Thieves among us.

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My lack of technical knowledge is pretty astounding, especially considering I’m the person at work that everyone looks to for computer help (the fact that my boss is in his 80’s and I’m the youngest person by a good 10 years probably explains that fact). I didn’t even know what RSS meant until Sizzle brought me up to speed last week!

So I’m turning to you, dear blog readers, for my latest computer/blog related question. So, a couple of days ago, I noticed that a blog I didn’t recognize had linked to this blog. I followed the link and found that this blog had completely reposted one of my Trail Tuesdays posts. In fact, the entire blog was just a series of other people’s blog posts. And the only reason it had linked back to me was because I had done so in my original post. It doesn’t seem to be a real person’s blog, but instead some kind of automatically generated blog. But still, it really made me mad (okay, maybe not really mad, but it did slightly annoy me). I actually put a lot of effort into writing those posts, and I don’t want them to be published anywhere else without my permission. I mean, if it had been my story about the Peepod, the I probably wouldn’t mind (seriously, take it, its yours, creepy auto-blog).

So here’s my question. How do I get the post taken down? There is no one, as far as I can tell, to contact through the blog. It is hosted by WordPress, so could I work with them to do it? Should I stop being so naive and just suck it up? Does anyone know what I’m talking about?

UPDATE: Thank you guys, for the commiseration and thank you Anika, for the help! Who knew this was so common! Here is what I did. I wrote what’s called a DMCA notice (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), and sent it to the host, and the email listed for the blog, which I found here. I basically followed these instructions. It felt good to stand up for myself (I even signed the letter Walking Punchline, esq., cause what good is being a lawyer if you can’t throw your suffix around every once in awhile?). Hope this helps some of you guys!!

UPDATE II: THIS TIME THERE IS A RESOLUTION: I AM VINDICATED!! After several emails with the company that hosted the website, here is the response I got-

We have suspended the site in question pending a resolution.
Please allow up to 30 minutes for these changes to take effect. 

Please be aware that we are not a court, nor are we required to
determine who, if anyone, actually owns the content in question.  We
have provided the specifics of your infringement claim to the owner of
the site, along with your contact information, since the most efficient
resolution of this situation comes through mutual communication between
the 2 parties involved.

If the site owner indicates they are ready to remove the infringing
content, we will re-activate the hosting account in order to allow that
to happen.  If they complete a counter-notification on the work(s) in
question, according to the Copyright Dispute Policy, a copy of the
notification will be sent to you.  The site will then be re-activated
10 days following receipt of the counter-notification by us unless we
receive official notice that you have initiated court proceedings.  If
we do receive such official notice, the website will remain down
according to the request of the court(s) at that time.

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Filed under random thoughts, the internet

Tags: stop stealing my posts you asshole