Are we paranoid?

Yesterday I went to Mig's blog and saw the last post titled something like "Baron Turner is stealing from my blog". He explained that Baron was publishing Daily Dirt RSS headlines right next to Google adds. Mig also added something like "So the next time one types his name in Google, and considering my traffic, he will see that this guy is doing piracy."

So I went to check out the site. Indeed, headlines are published. But all of the "stolen" content was first sentence of Mig's posting and the only link on the page was directing to Daily Dirt.

RSS feeds can take your blog postings and syndicate a preview of your blog headlines all over the Internet. Therefore in theory RSS feeds can drive traffic to your blogs and websites similar to how search engines have become major marketing channels.

So basically this guy was doing a favor to Daily Dirt. When I wanted to go back and add a comment, the post has disappeared! Yet, some people have probably seen it. I think Mig owes this man an apology. (Alternatively, to prove Baron was really stealing).


Few weeks ago Mig caught another plagiator. Frank Kolasinski was copying ChessBase articles while writing for Chess Chronicle ezine. (For me it is still unclear if the author of content was Mig Greengard or Dennis Monokroussos). Anyway, Karim, the Chess Chronicle editor, was disappointed that his friend Mig didn't phone him before making the post. This has caused GM Hikaru Nakamura to withdraw from CC team. ChessBase must have been very angry too. Two weeks later, they publish interview that GM Peter Svidler gave for Chess Chronicle.

What a mess.