The Real Blogger Status

We see discussions, in other forums - between a blog owner and an expert, discussing the necessity for unique content. When advised that his blog is a problem because it is simply copy and pasted material, the response from some blog owners focuses on the term "copy and paste". I type everything by hand, word by word! I do not copy, then paste! But hand typed or not, the text can be easily Googled, and found in larger and better written websites. Neither AdSense, Blogger, or Google Search care whether you use the keyboard or the mouse, to add content into post editor. You can type an article by hand - or you can highlight, then select "Copy" from the right click context menu, and finally select "Paste" from the right click context menu - and get the same result.

We see a few spam blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , that are classified for having scraped content . Some nervous blog owners, who routinely copy content as part of their blog posts, want to know if their blogs are vulnerable to "scraped content" spam classifications . I suspect that there are several issues to consider, regarding use of copied content in your blog .

THis month, we have several reports in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue from owners who make backup blogs. Why was my blog deleted, by Blogger, as spam? Some blog owners innocently create multiple blogs, to back up their main blog. Unfortunately, having multiple blogs with the same content may make the blogs look like a spam blog farm - and Blogger detects and deletes spam blog farms.

Too many blog owners have been listening to spammers, who tell them lies, and encourage dodgy publishing practice . You can make lots of money - just start a blog, scrape content from other blogs and websites, and add ads! This is wrong, for many reasons.

Not all blog owners understand the necessity of having unique content , as the basis for a healthy blog. We see questions periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about inappropriate use of content from other blogs and websites. Why was my Blogger account deleted? I never argue when given copyright notices! or Why don't I have any readers? I have great content - the other blogs, where I get the content, get lots of traffic.

Occasionally we see the naive query, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . Does copying content, into my blog, violate Blogger TOS? The short (and too frequently provided) answer to the question is No, copying content does not violate TOS. Copying content to your blog is perfectly OK - when done legally. That said, you need to consider the issues - and possible results.

I've been studying spam, in Blogger blogs, for over 5 years . This year, we've seen improvement in the automated spam classification process, implied by a noticeable reduction in spam review requests overall - and in a reduction of false positive classifications . During the past few months, blogs requested for review are 2 or 3 times more likely to be confirmed as legitimate spam blogs (true positives), compared to this time last year.

Some blog owners don't understand the serious nature of DMCA Violations in Blogger blogs - and how offenses are handled, by Google. We've seen several reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from blog owners who appear to be unclear about the consequences of repeated DMCA Violations. I got email from Blogger, about my Blogger account. We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding a blog that you administer. Upon review of your account, we've noted that you've repeatedly violated the Terms of Service: http://www.blogger.com/go/terms . Given that we've provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we've been forced to disable your Blogger service. How do I get my blog restored? This example appears to represent the final step, in a 3 step policy.

Some blog owners are confused about the function of the " DMCA Violation " complaint vs the " Report Abuse " form - and some blog owners use one complaint process when the other would be more appropriate. The Abuse Reporting process is for multiple offended parties to collaboratively complain about a given blog, using any of several different categories. Defamation/Libel/Slander. Copyright/Piracy issues. Spam. Nudity. Hate or violence. Impersonation. Someone is posting my private information. I think someone else is using my account. The "Report Abuse" wizard can be accessed from the navbar link, or directly. There are many categories for reporting a problem, and no specific details are required. This makes "Report Abuse" easy to use. To prevent abusive use of "Report Abuse", it's collaborative - many "votes" (in any one category) are required to be placed against a problem blog, before automated action takes...

The MPAA / RIAA stranglehold, in the USA, on the electronic consumer, may have reached a peak with their ability to coerce the US Congress to pass the DMCA. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, thought by some to be the most noxious bit of legislation since the British Tea Act of 1773, may have a valid use, though. It's possible that the DMCA Violation Form , which Blogger / Google provides, may be useful in reporting content that's been pirated, personally, from you. If you believe that your pictures, and / or articles , are being unjustly copied within Blogger / Google hosting space, you may get some relief from reporting this as a DMCA Violation . Note, however, that a DMCA Violation report is a serious complaint , and can have repercussions both upon the source and target of the complaint. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrig...

I use excerpts of articles from other websites, in a few of my posts - when the other websites provide more in depth description of the issue being discussed. I use some websites, such as WikiPedia , more than others. It's good practice to at least link back to the originating website, when copying or quoting any significant amount of unique content. There are so few restrictions, in general, what content we may include in our blogs - so it makes sense to be polite when we include content from other websites. In most cases, and to keep my posts relatively short, I prefer to simply quote a brief, relevant snippet of content, and link back to the originating website.

Every week, we see the naive query How do I prevent my pictures from being copied? and this, I regret to say, is a magic trick that has yet to be perfected. Others ask Why does Google let people publish blogs with pictures stolen from other blogs? and here, we have to note that Google has no interest in controlling blog content, beyond the limits of their own TOS regulations .

The content of your blog encourages people to read your blog. More people reading your blog gives the blog more value. What you publish today will be in your blog tomorrow - and if what you publish today has value, it will have more value tomorrow. What you publish today, and will be read today, will make your blog more valuable than what you publish tomorrow. Publish today, revise tomorrow - that's progressive publishing .

So you put a lot of time and effort into making a blog that's entertaining and useful . To keep it that way, you regularly watch to see who's viewing your blog , so you can keep your content useful . And one day, you check out your incoming hits log, and you find a visitor to another web site, with content identical to yours. Except for the ads, or other amenities. My content, their web site! My work, their ads??!! Everybody who publishes interesting or useful content will find this happen, at some time or another.