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.
I've been advising blog owners, for years, that Blogger blogs need informative, interesting, and unique content, to survive as Blogger blogs.
Scraped blogs - whether you scrape your own, or another person's - are a bad idea.
The general focus on "unique" is intended to discourage scraping. Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger discusses spam blogs.Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.
In the past, Blogger has been focusing on blog owners who steal the work of other blog owners, ie, "scraping" - or who copy by permission, ie, "syndication".
Blogger Content policy defines scraping more explicitly.
Examining Blogger Content Policy, we see the problem expressed more vividly.Spam: Spam takes several forms in Blogger, all of which can result in deletion of your account or blog. Some examples include creating blogs designed to drive traffic to your site or to move it up in search listings, posting comments on other people's blogs just to promote your site or product, and scraping existing content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains.
Having backup blogs can look like "blogs designed to drive traffic to your site or to move it up in search listings". This is a technique, used by spammers. Why bother to write content? Just use some of the clones, as clones - both to backup each other, and to boost search engine results.
Duplication of content, online, hastens classification as spam.
Backing up a Blogger blog actually duplicates Bloggers efforts. Blogger / Google stores content - ie, your blog - in a cloud of servers, worldwide. If any one server goes out of service, the others are there, to provide immediate backup. You will, likely, never even notice if any one Blogger server goes down.
Alternately, a blog owner might backup a blog because of the spammer publicised unfair blog deletion policy. Here, the blog owner is playing into the spammers hands. If backup blogs were permitted, spammers could publish their spam blog farms with impunity.
Here, what the blog owner wants to plan for by having duplicates, unfair deletion, actually hastens the unfair deletion. This will happen, even if you make the "backup" blog private.
Classification of duplicate content, as abuse, isn't spurious.
If you think about it, a blog classified as spam, because of multiple clones, isn't actually spuriously deleted. If your blog gets a spurious classification, as a possible spam host, you have to appeal the classification. Creating a new blog, with identical content, just makes you look like a non repentant spammer - and increases your vulnerability.
If you want to retain comments and posts, export to an offline file. Just don't spread duplicate content across the Internet.
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.
Blogger gives us the basic definition of what is not allowed, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger.
Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.
I summarise this definition, by advising you to publish blogs that are informative, interesting, and unique.
Until you have lots of friends, and regular readers, who read your blog - and return later, to read some more - you will need traffic, from the search engines.
AdSense requires original content.
AdSense explicitly forbids copied content, on blogs that will show paid ads.
Fact: We don’t allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program. This is to ensure that our users are benefiting from a unique online experience and that our advertisers are partnering with useful and relevant sites.
To get search traffic, your blog needs unique content.
You don't get traffic from the search engines, without unique content, that causes your blog to be listed, in good position, in a Search Engine Results Page - aka SERP. And, you don't get return reader traffic, without informative or interesting content.
The recently deployed (March 2017) Google search engine update, colloquially named "Fred", targets low value content blogs and web sites. Many blog owners have observed an abrupt loss of search rank - and of search originated traffic - in their ad driven blogs.
Nobody is going to search for details - because they don't know the details.
Blogs which contain only lists of details, such as "Answers from Professor X's exams", "Best truck driving schools in Southern India", or "Free Proxy Servers", will not contain indexable material.
- They won't contain key phrases or words, that people might use, when searching for blogs to read.
- Their content won't be unique.
Since people don't know the answers to the exams, they won't be typing the key phrases or words, that lead to your blog - if your blog contains "Answers from Professor X's exams". And even if you spend a week, copying the names and addresses of each truck driving school, what you copy won't be unique.
If your blog contains only details, it will appear lower in the SERPs.
If your blog only contains lists of details, copied from various blogs and websites, your blog will have a lower SERP position than the sources of your content. Your blog will be vulnerable to spam classification - and will later fail review.
Websites which contain only "Answers from Professor X's exams", "Best truck driving schools in Southern India", or "Free Proxy Servers" may be allowed outside Blogger. Since Blogger is a personal website platform, you should try to write about things which you, personally, are familiar with - and host your lists, and other scraped content, outside Blogger.
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!
orWhy don't I have any readers? I have great content - the other blogs, where I get the content, get lots of traffic.
