vitiate \VISH-ee-ayt\, transitive verb:
1. To make faulty or imperfect; to render defective; to impair; as, "exaggeration vitiates a style of writing."
2. To corrupt morally; to debase.
3. To render ineffective; as, "fraud vitiates a contract."
Would disabling RSS (Real Simple Syndication) vitiate a public blog?
I'm stuck in a quandary. I have found out that my public blog Coastal CA Gardening is being fed into a blog that sole purpose is having click through ads. The blogger provides no content of their own. They have simply culled a number of gardening blogs and use them as content. Then all around the edges are click through ads which I assume the owner gets a few cents for.
This is like writing articles for a commercial magazine for free. And I was never asked if I wished to participate (which I might have even said yes).
So should I disable RSS so this doesn't facilitate their content? Sadly, this would also disable feeds to honest people who read my blog through an aggregator like Google Reader Labs or Bloglines.
I would appreciate feedback. I am notifying the "offending" blogger and politely asking them to remove my blog. But I might also have to disable RSS. Please leave a comment or send me an email.
Best Regards,
C.C.
4 comments:
This has been happening to a lot of folks whose blogs I read. One of the best writeups on the whole issue is La Gringa's post.
I would miss having your feed. I think there is an option to not post full entries to the feed - this might be a good compromise between not giving your content away, but still letting real readers know when you posted? Someone running a place like that is more likely to find easier pickings that follow links and copy entries.
-C
Thank you for your kind comments.
At the moment we are conversing via email, but their suggestion is that I remove RSS. I am sticking to my guns and stating that RSS is not "just" for driving traffic to my site. I guess I'm an old school puritan for eschewing money.
I really don't want to disable RSS as it is convenient. But I will look at some way of letting people know when I've posted if I see no other solution. So far, I'm hopeful that I can resolve this.
Your blog is published material, meaning you own the copyright. So, you have a right to sue them for their profit on your entries plus legal expenses.
I'd suggest informing them of your use fee.
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