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The site http://english.seeore.com/ appears to be reposing a lot of EL&U content plastered with ads (5,047 posts at time of writing). I can't see any proper attribution, other than this footer which is probably just scraped and points back to them anyway:

Welcome to http://english.seeore.com/

Copyright © 2011 English Language and Usage | Powered by Blogger

Something like this happened on a Blogger blog not so long ago; here's the relevant meta post, and here's waiwai933♦'s answer from it:

It's violating the copyright of EL&U users, but neither EL&U nor SE hold copyright of the content.

The problem is doing something about it, since SE doesn't have the power to act on behalf of its users. The copyright owner (i.e. the OP) of each post would have to file a DMCA complaint about his/her posts with Google, but there is no way to combine these complaints or make them simplier in any way (because in theory, people could have relicensed their posts).

So basically, you can file a DMCA complaint with Google if and only if you were the original person to write the post.

See the other answers and comments for more tips.

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  • 5
    Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the community. If everyone pitches in, we can get that scraper taken down.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Jan 9, 2013 at 20:00
  • 1
    I hereby license everyone who wants to use content the perpendicular pronoun has produced.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Jan 9, 2013 at 20:44
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    @Cerberus Well this I doesn't. I've done the Google DCMA form with a select few of my posts.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Jan 9, 2013 at 21:27
  • @AndrewLeach: As is the bijugal-and-rotund-and-curved pronoun's good right. May I inquire as to why? Why does it care?
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Jan 9, 2013 at 21:32
  • It cares that the rules need to be followed. It could have no objection to proper attribution according to the site licence.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Jan 9, 2013 at 21:47
  • I assert no copyright on any content I've created on this site.
    – user31341
    Jan 10, 2013 at 1:02
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    It matters to some of us. I feel I did not post for the benefit of a third party who is using my work to enrich himself without even attributing it to me properly. I have found a post of mine misused in this way, and I have filed a takedown request with Google.
    – MetaEd
    Jan 10, 2013 at 4:28
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    @jlovegren Actually, you automatically assert copyright if you are following the site terms of service. The ToS requires you to grant a perpetual right to copy, which you can only do if you hold the copyright.
    – MetaEd
    Jan 10, 2013 at 4:40
  • @MετάEd what I write is by law ipso facto copyrighted, but I'm saying that I don't intend to assert this copyright by trying to stop someone from reproducing or profiting from what I write.
    – user31341
    Jan 10, 2013 at 4:46
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    I don't mind copying and reproduction, but the lack of attribution both irks me and 'smells' wrong (as in, it's not done with the best of intentions). If it felt like a genuine 'didn't realise' and there was some modification being applied to my work, okay, different emotional response). On top of that I think that something like this harms EL&U in a fashion (less eyeballs to the core site, which means less potential engagement, yadda yadda). Ergo, I've lodged a notice.
    – tanantish
    Jan 11, 2013 at 3:15

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I haven't had anything back from Google yet, but http://english.seeore.com/ now yields this:

Google's 404 Not Found page

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    +1 for the screenshot. Now it's 404 compliant!
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jan 12, 2013 at 12:14
  • Ulp. Spoke too soon. It's back.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Jan 14, 2013 at 11:59
  • It's gone again.
    – TRiG
    Jan 22, 2013 at 14:28
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Slight update to the 404 status, yes, it's back up, but it's been reworked slightly, I'm guessing that Google have sent some polite notices (and/or whoever is running the site is scraping Meta).

Updates:

  • new design (yay);
  • removed reference to StackExchange on the pages;
  • usernames are now hotlinks back to your user page here; and
  • the datestamps on questions the other site are way out, like two years out.

They are linking back to the question in a form with the "more discussion" link, which might be compliant with the requirement to link back to the original question were it not for the fact that:

  • the links are tagged as nofollow; and
  • the links are also (minorly) corrupted. Each link back here has the number '2' suffixed. (It makes no difference since SE sites care about the /questions/XYZZ bit I suspect, but FFS, this is getting silly).

I'm now fairly convinced whoever is running the site is actively avoiding compliance, so another round of takedowns is being prepped. Bah.

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    It's also now called "English Language and Guides".
    – Hugo
    Jan 15, 2013 at 12:53
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    Presumably the false dates are an attempt to prove prior art.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Jan 15, 2013 at 14:23
  • According to this blog, the site still isn't attributing correctly because it doesn't say it's from SE
    – simchona
    Jan 15, 2013 at 17:37
  • I've received notification from Google about my takedown request (made January 9th or 10th) and the entire site is now 404 again. While I only complained about three of my posts, I did comment that the entire site appeared to be a direct scrape without the required attribution. Let's see if it reappears...
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Jan 19, 2013 at 16:29

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