacement for Google Reader since it shut down a few months ago. I have exchanged some emails as well with the owner and founder of FeedSpot today and basically, if you do not want your information to loop into the feed, then you have to contact Blogger to take you out of their RSS feed. This will limit the interaction and traffic your blog will receive.
ReplyDeleteHow do I contact Blogger? I don't like that there are followers I am not aware of.
DeleteBlog posts appear in other RSS feeds as well. Some simple searches this afternoon have turned my blog posts up in other feeds. Reddit is another and there are some smaller ones.
ReplyDeleteSame thing happened to me today. i sent a letter to "anuj" though of course the form letter probably comes from a robot. i hate seeing my posts out there. If anyone has a solution
ReplyDeleteplease post here. thanks,
magpie
just received this from "anuj"
ReplyDeleteHi Judy,
Users follow your blog using your blogs RSS feed which is available to all.
Feedspot is just a platform for reading rss feeds. All articles link back to your original blog. There are many other rss reader where your blog is being read by other users using itsrss.
If you block your rss feed or make your blog private, users won't be able to read your content from feedspot.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Anuj
I thought my blog was private. How do I make it private?
DeleteJudy, The same is basically what the internet server provider told me. As well, the letter I received from Anuj was the same exact letter when I complained. So, apparently the form letter response is down pat from this company.
ReplyDeleteThere might be a way to block the original feedspot ip address and the webserver host the company pings off of in CA. I am checking into this. If this is the case, the company would basically be blocked from pulling our information and the page feed of your updates would go dead on the feedspot feed. Stay tuned. I should know if this will work or can be done in a few days.
I was also told today that if you write to him and state you don't want your information to feed to his RSS, basic netiquette protocol should dictate he remove it. Sadly, I do not think this company will follow netiquette protocol.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteCheck this out: http://www.mybloggerlab.com/2012/06/how-to-block-ip-address-on-blogspot.html.
ReplyDeleteI also received this email and have just asked for my blog to be removed. This is such a nuisance but like you I do not want my info on that reader..
ReplyDeleteBy default Blogger shows the entire post and the entire post will feed to FeedSpot. You can stop the whole feed from going until we figure out how to block their URL by inserting a "Jump Break" the text. In the post's edit mode, click the broken square icon. It is next to the insert video link at the top of the post edits. This does not interfere with template design and does not require you to know how to modify html coding. What the reader will see is as much text as you want and then a "read more" link and the reader will have to click the read more link to be directed to the blog.
ReplyDeleteI really want to get out of that website, how can I
ReplyDeletei got this aswell - (and found ur post while searching the web for questions). i personally think its cool in the sense that it might increase my audience but if a blogger has adsense on a bloggers page then it probz wuldnt turn up on the feedspot so therefore feedspot wuld defo be counted as theft imo coz its taking view pages and adclicks away from the bloger and adsense ppl
ReplyDeleteThis should stop your blog text posts from going to FeedSpot. 1. Go to settings. 2. Click other. 3. Use drop down for "allow blog feed" to drop to none. 4. save.
ReplyDeleteit should take about 24 hours to apply, but the feed is supposed to stop. although, this will also make it more difficult for your blog to show in a google search and may hinder the overall traffic flow. you can turn it back on at any time by undoing these actions.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWendy,
ReplyDeleteI did that for a few days and also implemented the page break option. They were still able to pull my whole feed. He has emailed me to tell me they will remove my blog feed, to please allow a few days.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis creepy site also stole a blog that I had that has been inactive for 5 years. It features my son and I am more than a little pissed that he did not seek permission first for this. I have sent several emails to this Anuj jerk and his site to remove my old blog immediately or I will file legal action against them.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletemy update is my information was removed...three days later it reappeared. this morning i have received another email from anuj telling me my blog has been removed. he also requested that this blog post be removed from my blog because it contains "personal information." the only personal information this post contains is a copy of the email i received - which is personal information that arrived in my inbox.
ReplyDeletemy new update is the blog content was reposted three days after he removed it...I was misled...do not be misled as I was.
ReplyDeleteI've had a blog for a while now but just recently started from scratch and I got the same email and was at first excited until I realized as all of you have that it has no real links back to my blog. It seems like a lose-lose situation because to stop them you essentially have to stop your traffic flow, which is scary as crap if your blog is newer. Please keep me updated on anything found on how to stop this from happening. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI just got the same notice and am trying to figure this out. Has anyone raised these concerns with TechCrunch? I am not a techie and would rather stick to writing .... Thanks.
