DTB content being stolen

[DinoToyForum]

I'm aware that a substantial amount of content from the DTB, including full reviews and photos, are being stolen by other nefarious websites who are reposting it without my permission. The purpose of the theft is to make money by driving traffic to their site, and they even take the affiliate links at the top and bottom of the reviews and replace the code with their own affiliate links.

To help counter this I've installed a plugin to stop website content being easily copied from the front end. So, if you notice you can't copy-paste content any more, this is why.

To protect reviews being scraped from my RSS feeds I've had to change posts in feed to excerpts instead of full reviews. This will affect those who subscribe to the blog via email. Sorry, @ceratopsian, I'm afraid you'll have to visit the blog from now in to see the full reviews, but you'll still get email notifications.

Obviously I'm not going to link to the offending sites, and please don't bother looking for it, because the more views they get the more it will encourage them... It has happened to us in the past and, usually, the sites disappear after a while.

[bmathison1972]

ATB having material being stolen too? Either way, would be good to have a safeguard there as well

[DinoToyForum]

ATB having material being stolen too? Either way, would be good to have a safeguard there as well

I haven't seen any but I'll put in place the safeguards there as well, otherwise it's probably a matter of time.

[ceratopsian]

Thanks @DinoToyForum - I wondered why my last blog email was strangely truncated!  Such thefts are reprehensible.

[DinoToyForum]

Thanks @DinoToyForum - I wondered why my last blog email was strangely truncated!  Such thefts are reprehensible.

  Part of me wants to take action to get the stolen content taken down, but the other part of me doesn't want to give them a moment of my time and knows I haven't really any recourse anyway. So I'll stand back and let them fizzle over time. In the grand scheme of things I don't think it will have any real-world impact on the DTB, but it's surely frustrating.

Also I noticed the last blog was unusually truncated, on the archive page at least, because it ends on the the letter "T." for T. rex. That's because I set the posts to get truncated at the end of a sentence, i.e. immediately after a full stop or other closing mark. So, it thinks T. is the end of a sentence!

[Lynx]

Is this just the images or text, or both? I am quite active on a website where they use photos from DTB (not for reviews or anything) quite frequently.

[DinoToyForum]

Is this just the images or text, or both? I am quite active on a website where they use photos from DTB (not for reviews or anything) quite frequently.

The whole lot, copied wholesale. I'm not talking about Pinterest or anything like that.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Is this just the images or text, or both? I am quite active on a website where they use photos from DTB (not for reviews or anything) quite frequently.

The whole lot, copied wholesale. I'm not talking about Pinterest or anything like that.

Oof. Thats bad to hear. I hope it will help a bit to slim down the amout of stolen content. It is interesting how much work goes into stealing and changeing stuff to generate Money from other peoples work and dedication in a HOBBY like this. Disgusting but sadly not surprising.

[DinoToyForum]

Content from the DinoToyBlog continues to be stolen by being scraped and/or hotlinked for other websites, despite my efforts above to stop it. So, I've just taken further action by installing some more security features on the blog. Hopefully this will help put an end to it. The changes shouldn't cause any problems with real users accessing and viewing the blog, but just in case, I'm mentioning it here – let me know if you encounter any problems.

[DinoToyForum]

Content from the DinoToyBlog continues to be stolen by being scraped and/or hotlinked for other websites, despite my efforts above to stop it. So, I've just taken further action by installing some more security features on the blog. Hopefully this will help put an end to it. The changes shouldn't cause any problems with real users accessing and viewing the blog, but just in case, I'm mentioning it here – let me know if you encounter any problems.

It's working! New reviews seem to NOT be appearing on other sites, and previously stolen reviews have the images removed. However an unforeseen consequence that I've just been made aware of: we can no longer hotlink our own images. So, image tags on this forum (which basically hotlinks the images) will no longer work for images hosted on dinotoyblog.com or animaltoyforum.com. This will also break older hotlinked images. It's a price worth paying I guess?

