Thursday, August 28, 2008

Plagiarism by blog: Revit Tutorials

This was brought to my attention by a fellow blogger and AUGI member. The www. revittut .blogspot.com has been posting articles for some time now. The trouble is that the articles are not their own. Some are mine, the rest or at least many belong to others.

Specifically their use of my articles on their site violates my creative commons license which allows you/anyone free use of the information as long as attribution to the author/me is provided.

Their site also violates blogger's terms and conditions regarding copyright material.

It is good to share knowledge but it is wrong to do so appearing to offer original work when the opposite is true. The site has a lot of click through advertising and seems to be have been created to generate click through income with a minimum of effort by posting content authored by others.

There are many people sharing knowledge about Revit via blogs and other means on the internet these days. It is disappointing to see one using other author's work as their own.

13 comments:

Bill Wright said...

I agree, that guy had 41 posts in one month, I highly doubt that he came up with all of them. It's a shame that one would have to steal info to make money. I agree that their site is nothing but ads and they are looking to profit from other peoples work.

Erik said...

Wow, that site looks like they are just "scraping" articles off of blogs. I used to think; "What a neat idea, get all the REVIT Tutorials in one place."
But they don't give ANY indication that it is not THEIR work. Unlike CAD Digest or CADALYST, who link to your tutorials and give credit.
Is this something that should be reported?

JTB World said...

It's too bad. I would remove the link though on the post and use something like http://www. revittut .blogspot.com/ as you link will move the that splog higher up in the search ranks. Make also sure to flag the blog.

BTW. When I looked at your blog in IE7 it just crashed. Firefox 3 didn't have a problem though.

Unknown said...

Good grief, I've just found some of my posts on there as well! One of the nice things about the Revit community is the willingness to share ideas, tips and views. To me this is why Revit has been so successful; there is a passion amongst users to make it work for the greater and the good of the industry as a whole. But just poaching others users’ web/blog content without reference is "shameless!" Also, I would think Autodesk would be rather interested in some of the posts as they reference downloads to what looks like illegal versions of the software.

Steve said...

Thanks for the comments. I use IE7 and Firefox all the time and it works fine. I'm using a stock template from blogger so I can't imagine what I could have done in order to make it crash but if you have any clues, let me know.

I've altered the link, no point giving it more "credit".

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

doesn't blogger.com help to remove post from people not following the CC Agreements? unfortunate that they're trying to profiteer SO blatantly...

Robert said...

The site is also posting AUGI threads or portions thereof, and or light paraphrasing of AUGI material with no attribution. Please keep in mind, visiting this blog will only increase their click through. So check it out once, but try not to hit them to many times. If you want to check to see if your blog posts have been re-posted, you can use Google's search services without having to actually click through the whole blog multiple times. I'm also not sure if it would be worth starting a thread on AUGI about this.

Erik said...

I can't believe that someone scours the web for Revit Articles and posts them as their own. I wonder if it's some automated system. Which begs the question; "When will THIS post appear on their site?"

JTB World said...

Steve, today for some reason your site works again. Yesterday I even restarted the PC and still got IE7 crash. But I see a syntax error in IE7 though.

Gregory Arkin said...

He's been stealing my posts too. The other thing he's done is post links to key generators to steal Autodesk software. Maybe it's time to get the Autodesk Piracy Police involved.
Below is something we can all submit to Google to stop him from stealing from our hard work.



Hi there,

Thank you for your note. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged
infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the
text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website:
http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/ ) and other applicable intellectual
property laws, which may include removing or disabling access to material
claimed to be the subject of infringing activity.

To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written
communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the
items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be
liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and
attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when
you in fact do not. Indeed, in a recent case (please see
http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more
information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking
removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine
was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to
pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material
available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first
contact an attorney.

To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following
format (including section numbers):

1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has
been infringed upon. This must include identification of specific posts,
as opposed to entire sites. Posts must be referenced by either the dates
in which they appear or the permalink of the post. For example,
http://example.blogspot.com/archives/2003_01_21_example_archive.html#2104575.


2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted
work listed in item #1 above.

YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH POST BY PERMALINK OR DATE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS
INFRINGING MATERIAL. The permalink for a post is usually found by clicking
on the timestamp of the post.

3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Blogger to contact
you (email address is preferred).

4. Include the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use
of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing
web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the
law."

5. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury,
that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the
copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an
exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

6. Sign the paper.

7. Send the written communication to the following address:

Google, Inc.
Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043

OR Fax to:

(650) 618-2680, Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints


Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Unknown said...

As mentioned above it is possible to flag this blog and to have posts removed. If you are the copyright holder of material that has been posted on the http://www. revittut .blogspot.com/ blog, you can file a Copyright Infringement Complaint. For more information on how to file a DMCA complaint with Blogger, please go here: http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html (similar to text Gregory Arkin posted above).
Note that google will only respond to complaints from the copyright owner.

Unknown said...

Greg/Steve,

"Maybe it's time to get the Autodesk Piracy Police involved"..... I did that last night. I'll keep you posted.

Anonymous said...

I would be concerned right off the bat as I don't see an "About" area, or who owns this blog, or who is benefiting from the pass-through clicks on the ad space.

I have experienced something different with a different platform where the firm concealed their ownership of a website, knowing that their name was not very well received in the marketplace.