AboutUs.org - They broke my copyright

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

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.

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.

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

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

- Adam

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.

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

Hi, I’d like to add my two cents to the topic of aboutus.org to help spread some truth about this well crafted and truly appaling ‘cancer upon the web’…

Despite all the truly laugable spin being pushed by the naive brainwashed cult members that are the employees of aboutus.org it is perfectly clear to see what the site IS and what the site was always intended to be:

Essentially aboutus.org is there to automatically generate deceptive incoming google results using everyone else’s stolen content, domain names and keywords so as to MAKE MONEY from advertising. Nothing any more profound, clever or nobel than that.

Aboutus.org is simply SPAMMING & PLAGIARISM on a more sophisticated and grand scale than anything seen before.

The idea is of course desperately and very feebly riding on the back of the “wiki” concept so as to make it look like “progress”, however nothing could be further from the truth (unless of course we are talking about progress in the world of SPAMMING technology and content theft). Simply put, the basis for a WIKI is the human input of original content, NOT automated self population using everyone elses plagiarised content.

I won’t get into the technicalities here because what they are doing is indeed very complex and extremely sophisticated with additional changes being made all the time in order to hijack yet more search results using everyone elses content.

However, I will mention the “opt out” process because despite their claims, it’s not quite that painless:

Be warned, if you choose the aboutus.org “no bots” root, or ask them to remove content in any way shape or form, you will then still have an empty page listed with your domain and a link (they will not remove this), you will also have your domain and link then FURTHER added to an EXTRA page deliberately listing opted out domains, further more you may also then very well even find your domain name listed on yet another page with the word “sponsor” in front of it promoting aboutus.org advertising services. (So to recap you opted out and now your domain name is listed on 3 pages instead of 1). Further more, if one of the aboutus.org editors decides to add you to their chat pages you will then be listed FOUR times following an opt out.

So, to recap, opt-out and you will still be listed / linked, perhaps even MORE SO than before you did! You will of course then see the mutlitple spammy aboutus.org google results related to these extra pages, which is of course their clear intention.

SPIN SPIN SPIN: Despite their very well devised and well placed spin all over the web, this CLEARLY aint no “Google” or “Youtube”, or indeed any kind of “innovation” what so ever despite their ridiculous rhetoric. This is just plain old fashioned SPAM SPAM SPAM founded in GREED GREED GREED.

Of course the ONLY positive effects of aboutus.org are felt by the sites shameless owners, whilst the wholly NEGATIVE effects are clearly felt by everyone else:

Aboutus.org is NEGATIVE to all WEB SURFERS (getting crappy deceptive spammy results pointing to aboutus.org rather than the sites they are actually looking for).

Aboutus.org is NEGATIVE to WEBSITE AUTHORS (losing their ranking, having their results hijacked, having their original content, domain name, keywords STOLEN and abused for profit by criminals)

Aboutus.org is NEGATIVE to search engines like GOOGLE (poisoning and destroying the critical quality of all search results on a humongous scale)

Advertisers beware, if you advertise with aboutus.org then your brand will be judged accordingly.

Complain to Google now “search for report spam to google” and get aboutus.org BANNED so they can crawl off and die in a dark corner of the internet along with all the other nasty evil spammers.

Thanks

Sorry, what’s that Mr Ray King? You say “aboutus.org provides a legitimate useful and pioneering service based on “fare use” and I’ve really got this all wrong. This is simply Web 2.0?

Oh, fare enough…

Clearly the earth is also flat, there will never be a sequel to Police Academy, the dotcom bubble will never burst and Japan are slaughtering whales purely for scientific research.

My mistake, I’m so naive…