By nickel

I’ve recently been debating the merits of partial vs. full-text RSS feeds on fivecentnickel.com and raising4boys.com. Truth be told, I much prefer full-text feeds when it comes to keeping track of sites, but I’ve actually been offering partial-text feeds on my own sites. The main reason for this is that it drives me nuts when people steal my content and re-publish it as their own, and a full-text RSS feed makes for an attractive target.

Of course, the only real reason that scrapers exist is to make money, typically via Google’s Adsense contextual advertising program. It thus seems that reporting scraper sites to the Adsense team for content theft would be an effective way of getting rid of them. After all, if a scraper gets kicked out of Adsense, the easy money will dry up, and hopefully they’ll just go away. While this sounds great in theory, it’s not all that easy in practice.

Exhibit A: The text of an e-mail that I received from Google when I tried to report content theft by a scraper site (emphasis added).

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://www.copyright.gov/) and other applicable intellectual property laws. In this case, this means that if we receive proper notice of infringement, we will forward that notice to the responsible web site publisher.

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. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether you have the right to request removal from our service, 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. For example, “The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.html.”

2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. You must identify each page that allegedly contains infringing material by providing its URL.

3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google 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: AdSense Support, DMCA complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043

OR Fax to:

(650) 618-8507, Attn: AdSense Support, DMCA complaints

Regards,
The Google AdSense Team

Yep, that’s right. You need to identify each page that (allegedly) contains material that is infringing on your copyrighted content, put it on paper, swear (in writing) that you’re not lying, sign the paper, and then either mail or fax it to Google. And then wait. I realize that this is likely designed (at least in part) to stop people from lodging false complaints against their competition, but still… There’s really no way for this to be a feasible strategy over the long term — who has that kind of time on their hands?