A tale of intellectual property, identity, libel, and online bullying.
A little history
It all started at the end of March, 2009, when I discovered that I was listed as an author on a site called Ulitzer (http://ulitzer.com)*. They had used my name as a subdomain on their site (aralbalkan.ulitzer.com; this has since been removed) and the site presented a photo of me, stating that I had been an author with them for several years. They had also scraped my blog posts and were reproducing them on the site under a different license to the one that I had published them under.
Beyond simply using my content without permission, they had misappropriated my identity by stating that I was one of their authors. And I wasn't the only one. To this day, David Heinemeier Hansson (http://davidheinemeierhansson.ulitzer.com/) is a Ulitzer author (he's apparently been writing for them since November 24, 2005), as is – quite ironically, I may add – Matt Cutts (http://mattcutts.ulitzer.com/), head of Google's webspam team, who has apparently been a "Ulitzer author since September 3, 2008".
Other prominent Ulitzer authors include Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly, http://timoreilly.ulitzer.com/), Jeremy Allaire (@jerBrightcove, http://jeremyallaire.ulitzer.com/), Dion Almaer (@dalmaer, http://dionalmaer.ulitzer.com/), and Michael Arrington (http://michaelarrington.ulitzer.com), among many, many, others. Needless to say, I can only assume that many of these authors don't have a clue that their identities are being misappropriated and that their content is being used without permission.
Understandably, I was unhappy about this situation since I had not heard of Ulitzer, much less given them permission to use my identity or reproduce the articles on my blog. So I called them out on it. I tweeted about it and also called them up to have my likeness and content removed from their site. They removed the page but I also received a rude phone call from their CEO, Fuat Kircaali, the details of which are documented here.
Shortly thereafter, they published the first of their libelous articles about me, titled (in Turkish), "Turkish Fags Who Live in London: Aral Balkan" in which they called me a "homosexual son of a bitch". The details of that article are documented here.
Following that first article, they published another article, titled "Turkish Web Designer Declares Death on Twitter" in which they stated that I was "said to be organizing an underground group to kill or bodily harm the company representatives according to his Twitter logs" and continued to compare me to the Turkish assassin who "shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981". The details of that article are documented here.
A mini-uproar, some media coverage, interesting revelations, and the eventual lull
At about this time, myself and others in the community started taking a deeper look at Sys-Con to understand just what was going on. And the things that were discovered were troubling indeed.
Several of their staff writers and editors appeared to be fictitious. One, Salvatore Genovese, was actually British supermodel David Gandy. Another, Kym Jones, editor of Ulitzer Content Network, was the photo for "Woman with red hair" on Wikipedia. They've since changed several of the pictures to use royalty free images form iStockPhoto (this is against iStockPhoto's terms and conditions). The details of these findings are documented here.
Although there was a mini-uproar on Twitter initially (and thank you all again for your support, I can't say it enough!), it was rather fleeting and soon things died down and we all went back to business as usual. (At this time I looked into the feasibility of taking legal action and realized that it would be far outside my budget. I am looking into it again now.)
Sys-Con strikes back
Fast-forward to July 14th, 2009, when I got a Google Alert on a new Sys-Con article, penned by a certain Yeshim Deniz from Sys-Con, titled "Social Media Marketing Turkish Style" http://internetvideo.sys-con.com/node/1017038; URL now removed by Sys-Con, see a high-resolution screenshot of the original article (2.2MB). That article matter-of-factly stated that Sys-Con had been attacked several months ago by "a Turkish blogger … who declared 'cihad'[sic] against SYS-CON". It went on to state (about me): "this man's religious, ethnic, cultural, and national background fits into FBI's profile definition of the modern day terrorist". The post featured a picture of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish assassin that shot the Pope and linked to an entry by Sys-Con CEO Fuat Kircaali, titled "Social Media Terrorists" – http://socialmedia.ulitzer.com/node/976306. The details of this article are documented here.
The first article was quickly followed up by a second one, titled Adobe's User Community, Turkish Spammers and Internet Terrorists: Turks and the Country of Turkey Should Be Blocked From the International Internet User Community – http://internetvideo.sys-con.com/node/1028923; URL now removed by Sys-Con, see a high-resolution screenshot of the original article (1.7MB) – in which they reiterated the libelous comments regarding me from the previous article. The details of this article are also documented here.