Google describes the overall issue, about copying content from blog to blog, quite plainly, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger.Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.
Spam classification is one of several penalties, which involve copied content. I've seen various content penalties, that are reported, from time to time, in the forums.
Some penalties involve copyrighted material - but non copyrighted material, improperly used, can cause problems. And unrighteous charges will inconvenience you, and cause other problems.- Content Warning
- DMCA Violations
- Spam Classification
- Search Engine Reputation
Content Warning
If you copy controversial content, that does not belong in your blog, some of your readers will object. Originally used to block "adult" content from being viewed by younger readers, the "content warning" / "objectionable content" classification is broader in scope than it appears to be. This accusation is sometimes used by readers, who may object in quantity, to any irrelevant subject in any blog.
A Content Warning interstitial will damage your search engine result listings. You'll have to request a review of the blog, to get the warning removed. The people who review content warnings may not do so with high priority.
DMCA Violations
If you improperly copy copyrighted material, and the lawful owners complain, you can be cited for DMCA Violations. You will end up with posts - and later the blog - deleted or locked.
You'll have to search the ChillingEffects database, for details, and appeal the citation. If you don't appeal a citation, and if you continue to make the same mistakes, you can be classified as a "non repentant" abuser - and your Blogger / Google account will be deleted or locked.
Spam Classification
If you unwisely copy material, or supply material to be copied, your blog can be classified as a spam host, with the offense described as "scraping / syndication". This will require a spam review. Until the review is concluded, and the verdict is satisfactory, your blog will remain offline.
If you publish multiple blogs concurrently, with the same content, you can be classified as a spammer. If you publish multiple blogs sequentially, with the same content, you can be classified as a "non repentant" spammer - and your Blogger / Google account will be deleted or locked.
If your blog consists mainly of copied material - even if properly attributed, you will need your own material also. A blog with only copied content is still subject to classification. I strongly recommend no more than 10% copied content, to 90% original content - if you want any decent reputation.
Search Engine Reputation
If you copy or share content - whether cited for content, DMCA, or spam - your blog's search engine reputation will suffer. Multiple blogs and websites, with the same content, will result in higher reputation blogs and websites getting better placement in a SERP. Your blog will end up at the bottom of any relevant SERP listing - and your traffic level will drop.
Using Dynamic Content
If you copy a script from a third party website, that references dynamic content owned by that website, you are responsible for ensuring that the script works - or deal with the consequences. If you host videos served from the website in question, on your blog, this is similar to hot linking. If the video in question is removed by the website owner, and stops playing from your website, you must contact the owner of the website.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that blog content needs to be informative, interesting, relevant, properly targeted, and unique. If you push the limits, you will regret your decision, eventually.
Your blog will need a good search reputation, to get readers. Start with good content, based upon what you know, and are willing to share.
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 copyrights. 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.
Don't use the DMCA Violation Complaint as a casual harassment technique - only use it where you are extremely certain that your legal rights are being violated. If the Fair Use Doctrine might transcend your personal rights, or if you are unsure here what your rights provide to you, protect yourself and contact a lawyer.
If you receive a DMCA Notice, and you believe yourself to be innocent of any wrongdoing, file a Counter Claim.The administrator of an affected site or the provider of affected content may make a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When we receive a counter notification, we may reinstate the material in question.
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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.
In WikiPedia: Occam's razor, we see the advicethe simplest solution is usually the correct one.
For best results, ask for permission from the legal owner.
Since every different blog / website, with a different owner, could be published under a separate content policy, it's always best to ask for permission, before copying. Without permission, you could find yourself here later, asking about various content related penalties.
- Some owners might appreciate the free publicity.
- Other owners might not want their content used in another website.
- Some owners might be paying a third party for the right to use their content.
You won't know, until you ask.
I like to add " target="_blank"" to any link that takes the reader to another website, however temporary.
