AboutUs.org - They broke my copyright  

Date: August 28, 2006
Time: at 8:24 pm
Posted in: in copyright, internet, legal

First of all, I want to thank Douglas Bell and Micheal Cottingham for leading me to this website and for informing me about what they’re doing.

AboutUs.org shoots out to be “a fully editable wiki, a type of Web site, that has been prepopulated with information about several million websites.” (source). Sounds harmless, right? But what they don’t tell you is they are harvesting WHOIS domain information about each and every website they catalog. Not only that, but they are using the address in that WHOIS information to put up a map pinpointing that location. So any old schmo can get to your house.

Think that’s not so good? It get’s worse. Not only are they redistributing WHOIS information, but they are reposting copyrighted material from the website in question. In my paticular case, their “bot” had gathered a portion of a blog post I wrote a little while back. Keywords: I wrote. That means I own full copyrights to said work and have full control of when and how and if it is used.

But what about the WHOIS information. Honestly, you can get that information by doing a simple lookup yourself. Anyone can. But here’s the catch: Virtually any domain name registrar (whether it be ENOM, GoDaddy, or RegisterFly), explicitly state on the page where you get the WHOIS information taht said information is not to be redistributed in any way, shape, or form. Let’s quote from RegisterFly’s agreement, since that’s who I use:

The data in this whois database is provided to you for information purposes only, that is, to assist you in obtaining information about or related to a domain name registration record. We make this information available as is, and do not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a whois query, you agree that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to: (1) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that stress or load this whois database system providing you this information; or (2) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via direct mail, electronic mail, or by telephone. The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or other use of this data is expressly prohibited without prior written consent from us.

Keyphrase in bold. And that’s the point. Period.

Enough is enough. We need to stop AboutUs.org before they take it to the next level. Micheal Cottingham has assembled an excellent post on AboutUs.org, and also a tutorial on how to stop the AboutUs.org robot from archiving your site. On his blog, he details what you should do to your own page if you feel your copyrights have been broken.

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Comments

7 Responses to “AboutUs.org - They broke my copyright”

  1. Anonymous - August 28th, 2006 @ 8:27 pm

    Also, we had Micheal on the
    Also, we had Micheal on the latest episode of PreviewCast to talk about AboutUs.org.

  2. Anonymous - November 9th, 2006 @ 7:39 pm

    Repackaging of another site
    The AboutUs site is a repackaging of the WhoIs info provided by NameIntelligence. In fact, NameIntelligence is a co-founder of AboutUs. So I do not think there is anything illegal about that part of it.

    The address map shocked me a bit. But got me to wondering about some of those sites that go thru domain proxies … gonna be a good deal of them without the right address. But I suppose they have a way of filtering it out.

    As for the site Description, in the majority, they tapped the “About Us” page on several sites I administer. Basicly happy with that, because it was my lead in for that page. They got it right.

    The only thing that bugs me is that anyone can edit these pages. And it is so easy, that even a robot can do it. I think they are open for an attack in this regard and that has me more than a little concerned.

  3. Anonymous - March 12th, 2007 @ 5:02 pm

    RAY@ABOUTUS.ORG mail him and
    RAY@ABOUTUS.ORG mail him and tell him what you think. I personally think he’s a blood sucking vampire. Wonder if his whois info is available and on the site. I removed my families address and phone number from the site and was very disgusted that it was given out as the contact details for the numerous sites I created. Rather than the email address’ I provide on the sites.

  4. Anonymous - April 8th, 2007 @ 4:27 pm

    please remove me from your
    please remove me from your site.thought this was something else

  5. Anonymous - April 11th, 2007 @ 10:17 am

    RE: please remove me from your
    Wait, what?? You want me to remove an Anonymous post? Okay???

    - Adam

  6. Leefe - February 15th, 2008 @ 11:25 pm

    Complaining about AboutUs using whois info, and disclosing your address etc, is barking up the wrong tree. As anybody that wanted to can go check the whois info at a number of publicly available sites, the unix/lynux whois command, or even a whois client program.

    While AboutUS may make it more easily accessible. It is not providing something that is not already available.

    If you don’t want your ‘home address’ appearing in the whois info best thing to do is: pay for Private Domain Registration (or whatever your registrar calls it) so your address is not listed; or get a Post Office Box and use that as the address for your domains.

    I believe that there have been calls for whois info to be made private (though I can’t find a reference right at the moment). And whois policy varies for different country domains. For example German domains can’t use Private registration; and Australian domains have a limited whois privacy by default (standard whois only shows the name of the person/group registering, you need to visit the registry to get the full details).

    So while I understand your and other people’s concerns about privacy, unfortunately I don’t think panning AboutUs about it will solve the problem.

  7. AdamR - February 16th, 2008 @ 12:11 am

    Leefe,

    What you’re failing to realize is that according to policies put in place by ICANN and each individual domain name registrar, that the redistribution of WHOIS information for ANY purpose is not allowed. Period. End of story. yet AboutUs does this freely.

    The major concern, however, is not the WHOIS information as both you and I have pointed out it’s freely available to anyone. The major issue, therefore, is about the use of COPYWRITED material from each site. The counter to this is that search engines do the same thing. This is untrue. AboutUs and search engines are NOT doing the same thing. Search engines preserve the content of my site in its original form factor. AboutUs, on the other hand, strips that content and places it on their own form factor. Not only does this open the possibility for CHANGES to MY CONTENT from some outsider, but also it boosts the advertising monetization and search rankings of AboutUs BECAUSE of my content. Where’s my share of the money they make?

    It’s in every regard a complete disregard for site owners and their content which they may have worked hard to produce. It’s just plain wrong.

    - Adam

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