Following these articles, Sys-Con published a number of other articles, targeting me specifically:
Update (July 31, 2009): It appears that Sys-Con has now removed these articles from their system as they're coming up as 404s. I've added the screenshots of them I had captured (they did this last time too so I prepared) below if you want to read the original articles.
- July 15th: "Aral Balkan's Twitter 'Cihad'" – http://www.sys-con.com/node/1035252; URL now removed by Sys-Con, see a high-resolution screenshot of the original article (1.7MB). In this post, they appropriate a tweet from Ted Patrick to me, displaying a complete lack of understanding of how Twitter works. The article states that I have engaged in "borderline criminal Twitter activities against SYS-CON Media"
- July 16th: "Aral Balkan Continues His 'Cihad' on Wikipedia" – http://air.ulitzer.com/node/1038383; URL now removed by Sys-Con, see a high-resolution screenshot of the original article (1.65MB). in which I am accused of faking a Wikipedia entry for Sys-Con. A cursory glance at the history for that page is enough to reveal that I had nothing to do with it (I learned about its existence via Sys-Con's "article"). On this post they also use, without permission, a photo of me taken by my friend Pete Barr-Watson. Pete has since issued them with a cease and desist.
- July 17th: "Another Day in Aral Balkan's Turkish 'Cihad'" – http://openwebdeveloper.sys-con.com/node/1039556; URL now removed by Sys-Con; see a high-resolution screenshot of the original article (1.9MB). In this article, they call me "the Turkish spammer Aral Balkan" and reiterate that "Turks and the entire country of Turkey should be blocked from the International Internet community" and follow it up with "the entire country of Turkey should be blocked from the Internet and its citizens should not be allowed in Europe until they learn the meaning of being a civilized nation." The article also reprints a comment that they received that bears my name. Needless to say, I never left them a comment.
Finally (as of this post), they posted an article on July 24th titled "Turkish Spammer Uses British Tech Website in His 'Internet' Cihad" – http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1047589; URL now removed by Sys-Con, see a high-resolution screenshot of the original article (1.95MB). It appears from the article that Sys-Con discovered the piece that The Register ran on Ulitzer and that Sys-Con is "in the process of filing a $100m law suit against Cade Metz personally and The Register for their involvement with these 'social media terrorists' and for untruthful reporting." The article also calls Wikipedia's moderators "morons" who "make Hitler look like a hobbyist". (Their response to Pete's cease and desist was to repost the same photo in this new article.)
(Needless to say, I have screenshots of all of these articles safely backed up in case Sys-Con decides to remove any of the articles as they have done in the past. Update: And they did remove them on July 31st; you can find the screenshots, above.)
Not taking it lying down
Some of you have suggested that I simply ignore Sys-Con and hope that it goes away. I seriously appreciate the time you guys have taken to offer me advice on this – and know that I have seriously considered your council. A wiser man than I may even have taken it and I hope you realize that your support means more than you can imagine.
I am not, however, going to take this lying down.
I am not the first person Sys-Con have attacked like this – they also very publicly attacked Jame Ervin, calling her (among other things) a "bitch" as documented here – but I would like to make sure that I am the last. This is an opportunity for us to say "no" to Sys-Con once and for all and to make them understand that we will not put up with online bullying.
I do not have, nor have I ever had a "cihad", jihad, or any other "*had" with Sys-Con but what I have had is enough of their bullying.
So what can we do? Well, several things.
Boycott Sys-Con
For one thing, you can vote with your dollars and get others to do the same. Sys-Con relies on several sources of funding to continue functioning. These include:
- Ad revenue from its web sites
- Sponsors and ticket sales for its events
Ad revenue: or, how Sys-Con spams Google with duplicate content
In order to get ad revenue, Sys-Con and Ulitzer scrape the RSS feeds of authors (sometimes without their permission or knowledge) and then display this content alongside a deluge of advertising from their sponsors.
They also have multiple copies of this content across a wide range of subdomains. This is known as duplicate content and is against Google's terms and conditions.