ReplyDeletei have thought about complaining to techcrunch, but due to my work obligations have not had time to compose a letter to them yet.
Deletefeedspot.com did not remove http://www.feedspot.com/#feed/f_2557857
ReplyDeletehttp://www.feedspot.com/infiniterss.php?q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.electricalcontractortoronto.ca%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault
of my http://www.electricalcontractortoronto.ca/ after multiple requests
anybody knows how we can force feedspot.com to stop violating our copyright?
without deleting the feed
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I have found to be successful is to turn off the RSS feed completely. I have also looked into moving my feed from FeedBurner, which you can do, and there are outside services that can host the feed for like $30/year. To me that might be worth the investment to not have to deal with FeedSpot. At this time, I am still investigating.
DeleteSame thing happened with me , any way to stop this without affecting the traffic ?
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I have found to be successful is to turn off the RSS feed completely. I have looked into ways to block certain IPs from your blog access. This can be done through an external source. Although, since FeedSpot is pulling my RSS feed from FeedBurner, it is useless right now. I have not found a way to stop them from pulling from FeedBurner without stopping the RSS. FeedBurner has no means of blocking IPs from access that I can found. I have also looked into moving my feed from FeedBurner, which you can do, and there are outside services that can host the feed for like $30/year. To me that might be worth the investment to not have to deal with FeedSpot. At this time, I am still investigating.
DeleteTurning off the feed will significantly affect your traffic.
I know the same thing happend to me. This same guy emailed me and then I saw my page and I read my latest post and then scrolled down and saw that there was a advertisement on my post! There making money off of MY CONTENT
ReplyDeletei agree with you wholeheartedly. i am still researching ways to move my feed from feedburner to a privately owned feed where i can block his ip address and the block access from his ip on my feed.
DeleteI got the exact same email this morning. So thought I'd do some research and landed here. I totally agree...this is so not right! I haven't looked at the site yet, but I figured like what the previous poster mentioned, that he'd be making money off ads placed on our content. I don't care about traffic, as I'm really just using my blog as a personal journal, but it's MINE! So once I figure out how to stop the RSS feed, I plan on doing that. Is it possible to make a blog private, so you just send invites to those readers you want?
ReplyDeleteKaren - you can make your blog private and have it password protected and can send people the password you want to see it. you can also just turn off the feed and it will stop feedspot from being able to run the access and leave the blog live without it being password private - it just won't show up in google searches and the like.
Deleteon one of these like posts i did explain how to turn off the feed if that is something you think you might want to do. i am still researching ways to move my feed from feedburner to a privately owned feed where i can block his ip address and the block access from his ip on my feed.
Thank you for your reply. Think I have now disabled the feed on my blog. If I understand it correctly, it means email subscriptions won't work, so guess I'll have to let some people know this. But that's okay with me. I still can't believe what this guy is getting away with! Making it private does seem to be a bit of a pain, so I'm going to think on it. Good luck with your research on this!
DeleteI'm facing the same problem!
ReplyDeleteMany are still facing this problem and waiting for it to be solved and looking for a reasonable solution.
DeleteHi Analisa,
ReplyDeleteWow, I received this mail too. But, does not Feedspot makes equal than Google reader? Otherwise, if I'm publishing on my blog, all the world is able to read it...
So, where is the problem?
Rgds.
P.D. I'm not an Anuj's agent!
FeedSpot is placing ads on my blog content on their reader. They use my content to make monies off of ads I have not approved to be linked to my content. They are using my content without my permission. They are pulling copyrighted material against my permission, against my will, and despite multiple efforts in writing to ask them to not do so and to stop. If it were just a reader, it would be one thing. A reader placing ads to make money off of content that was not created by that technology or generated by that technology is quite another. FeedSpot does not equate to the likeness of Google Reader. I have seen my RSS feed pulled into other blog read sources. I have no issue with these sources, as they do not pull my content into their reader to make money off of what I intellectually produce and publish. It is a huge problem. I am not the only one whom recognizes the issue as a problem. If it were not a big deal/problem, bloggers would not keep responding to this post from a half year ago. If it were not a problem, this blog post would not be appearing in the search engines as it does when people search for an answer or approach...this entails bloggers still have an issue with what is occurring with their content and they want it stopped. If it were not an issue, I would not have been repeatedly emailed by Anuj to say he was removing my content and then find out within a day later that it was a farce.
