Image Theft by Island Tea Shop on eBay

[scruffmcgruff]

Not to hijack the thread, but the Twinings thing was pretty sketchy. It's not that he is quoting my content, as I agreed to let them aggregate my blog's feed, but that he used it to advertise his blog, to which I did not agree. And now he's telling me he can't remove my blog from his site because of the way their system works! Ugh.

[Geekgirl]

And now he's telling me he can't remove my blog from his site because of the way their system works! Ugh.

BS. He can make "the system" remove it, or you can contact his ISP and report stolen content and copyright violation, and they'll take it (or the whole site) down.

[scruffmcgruff]

And now he's telling me he can't remove my blog from his site because of the way their system works! Ugh.

BS. He can make "the system" remove it, or you can contact his ISP and report stolen content and copyright violation, and they'll take it (or the whole site) down.

Hmm, interesting thought. I have asked him to explain why it cannot be done, and I asked what he does if a blog contains copyrighted material, so I'll see what he says in his reply. He isn't in violation of the creative commons license I have displayed, and I don't particularly want to change it, but I may have to. *sigh*

[scruffmcgruff]

I just received his reply:

By having an RSS feed, you should expect that your blog will be syndicated with or without permission. So long as the original source is cited and you are directed to the original source of the copyrighted material in question, you are not breaking any sorts of copyright rules by syndicating a blog. Anyways as it currently stands, copyright rules with RSS feeds is huge a grey area right now as nobody is even aware of the legal aspects and whether or not they’re enforceable. Even if the blog serves you no traffic, the link exchange is valuable in helping to increase the number of backlinks to your site, which is a very important SEO strategy.

This makes no sense; if all he is doing is reading my RSS feed, there should be no reason why he cannot remove my feed. This is so irritating, does anyone have any suggestions about how to resolve this situation?

[Mods, feel free to move this if it is too OT]

[bi lew chun]

This is so irritating, does anyone have any suggestions about how to resolve this situation?

I know you're not using Wordpress, but, if you were, there's an AntiLeech plugin that detects scrapers and feeds them garbage content with a link back to your site.

This article, under Free Service Users, suggests that FeedBurner, which I know you use, might allow you to do something similar.

[chamekke]

This is so irritating, does anyone have any suggestions about how to resolve this situation?

I know you're not using Wordpress, but, if you were, there's an AntiLeech plugin that detects scrapers and feeds them garbage content with a link back to your site.

This article, under Free Service Users, suggests that FeedBurner, which I know you use, might allow you to do something similar.

I am using WordPress, and I will take your advice!

Many, many thanks for that

[bi lew chun]

I am using WordPress, and I will take your advice!

Many, many thanks for that

Yep.

[Chip]

I just received his reply:

By having an RSS feed, you should expect that your blog will be syndicated with or without permission. So long as the original source is cited and you are directed to the original source of the copyrighted material in question, you are not breaking any sorts of copyright rules by syndicating a blog. Anyways as it currently stands, copyright rules with RSS feeds is huge a grey area right now as nobody is even aware of the legal aspects and whether or not they’re enforceable. Even if the blog serves you no traffic, the link exchange is valuable in helping to increase the number of backlinks to your site, which is a very important SEO strategy.

This makes no sense; if all he is doing is reading my RSS feed, there should be no reason why he cannot remove my feed. This is so irritating, does anyone have any suggestions about how to resolve this situation?

[Mods, feel free to move this if it is too OT]

No problem at all Scruff! Interesting actually.

The Twinings guy was a jerk from my point of view...kept looking for loopholes to squeeze through. Really strange though. Here is his last stand...keep in mind, there are members from various countries and their English is not always perfect.

Green Tea Forum Twinings Tea Blog topic

He kept trying different strategies to stick the blog into his posts, but he was so transparent.

If this is fully resolved, Space, I will move the topic back into a more appropriate category.

[Geekgirl]

And now he's telling me he can't remove my blog from his site because of the way their system works! Ugh.

BS. He can make "the system" remove it, or you can contact his ISP and report stolen content and copyright violation, and they'll take it (or the whole site) down.

Hmm, interesting thought. I have asked him to explain why it cannot be done, and I asked what he does if a blog contains copyrighted material, so I'll see what he says in his reply. He isn't in violation of the creative commons license I have displayed, and I don't particularly want to change it, but I may have to. *sigh*

Why isn't he in violation? If he's using it for commercial reasons (drive traffic to his commerical site, or to otherwise profit monetarily from use of your content,) he's in violation. I believe this has gone through courts.

He should easily be able to remove your feed, though your posts might remain. Although it looks like the way its set up, removing the feed might break the links on his site, and he just doesn't want to do that. Under the circumstances, I think it's possible that his ISP would think he is in violation of creative commons, even if HE doesn't think so.

[Space Samurai]

Yes Chip, the situation has been resolved. Thanks again everyone.

[forkyfork]

I know I'm late to the party, but this is one of the first tea shops I ordered from. They're actually very close to me, too.

Glad it got resolved.

[Ashiro]

Glad this was resolved, Space.

Image theft sucks.

I must know where your avatar tea pot is from!! Its delightful!

[chamekke]

Glad this was resolved, Space.

Image theft sucks.

I must know where your avatar tea pot is from!! Its delightful!

Assuming that you're speaking to me and not Space (he's changed his avatar once or twice and I can't remember if he had a teapot) ...

Mine is a photo I took of a miniature Japanese kyuusu (teapot), which I perched on my left thumb as my right hand took the photo. (It took a few tries.) If I recall correctly, the piece is made by Re-ment, which makes many detailed miniature sets - primarily for dollhouses and suchlike, I imagine. I own two or three sets (this is simply part of one of the sets), and some day I'll upload some pics to the forum.

There are quite a few amazing miniature tea sets sold on eBay, and not just Japanese ones, e.g. this extremely fetching Chinese tea set. Just search on "miniature" and "tea" and you'll find some other examples.

[Wosret]

Re-ment will be the death of my wallet, I swear. I love their stuff!

[chamekke]

Re-ment will be the death of my wallet, I swear. I love their stuff!

Some of their pieces can easily be made into great one-of-a-kind magnets, earrings, etc., too...