In WikiPedia: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" target="_blank">Occam's razor</a></span>, we see the advice<blockquote>the simplest solution is usually the correct one.</blockquote>
Content such as Lorem Ipsum is ancient public domain, and it's available all over the Net. It may or may not be necessary to attribute that, for brief snippets.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
When you include original content from a specific website, however, it's good practice to attribute.The text is derived from sections 1.10.32-33 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Goods and Evils, or alternatively [About] The Purposes of Good and Evil ).[3] The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: "Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it"). It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; it may have been as late as the 1960s. The passage was discovered by Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar who is the publications director at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, by searching for citings of the rarely used Latin word "consectetur" in classical literature.[1][2]
The original version (with the excerpted items highlighted) appears in Book 1, sections 1.10.32-33 (pagination varies by publisher):
[32] Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.[2]
- From Wikipedia: Lorem Ipsum
Blogger spam classification looks for scraped content.
Blogger is now diligently screening blogs for "spam" and other forms of misbehaviour. One of their classifications of "spam" is termed "scraping". Many blogs consist, largely, of content scraped from various websites, minimally relevant.
Your blog needs more than scraped content - if you wish to continue.
People who publish blogs that contain material from other websites, simply must make it a consistent practice to distinctly attribute copied material - or face the possibility of spam classification by the Blogger bot.
Note that, however you attribute, yor blog will simply serve as a gateway to the other source blog / website. With the other website higher in page rank than yours, you'll just be sending your readers to theirs - and the SERPs will list theirs ahead of yours.
You're not going to gain much - except empty volume - by including their content.
You will be responsible for content from other blogs and websites.
Note that any time you include material from - or link to - another blog or website, what you include or link to must be abuse and malice free. You are responsible for the comfort and safety of your readers - and anything that you do, to possibly disturb their comfort or safety, can cause your blog to be locked or deleted, as abusive or malicious.
A connection to another blog or website - using a feed, iframe, or link - puts a portion of your blog under the control of the other blog or website. If an abuse / spam classification bot determines the other blog or website to be abusive / malicious, your blog will suffer the consequences.
Every week, we see the naive queryHow 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 askWhy 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.
Each of us is responsible for ensuring that our content - that we own - remains ours.
Google doesn't do this for us. They aren't legally, morally, or socially responsible for controlling duplication of blog / website content, until the owner of any blog or website reports a problem. And even when a problem is reported, they have to consider both sides of the story.
Protecting our blog content is our responsibility.
Some well meaning helpers will tell you of free software that blocks context menu (right mouse click) "Save Image As". That software is written as JavaScript. Many folks, like me, explicitly block JavaScript from "BlogSpot.com" and other untrusted domains, using Firefox and NoScript, for personal security. Blocking scripts from untrusted domains is a normal component in layered security, on our computers.
Besides the fact that you can't effectively block the context menu "Save Image As" command, you can't control what's stored on my computer.
If your blog is viewed on my computer, it's my content.
I've written about cache, here and there. Cache is a basic feature in Internet design. It lets us view the same web site (blog) repeatedly, without requiring that the same content be downloaded from the server repeatedly. If you're viewing this article using your browser, it's cached in your browser.
If your computer is on a large network, it's possible that your computer connects to the Internet through a caching proxy server. If your ISP offers enhanced bandwidth, it's possible that they cache content too.
If I added a picture to this article, it would be cached, along with the text that you are reading. The right software can search and retrieve any cached content, from any cache. Anybody who needs to "steal" your pictures just needs the right software, and he can steal them right out of cache.
Anybody can make a screen print.
Besides blocking the "Save Image As" wizard, and from prohibiting caching, you'll face a third challenge. What's on my screen can be copied. Screen printing is very popular software. Print the screen, crop everything but the picture of interest, and there it is. Save it, and you have it. Display the picture full size, print that, and you have the full size copy.
How about watermarking the pictures? Put the URL of the web site in the corner. You can do this using IrfanView, PhotoShop, and a few more image processing programs. But watermarks are just bits. What you can take out, I can put back, with more software. And watermarks make the pictures ugly. They are as bad as the broadcast TV commercials at the bottom of the screen.
You can copyright your pictures - but can you enforce the copyright?
Finally, you are entitled to copyright your content. There are some free copyright "protection" services too. Register your content, and it's protected. But no, the Internet reaches all over the world.
Can you afford the lawyers, that will practice in every nation worldwide, and enforce your copyright? If your content / pictures are being pirated on a Blogger / Google hosted web site, you may be able to get action from a DMCA Complaint - but note the warnings, carefully.
Face it - once you publish a picture in your blog, it too is like a dandelion. It's out of your control.
Sorry. Magic only goes so far.