To see and example of this, check out the following versions of their latest libelous attack towards me: http://dotnet.sys-con.com/node/1047589, http://ajax.sys-con.com/node/1047589, http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/?q=node/1047589, http://eclipse.sys-con.com/?q=node/1047589, etc. To see the full list, substitute the following subdomain names: flex, openweb, iphone, java, linux, opensource, oracle, powerbuilder, search, soa, virtualization, web20, etc. (Those are just the ones from their main navigation; the full list of subdomains can be found on http://www.ulitzer.com/?q=topics).
Update: I now know the full extend of the duplicate content on Sys-Con.com: they publish 437 copies of every article on the Sys-Con.com domain. Another 437 copies are published on the Ulitzer.com domain for a total of 872 copies of every article.
And it's not just the sys-con.com domain either. All those subdomains, and all that duplicate content, also exist on the Ulitzer.com domain. So, for example, check out http://dotnet.ulitzer.com/node/1047589, http://ajax.ulitzer.com/node/1047589, etc. (You get the idea.)
Update: Google has now delisted the Ulitzer.com domain from their search results. The Sys-Con.com domain is still being indexed and appearing in search results.
So the question is, why is Sys-Con and Ulitzer still being indexed on Google? I've reported them to Google for duplicate content using Google's spam reporting page.
By its own terms and conditions, Google should stop indexing the Sys-Con.com domain and Ulitzer. Once this happens, this should have a very real effect on their ad revenue also.
Beyond simply indexing Sys-Con and Ulitzer, Google also places Sys-Con and Ulitzer "articles" on Google News. If you do a search on Google News for my name, you get (as of this date) all the libelous articles Sys-Con has written about me in their second wave of attacks. Although a recent ruling stated that Google is not liable for defamation in search results, it also stated that Google "has a responsibility to block or take down content if it is notified with a legitimate complaint about libelous material".
I have already reported the libelous Sys-Con articles to Google News and urged them to not syndicate articles from Sys-Con and Ulitzer and you can do so also by using the Google News Report an Issue form.
Update: Google has removed the libelous Sys-Con articles from Google News. Sys-Con articles in general, however, are still being syndicated on Google News.
Who supports Sys-Con?
Sys-Con has numerous sponsors that support it and help keep it in business.
Current advertisers on Sys-Con's web site include IBM, Unisys, Sun, and Microsoft. I know first-hand that Microsoft was made aware of Sys-Con's practices but appear to have kept sponsoring them regardless as their ads are still appearing on Sys-Con's web site.
Update: A representative from IBM informed me in the comments that IBM is looking into their relationship with Sys-Con.
Google should also be made aware that Sys-Con is running Google Ads on its pages (on the duplicated content mentioned above).
Sys-Con events
Sys-Con also organizes a number of conferences, including First Annual Government IT Conference & Expo (GovITExpo.sys-con.com), Cloud Computing Expo (cloudcomputingexpo.com), Virtualization Conference + Expo (virtualizationconference.com), Cloud Computing Bootcamp (cloudbootcamp.sys-con.com), SOA in the Cloud, Ajax in the Cloud, and Cloud Computing Conference & Expo Europe. (You can find the latest full list at http://events.sys-con.com/).
One way of telling Sys-Con that you don't appreciate their behavior is to not support their events and telling your friends not to either. Do you have a friend who might be speaking at one of their events? If you tell them what you know about Sys-Con, they may just reconsider.
Sys-Con also gets support from sponsors for the events that they organize. Yahoo!, for example, is a platinum sponsor of Sys-Con's Cloud Computing Expo.
If you're unhappy that these companies (for example Yahoo!) are sponsoring Sys-Con, you can always contact your friends who work there and let them know. A tweet or two to the right people goes a long way in raising awareness these days.
A summary: what can you do
To summarize, I'm being bullied by Sys-Con because I spoke out against my content and identity being misused. I've been attacked time and time again with libelous articles that appear to be part of a systemic attempt at character assassination. This whole Sys-Con affair is the last thing I need right now. It's a huge distraction from work and a generally nasty affair to have to deal with. However, I am not going to take this bullying lying down. It's time to say "no" to Sys-Con.
What can you do? Here are some suggestions:
- Tell everyone you know about what Sys-Con is doing (but don't link to them so as not to give them Google Juice). If tweeting, leave out the http:// bit so that your URL is not automatically made into a link.