[brontosauruschuck]

At some point, I want to say about two years ago, the Dinosaur Toy Blog underwent a change where readers are now unable to select text if they would copy and paste it. Since the early days of the Internet I got into the habit of selecting text while I read it, kind of like how people will move their fingers across a page as they read. It's not a big deal, but I do notice myself getting discouraged when trying to read the blog posts nowadays. I'm curious why this choice was made. I'm trying to choose my words carefully because I really don't want to be a complanosaurus in regards to this. I'm just curious why this choice was made. Was there a serious problem with people stealing text? Does this have something to do with AI?

[DinoToyForum]

At some point, I want to say about two years ago, the Dinosaur Toy Blog underwent a change where readers are now unable to select text if they would copy and paste it. Since the early days of the Internet I got into the habit of selecting text while I read it, kind of like how people will move their fingers across a page as they read. It's not a big deal, but I do notice myself getting discouraged when trying to read the blog posts nowadays. I'm curious why this choice was made. I'm trying to choose my words carefully because I really don't want to be a complanosaurus in regards to this. I'm just curious why this choice was made. Was there a serious problem with people stealing text? Does this have something to do with AI?

This. Unfortunately the blog was being 'scraped', so I had to stop allowing people/bots to be able to easily copy the text. It still happens, but not as much because it is more difficult to steal now. I posted about it at the time, and just merged this discussion into that topic.

[brontosauruschuck]

At some point, I want to say about two years ago, the Dinosaur Toy Blog underwent a change where readers are now unable to select text if they would copy and paste it. Since the early days of the Internet I got into the habit of selecting text while I read it, kind of like how people will move their fingers across a page as they read. It's not a big deal, but I do notice myself getting discouraged when trying to read the blog posts nowadays. I'm curious why this choice was made. I'm trying to choose my words carefully because I really don't want to be a complanosaurus in regards to this. I'm just curious why this choice was made. Was there a serious problem with people stealing text? Does this have something to do with AI?

This. Unfortunately the blog was being 'scraped', so I had to stop allowing people/bots to be able to easily copy the text. It still happens, but not as much because it is more difficult to steal now. I posted about it at the time, and just merged this discussion into that topic.

Thank you for taking the time to explain that. I'm sorry you have such a problem with posts being stolen and the like.

[Protopatch]

Unfortunately the blog was being 'scraped', so I had to stop allowing people/bots to be able to easily copy the text. It still happens, but not as much because it is more difficult to steal now.

Apparently, it remains possible to quite easily copy/paste DTB's content from a mobile phone, if you activate the option "display reader".
It took me 30 sec :







As for the pictures, it seems that they are downloadable in JPEG without any probs directly on the computer, by clicking right with the mouse...
I noticed those vulnerabilities this morning and thought it would be worth informing you, just in case ?

[DinoToyForum]

Yeah, there are ways to copy the text and images for anyone who wants to put in the effort. At the end of the day it's just public html and image files so it's impossible to completely stop someone stealing it.

[Protopatch]

Yeah, there are ways to copy the text and images for anyone who wants to put in the effort. At the end of the day it's just public html and image files so it's impossible to completely stop someone stealing it.

I understand and it's a shame considering the quality of the reviews
Random idea : what do you think about adding DTB watermarks on the pictures ?^^

[BlueKrono]

Yeah, there are ways to copy the text and images for anyone who wants to put in the effort. At the end of the day it's just public html and image files so it's impossible to completely stop someone stealing it.

I understand and it's a shame considering the quality of the reviews
Random idea : what do you think about adding DTB watermarks on the pictures ?^^

I would be opposed to watermarks. As I put in the effort to create my reviews I did so with the intention that they be free use content.

[Protopatch]

I would be opposed to watermarks. As I put in the effort to create my reviews I did so with the intention that they be free use content.

Indeed, as I am not a reviewer I didn't see it in that way... Sorry.

[thomasw100]

Watermarks are a major annoyance in any fair use of digital material.

[DinoToyForum]

Yeah, there are ways to copy the text and images for anyone who wants to put in the effort. At the end of the day it's just public html and image files so it's impossible to completely stop someone stealing it.

I understand and it's a shame considering the quality of the reviews
Random idea : what do you think about adding DTB watermarks on the pictures ?^^

I would be opposed to watermarks. As I put in the effort to create my reviews I did so with the intention that they be free use content.

You really don't mind if someone copy-pastes your reviews from the Dinosaur Toy Blog onto their own website?

I mind!