Don't Borrow (Steal?) Content from Others!

A few months ago when I was planning the launch of our new website, I was perusing my site statistics and analytics. Having used analytics for years and being a bit of a geek, I can quickly scan through pages and pages of data. So when something doesn’t look right, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

This is a big sore thumb!

GeekTalk: There were a few ‘calls’ to some of my content from an external page. That sticks out to someone like me like a sore thumb. Turned out that some hack DJ out of Texas decided it would be okay to “borrow” some of my content. Unfortunately, not only did he borrow it word for word, he cut and paste everything from various webpages into his website. Silly guy . . . I think I’ll name him “Hack DJ” from now on.

DJ Hack of 7RamEvents stole everything, all the way down to the Source Code

Big Mistake

Little did Hack DJ realize that when you do that,you bring over all of the original source code as well. So when he “pasted” the contents into his website, he was probably thrilled to see that he also copied the images. What he did not realize is that he copied the source code which left the absolute URL references to the images. What does this mean in layman’s terms? The images shown on his webpages are actually my images from my servers. What does this mean for a geek web guy like myself?

A hell of a lot of fun!!

Bad web guy . . . bad!

At the end of the day, this means that I essentially have control over the images that display on his website. So with that said, I decided to have a little fun with it. I “redesigned” a Few of the images with appropriate graphics and headlines, sized the exact same size as the originals to avoid any imperfections in the resultant pages. I then uploaded them to my server using the same filenames as the originals. And viola!!! Instant new images on DJ Hack’s website!

Wedding Page Comparisons

About Us Page Comparisons

Yeah, I believe this page is quite truthful showing “about him”

For archival purposes, and for fun purposes like these, I have posted my old site in it’s entirety at http://old.promotionentertainment.com

On a serious note, there is a part of me that actually feels bad for Hack DJ. Something tells me he’s NOT doing alot of business, and could probably use the help and support from some real professionals in the industry. But at the end of the day, one should not steal from others. And a goof this bad deserves a little play time . . .

Let’s Run With It!

So my goal here is to simply have some fun, but also simply see how long it DJ hack will go before realizing his customers may have been seen him as a complete fraud all along. Today is Wednesday, September 14, 2011 and we have just gone live with the new product images. Let’s see how long this will roll. I will return here often updating this post to see how long it goes.