- Sys-Con feeds upon the work of authors and speakers to live. If all authors had their content removed from Sys-Con and Ulitzer, they would not have pages to put ads on. So go through their list of authors and notify the ones you know. If they are unaware that they're listed there, they will most likely want themselves removed. Update: I've created a single list of all Sys-Con's Ulitzer authors. More information and the full list are in this post. The original list of authors is at http://www.ulitzer.com/?q=authors. You can ask for your Ulitzer/Sys-Con author page to be removed by emailing editorial@sys-con.com.
- Contact their advertisers and tell them what you think of their association with Sys-Con.
- If you know any speakers speaking at Sys-Con events, make sure they know the kind of company they are associating themselves with. Do the same with anyone you know who is thinking of attending one of their events. Raise awareness about their events at your place of work.
- Make sure Google knows that Sys-Con/Ulitzer is spamming Google with tons of duplicate content. Report them on Google's spam page for posting duplicate content. According to their terms and conditions, Google should stop indexing Sys-Con/Ulitzer. See this comment for a template you can use when reporting them.
- Make sure Google News knows that they are syndicating libelous articles from Sys-Con. Use the Google News Report an Issue form to report the following articles: http://internetvideo.sys-con.com/node/1017038, http://internetvideo.sys-con.com/node/1028923, http://www.sys-con.com/node/1035252, http://air.ulitzer.com/node/1038383, http://openwebdeveloper.sys-con.com/node/1039556, and http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1047589
Thank you all so much for your support.
* Please note that I am not linking to any Sys-Con sites in this article on purpose so as not to give them any of my Google juice.
Freddy Kruger picture courtesy of Double Feature Podcast (Creative Commons Attribution License).
The My Sys-Con Nightmare article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
Aral, great blog post! But this is really quite shocking… can’t believe the gruesome nature of their accusations.
I’m sure you’ll have lots of us behind you! Supporting you & in active boycott!
All the best.
Hi Aral,
It seems like you’ve been treated pretty badly but are one or a few bloggers synonymous with sys-con as a whole?
Incidentally, I wrote the blog post about Wikipedia that is referenced in the article you mention ages ago here:
http://thewebserviceblog.co.uk/2008/10/31/wikipedia-sucks/
I’d like to emphasise here (because it wasn’t made too clear in your post) that *my* words (as opposed to the article they’re quoted in) are just an attack on the mindset of the Wikipedean collective – and obviously nothing to do with you! :D
Personally I find sys-con a great tool for syndicating content and getting eyeballs on copy. There are some really interesting articles out there on the platform. There’s also a lot of crap too, but heigh-ho. It’s the brave new world of media… and where there’s a social aspect there are going to be squabbles. Some of it’s really ugly, it seems, which is such a shame.
Jim, Have you read the article? These aren’t the action of bloggers on Syscon. They are almost certainly the actions of sock-puppets for Sys-Con’s bat-sh*t crazy CEO. The whole Sys-Con business model is based on plagiarism and dubious SEO and it’s a miracle they’ve managed to convince so many people that they are a legitimate company.
[...] let’s see. Aral has been threatened and bullied by Sys-Con. The full sordid story is here. To summarize, I’m being bullied by Sys-Con because I spoke out against my content and [...]
Hi Jim,
The “few bloggers” in question include Sys-Con’s CEO and several fictitious identities whom many in the community believe are also pseudonyms used by Sys-Con’s CEO.
So, yes, in this case, _those_ bloggers are representing Sys-Con as a whole.
just left a comment on post 2285, but you changed the url. if it’s there somewhere, feel free to go add it here.. i’m not gonna write it again :(
I clicked through to the 2285-article as well, and thought that was the most updated one (I think this one missed a link somewhere before), so I tweeted that URL. That got retweeted a whole bunch of times, sorry if that caused trouble. Maybe a link here from there could help?
Agree this has to be stopped. Having had a couple of run ins with th Fuat I know what you are going through. To support the cause I published this on the July 19:
http://tjgreen.tumblr.com/
Sorry Josh, TextMate’s blogging bundle created a separate post at some point while updating the existing one. I just searched for your comment but couldn’t find it. :(
I am shocked by your ordeal.
Good on you for fighting back.
