Jams.tv Steals

January 8th, 2009
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Shane, from The Nihon Sun, wrote a quick heads-up notice at the JapanSoc Blog that caught my eye today. I found it because Ken Y-N, brains behind What Japan Thinks (when it’s up – ha ha, sorry Ken!), soc’d the article in an attempt to get the message onto the Jams.tv front page. Here’s the success in a screencap. [EDIT: Here's a newer, giant screencap with THIS very article being displayed underneath a story that I soc'd on JapanSoc! I'm all over the page!]

JapanProbe did a really concise and to the point write-up about it, too. Get the word out, and if your blog is being scraped, check your email account for a message from G’Day Japan. Respond to it. They apparently think that silence on a dubious one-shot opt-out notice gives them carte blanche to profit from your blog’s content. Uncool.

I’ll let Shane show you why so many people are raw about this. (Quoting from comments in the link above to the JapanSoc Blog.)

They did send an email earlier requesting permission to link to the sites but never indicated that they would be posting full articles. A misrepresentation at best in my opinion.

Here is the text of the email that we got and my response today:

Original from them:
Hi,

At the editorial team of G’Day Japan, an English magazine published in Sydney about traveling/eating in Japan, we have been scouring the web for THE BEST JAPAN Blogs!
We are upgrading our website as well, and we would like to have your website linked to ours, like below.

http://gdayjapan.com.au/

If we don’t hear from you within a week, we will assume you are ok with that.
If you have a problem, please let me know and we will take down your website asap!!

Thank you and keep up the fab work..
Akiko
G’Day Japan

My response today:

Akiko;

I just wanted to let you know that what you are doing is called feed scraping and is a form of copyright infringement. You are simply not picking up the feed and linking back to the blogs but you are posting the entire article on your site.

I respectfully request that you remove The Nihon Sun content from G’Day Japan (http://gdayjapan.com.au/) and Jams.tv (http://en.jams.tv/) OR switch the content from The Nihon Sun to excerpts only so that in order to read the full article readers are directed back to my site.

Attached is an email that I sent to Jams.tv on the subject.

Please respond to this request with 24 hours.

Here’s my response.

Akiko -

I do not give you permission to duplicate, repost, copy, host, modify, or otherwise reproduce the contents of my blog. It’s feed scraping, and it’s unethical. Please remove me from your aggregation system, delete all of the content that you’ve lifted from my site, and do not use any of my work for your financial benefit. (Displaying content that I created on pages with ads that you benefit from.)

Also, this goes for G’Day, the Jams.tv site as well, and any other scrapers you share with. You said “If you have a problem, please let me know and we will take down your website asap!!” I have a problem with it. Please follow through immediately. By the way, an opt-out theft plan is not a great business plan. You should really try to do things more on the up-and-up. I don’t check email from people I don’t know, and silence does not constitute an act of willful permission.

- Deas

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  • You said it!

    I wonder how long it will take them to respond - this is the most ridiculous scraping I've seen as of yet.

    <abbr>Koichis last blog post was: Crazy Delicious Japanese Rice Paddy Art</abbr>
  • Koichi - hope you're getting your side of things sorted out, too. I'm posting updates as I get them to Shane's thread on the JapanSoc blog. We'll see how it goes, I guess.
  • Deas, just to let you know, and just in case you missed my post on JCB, I've finally got my last remaining DNS problem fixed (touch wood...) so everything should be trouble-free from here on out.

    <abbr>Ken Y-Ns last blog post was: Fish-eating (and vegetarian statistics) in Japan</abbr>
  • lowell
    People who steal content are sad. But how is this different when
    Japanprobe copies all sort of stuff from Japanese TV and post in on youtube, then embed on their site. What about stealing from Japanese TV stations, no paying of royalties to them, no credit, no backlinks? Does Ken ask permission from Oricon first to translate their original poll content or he just translates it and then links and that is ok? Last I saw both are sites that had lots of ads so they are for profit sites.
  • Hey Lowell - I agree that some of the uses of Japanese TV are questionable, but having said that, plenty of them are fair use in my opinion. If I show a clip from a show (Japanese or otherwise), I do so for a reason. I feel like your criticism of Ken for translating polls is weird, though - he's not providing the polls, he is providing a service: translation. That's what he earns money off of. And he does link back. I'm sure that if he were ever contacted by the polling companies and asked to stop, he would handle it like a mature adult. The point is this - Jams.tv scraped our blogs and copied their content in its entirety. Then they corralled it on their site so that no traffic would ever "get out" and find its way to the site of origin. They were profiting solely on our work, not on commenting on our work, not on translating our work, not on creating some derivative of our work. Our work. To me there is a subtle, but hugely important difference. You seem to be opinionated on the subject, so I'd like to hear back from you. What's your take?
  • kainoa
    I think lowell is right, copying content is stealing content. Normally you ask someone if you can use their content and get permission to do so. With bloggers IMHO, they "comment" on content and that is gives them the right to copy (ala Japanprobe) without asking permission (like they are journalists). If as a blogger you have "original content" you created the video, photos, text etc. you don't want other people to profit (like those Jams.tv, like Japanprobe). It's all so blurred with "new media"
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