DeleteWhy would you feel the need to tell me you are not an agent for Anuj?
Hi, I am a relatively new entry to blogging....and this morning i saw the same mail in my inbox. I chanced upon your blog while making some sense of RSS. Thank you so much, it is very informative and for the time being i am keeping the feeds on
DeleteThis whole thing makes me sad. I did find that the feedspot post link back to your page if you click on the title of it, but if someone's gone through the trouble of having an account, I really don't think they're going to be doing that. Making a jump break doesn't seem to work, and since my blog is rather new, I don't know that disabling my RSS is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea that now my blog is out there for everyone to see in full at a different location. Without my knowledge or consent. I don't know if I should even try to get myself removed from their site. I want to, but if they're just going to plop me back on as soon as I take a breath, I don't know if there'd be much point.
Hi Analisa, I was about to give in to the guy when I received the email today. Instead I decided to do a little research and came across your blog. I have disabled my RSS feed for now.
ReplyDeleteIn an attempt to educate other blogger friends, I wondering if I could use a link to your article in my FB page. Hoping that guy doesn't find another prey.
Let me know. Wishing you the best.
Hi Analisa,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for researching on this topic. I got the same email this morning and landed on your post.
You'd mentioned that adding "Jump break" to your posts didn't help and that they were still copying the entire post to their site. When you did that, did you also change the ALLOW BLOG FEED (Settings\Other\Site Feed) from Full to Until Jump Break?
Please let me know! Thanks,
Ramya
Changing the settings from "Full" until "jump break" does work. They click on read more and are re-directed to your site. (I'm sure you've figured that out by now given its been 7 months although it does NOT work for previously posted posts and the settings change will only affect newly posted items.)
Deletei'm facing the same problem as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want to delete this feedspot account but i just don't see a way to do it!! :( hope someone can help and thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone still is having trouble with feedspot, Blogger has added a function in their settings so that you set how much of your blog post is shown through RSS feeders. You probably don't want to offer nothing to feedspot subscribers because who knows how many are true fans and will make an effort to go to your site by itself, BUT for a page break to be effective you have to set the RSS Setting to "show until page break."
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't seem to have an impact on SEO (those are entirely different settings) and there IS a benefit to having an intro to each post displayed in FeedSpot. (Its like a free preview/advertisement).
Then any interested readers click "read more" and are taken to YOUR BLOG and YOUR ADS. This seems to be the best balance of convenience for readers, protecting your content and preventing FeedSpot from profiting off your work!
better do it with Flowreader RSS reader - they are legit and do not duplicate the whole article, see how it looks in their page - http://www.flowreader.com
ReplyDeleteI am a relatively new blogger. Like everyone who writes content into a blog I wanted to increase traffic to my blog and searched on Google for ways to do this for free. I applied for Google AdSense recently and was denied. My belief it is due to bots that visit my blog due to my membership in feedspot when my blog was just new. I understand that AdSense is trying to protect their advertisers from paying for false clicks but now I'm unsure what to do. Has anyone had any success deleting their account? Has anyone else had any issues with AdSense and feedspot together? I'm not even 100% sure that this is why I was denied but I see a feedspotbot and nachobot in my traffic stats page. There could be other reasons such as heavy edits I made recently and the age of my blog. I just want to develop a good fun blog, have real people see it, and possibly generate some revenue. My blog is at www.joeyload.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered feedspotbot on my pageviews as well. At least I've found this blog with some information. I'm like most bloggers in that you want to have your content available to readers, to get your blog on facebook, and to maybe get a bit of Pinterest traffic. But, I'm very dismayed about the robot that in stealing my content. Going to remove my blog from all feeds now.
DeleteIf someone week i really ashen-haired not actually pretty, whether you will lite grope a present, thought to follow us to displays bursting with ends of the earth considerably? Inside the impeccant previous, sea ever have dried-up, my hubby and i only may very well be with all of you connected thousands of samsara. small business search
ReplyDeleteThis blog was extremely helpful. I really appreciate your kindness in sharing this with me and everyone else! websiteseo services
ReplyDelete