Aral, you’re a nice guy and a very likable person. I think what they are doing is complete and utter bullshit. I mark all the crap they send to my inbox as spam and report it as such to Google to help support the cause; yet I still continue to receive new newsletters.. wtf? Lastly, whats wrong with being gay? Most homophobes are queer themselves.
Hi Emil,
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve just added a rewrite rule and all hits on /2285 should now forward (permanent redirect) to this article at /2284.
Thank-you Prisca, Andy, Tom, myows, and Paul.
Paul: Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being gay. The fact that they harbor the outdated conception that calling someone gay is an insult in and of itself speaks volumes about their attitude (that I happen to be straight is entirely beside the point). I feel this same attitude makes itself known when they call a woman a “bitch” and refer to a whole nation of people as uncivilized animals.
@aral comments lost, like tears in the rain, dude, tears in the rain..
Aral- I think it would be helpful if you gave a few more concrete calls to action. For instance, I think you’d get a lot of support with people writing to sys-con’s advertisers, but we don’t know who to email. Something as simple as tracking down the right person within IBM, Sun, Microsoft, and the other advertisers and giving everyone a single point of contact at those companies would be extremely helpful. I’m more than happy to write angry emails to sponsors, but I can’t exactly make up an email address like headofadvertising@ibm.com and hope it gets to the right person (and sadly requiring a little research from your supporters will mean far fewer people getting involved).
Also, in terms of getting them de-listed from Google news, you’ve already provided the reporting link and the individual URLs, but maybe even a template comment, something like “I am one of the many people who find this article hateful and libelous, etc etc” and include a link back to this post. That way we can all easily submit reports of the same offensive content and maybe Google News will get tired of getting so many reports of SYS-CON Media nonsense that they’ll realize it’s not a legitimate news source. Again, the important part is removing as many steps for your supporters as possible.
I think you’ve got a lot of people out there who think SYS-CON is ridiculoius and deserves to lose every dollar they earn, but to mobilize people on the net you’ve got to give us REALLY simple steps that we can do without much work. It’s a pessimistic view of net activism, but sadly I think it’s the only way that will be effective.
[...] very surprised, to find out they’re appropriating content. I wasn’t expecting full on racism : The first article was quickly followed up by a second one, titled Adobe’s User Community, [...]
Aral… I write a blog that, through various piles of red tape, eventually ends up coming out one of the ends of sys-con’s media machines. After reading this, I’m considering moving my blog elsewhere.
Unfortunately boycotting isn’t going to do much of anything as it’s only *hoping* that something actually happens as a result. It’s passive.
I think that you need to hire some legal counsel and escalate this. Anything else would be to dance around the issue.
I’m sorry you have gone through this, take those offenders to task.
Doug said: “For instance, I think you’d get a lot of support with people writing to sys-con’s advertisers, but we don’t know who to email. Something as simple as tracking down the right person within IBM, Sun, Microsoft, and the other advertisers and giving everyone a single point of contact at those companies would be extremely helpful.”
I hope you don’t mind, Aral, but I’ve taken the liberty to set up a wiki on pbworks to help co-ordinate this.
http://fucksyscon.pbworks.com/
If you find the contact details of advertisers, conference sponsors or other people who are helping Sys-Con perpetuate their retardation, add it to the wiki. And keep an eye on it in case any Sys-Con twerps try and screw around with it.
Starting boycott :)
Never give up the fight!
They’re an ugly company. We get google alerts for our company name all the time from posts originating on their site. They like to stuff a thousand company names as keywords at the end of every post so everyones’ google alerts light up with Sys-Con. Super tacky. Sorry you’ve been raked over the coals by these guys.
sean
my theory is that the advertisers are fake too. only there to add some credibility and potential good reputation through association for new, real, advertisers. part of the scam.
technically that’s quite possible, just copy the doubleclick code, it doesn’t effect any party badly. clicks are clicks, for doublesclick. (adding to the myth of he value in advertising models IMHO)
they can pretend all they like, it’s their word against everyone else’s. it all just goes to show that “nobody knows we’re dogs on the internet” etc.. in many ways it’s quite brilliant. it highlights the technical need for some sort of ownership or attribution system that can validate licensing somehow. are creative commons working on this?
also, http://twitter.com/sys-con is available.. anyone brave enough to grab it and spam them to oblivion?
