A very perceptive reader kindly alerted me to an alarming phenomenon that I hope doesn't catch on: There is a site called basenote.us (no relation whatsoever to Grant Osborne's reputable site basenotes.net) which routinely takes off content from Perfume Shrine along with other popular bloggers whom they present as "contributors"! This dubious, (apparently) automatically-generated piracy site is run by someone called Ari Driver who runs an internet store called Perfumeparadise.ca. in Canada. Usually I don't really give much attention to snippets of my thoughts and words floating on the Ethernet and let it be. After all I get hundreds of comments of spam every day masquerading as casual readers of Perfume Shrine who promote their business in an oh-so-subtle-way (they think!) which is plenty annoying as is!
But what particularly bugged me in this case are two things: 1) There was a plainly seen copyright sign on their pirate page, which is ridiculous under the circustances, and 2) It was attached to a commercial business that was pushing product through our confiscated words!
Ms. Driver has been republishing whole articles from the Perfume Shrine and other blogs without any prior given permission or even the courtesy of attribution to the respective writers. Which is unacceptable...and ugly. Luckily for us, Cait from Legerdenez filed an online report and it seems like it scared the rabbits into their holes again. At least on this occassion.
May I take this chance to please request the many others as well who use the words published on Perfume Shrine for reasons of pushing their business or promoting their Ebay sales to respect the time and effort put on this site.
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E, you need to look at this, the Guet-Apens description on the Perfumed Court website is directly taken after your review:
ReplyDeletehttp://theperfumedcourt.com/Products/Guerlain-Guet-Apens-EDP---Original-Formula__GUERLAINGUETAPENS.aspx
I can't comment on this for real in language suitable for human consumption ...
ReplyDeleteso instead I'll just say I'm behind you all the way, and this sort of thing really does need to end.
I am highly affronted by such people.
ReplyDeleteThey OUGHT to be ASHAMED.
No sense of decency, all about entitlement.
If any so inclined to these spurious behaviors are reading -
We're wise to you....
You are unethical and lazy.
that's horrible- it's so hard to keep track of. I hope you don't feel too upset and you keep writing for us all x
ReplyDeleteHi E -- sorry to hear about this. One note: "Ari" is usually a man's name. Don't know why that's important, ability to better imagine your perpetrator? Aender loyalty? :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Cait filed a report.
I just tried to access this site but it was blocked by something called "Bad Behavior," which noted that it had blocked 297 attempts in the last 5 days.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm.
I remember seeing several paragraphs of my Vol de Nuit post somewhere, directly lifted. The location was so obscure that I didn't do anything. I should have. I wonder if it was this same person or people.
Thanks for letting people know!
I bet you can get a boycott going of perfumeparadise.ca! I've never shopped there, and surely I now never will!
ReplyDeletePlagiarism is a really crappy and unethical habit.
Laura M
Plagiarism is something I find particularly abhorrent. And especially stupid in a case where proper attribution and linking to the websites one is stealing from could conceivably increase business. I'm sorry to hear that this is being done to people whose writing has brought so much pleasure to my life.
ReplyDeleteDaseined
it takes so much time and energy to generate what you and the rest of us scent bloggers generate, that anyone who thinks it's okay to copy and distribute our work needs to be taken to task. thank you, cait, for taking on this one, and you, elena, for bringing him to our attention.
ReplyDeletecheers, minette
I have at least two sites who have copied several dozen of my posts verbatim. I think they are run by the same person. No way to contact them. I have left a message, to no avail.
ReplyDeleteThe next step is to contact google who will pull all their ads and online revenue.
My daughter says to put the url for my website under my name. I have to remember.
I think it's dreadful!
Thanks E, for bringing it to my attention. I hadn't noticed, I thought they were more interested in my pics choices. :-)
ReplyDeleteI contacted them and they have been really very graceful about it (more than I bargained for actually!).
A,
ReplyDeleteit was a stupidly and lazily laid out site. If their business is as sloppy...?
I,
ReplyDeleteit's really a disregard for any effort on our part. It would have been so simple to put a link or even just a mention!
K,
ReplyDeletethanks honey, luckily I'm not one to be so easily upset. :-)
A,
ReplyDeletethanks for your clarification, you're right!
I'm grateful to Cait as well. It's amazing what can be done online these days and file reporting wasn't something I was familiar with. It's a good development.
P,
ReplyDeleteyou're welcome.
I believe there are several automatically generated sites that lift off a couple of lines or a paragraph off our articles and I don't do anything about them either. I like to think they're not businesses either, so...
This one was rather nasty though, especially since it posed as having me as a "contributor". I mean, geez! I hope you won't have similar incidents in the future.
Laura,
ReplyDeletethey could have a decent business, who knows. But this practice doesn't really speak for their industriousness or ethical judgement too highly.
At any rate, I'm one for giving people second chances, so let's just hope it was a faux pas and they wise up.
Daseined,
ReplyDeletein academia it's a no no, so I can fully sympathize.
If they had "changed" our words a bit, it wouldn't have been so vexing. Copying the entire articles with no attribution whatsoever (which was so easy, you're right) was a bit too much. Glad it stopped!
Minette,
ReplyDeleteyou know!! You can feel how annoying it is to have someone promote their business that way.
I just hope the free publishing isn't taken for granted, I always thought it was a great thing myself.
Karin,
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry! That should be irritating no end, especially if no one replies (why are people rude and don't validate mails or comments with an answer, I'll never know!)
Your daughter has a point, sometimes people don't hit on profiles. And on the other hand it helps when Googling to see that you have some complaint about them. It might alert greater forces to your issue with them.