I love running across websites that lift content from me. I especially love it when they try to mask their theft by running the copy through a algorithm designed to make it seem different enough that Google and the other search engines will think that it’s unique content.
Here’s one I ran into recently.
They basically copied the post I did, 7 Famous Poker Players Who Have Had Brushes With The Law.
Here was the original paragraph about Steve Zolotow and Howard Lederer:
After becoming friends at the infamous Mayfair Club in New York Steve and Howard struck out to conquer the sports betting world. Steve wasn’t half-bad at handicapping and used another handicappper to perfect a betting system that was making them a lot of money. Steve estimates that clearing a million a season was a good season for them. Unfortunately, the duo got busted by the cops who thought they were bookies rather than bettors. They were released but the police confiscated most of their money which set them back. They set up shop again in Las Vegas but the FBI came calling and seized their funds again. Both decided making money betting sports with the tougher lines and the constant hassle from the police was too difficult and they migrated back to playing poker professionally
Now look at the nonsense their little re-writer turned the article into. histrion Lederer? New royalty?
I won’t link to the guy’s site because he lifts my content pretty regularly but he doesn’t even have any ads or anything on the site. I’m not even sure what the purpose of stealing people’s content and then messing it up is.