Unreal. Really, the power of the internet search nightmare at its finest. I wholly support and appreciate your decision to fight those freaks! Get’em. I agree as well in leveraging your followers to push this up the hill and hit em where it hurts – sponsors and advertising… power to the people! – jihad my ass.
This is a perfect example of the bigger companies doing and saying anything to get a voice. Personally I think you should leave the small “boycott” concept and hire a lawyer for defamation of character and slander (not a lawyer, so there may be others).
The fact that MS and Google continue to support these kinds of companies is a shame and should be brought to the public eye a little more readily.
Best of luck with your fight and just be aware the Flash, Flex, AIR, Development community is behind you!
Matt
this story is nuts! as a turkish person, i wonder why all this happens to us only? we should support each other not digging under! i learned lotsa kool tips from aral and keep learning! all the turkish internet community! we should support our people! we dont have much of them! hope this mess will end soon and sys. people will declare peace as soon as they can!
I am following your story now from the start. When you started tweeting about it i taught at first it was only a small issue but then when i dug deeper in the content you posted/blogged it was really big. You are fully in your right. They haven’t got any rights to post, link, use your content, or your face, name without your permission.
Apparently they are a nut’s company who doesn’t know the rules of marketing. It’s not always about the money but also ethical way of making your way in that big world.
I won’t support that sort of handling, rude behaviour and spamming.
I hope that all their sponsors jump out… except Microsoft of course they belong together ;) (jking)
Greetings from Belgium,
Stephen
+1 “I like it” on stumble for you. These guys distgust me.
Aral
Like you, I was also listed as a Ulitzer author, without my permission. When I found out about this last year I took a screenshot of the content and requested copies of “our agreement” from the company that gave them permission to list me as an author and authorize them to make revenue from my published works. I received no reply after three queries, yet my Ulitzer content was removed.
If any of this information can assist you please do not hesitate to drop me an email or tweet.
do they know sl0wloris?
This is just insane. I’m sure with the word spreading as much as it does now Sys-con will be history soon.
Fuckers have some of my content too, shodily misappropriated. But after hearing about your horror stories, I’m keeping my mouth shut and not bothering them.
Maybe you should make sure all the other ‘authours’ on the site are aware of the issue. For instance Jim Zemlin I’m sure knows some lawyers…. Don’t go it alone,
Great, Alex, your courageous stance is an inspiration to us all.
Aral,
Why don’t you take them to a court or something?
To be realistic here, you haven’t provided them with the correct incentives to cease and desist. Perhaps that is more than you care to do? Solution: Escalate your “responses” until they stop. Anything less is a waste of everyone’s time.
Here’s a tip. Disproportionate response will provide them with the excuse they need to back down. Use it.
You could use the rel=”nofollow” attribute to link to sys-con and avoid giving them any google juice…
A true cancer to the internet. Allow me to prescribe you Anon. It would surely be a joy to watch Sys-Con brought down to the ground by the horrible existence that is Anonymous.
Aral,
Have you tried sending a DMCA order to SYS_CON’s host? Focus on the content theft (rather than the personal attacks) and you might get somewhere.
Best of luck, sounds like a crappy ordeal for you.
Hi Aral,
I’d seen people tweeting about this over the last few days, but have only now visited to read the whole story (apologies). As an online business owner (and gay man), I am utterly disgusted by the actions of this “company”.
I have a suggestion which I hope you will consider – please add a PayPal donate button to your site, along with details of how much you are likely to need to take these scum-sucking leeches to court. I will make the first donation and publicise your story, leveraging my connections in both the business community and the gay community to help get you the traffic and exposure this will need.
I believe you have more supporters than you know – as a whole, we can collaborate to set the record straight and hit these arseholes exactly where it hurts – their wallets.
James Ogilvie
Amazing that this isn’t a hoax.
Come join SiliconANGLE.com a community of professional peers and colleagues.
What a mess :(
You will never win this with a boycott, unless you’re very very lucky or can mobilise a truly astounding amount of people. These people (this guy?) can afford to spend their entire working day on bullying bloggers like you because their business model is based on ad revenue from semi-automatically plagiarised content. It’s their day job to scare off anyone who dares to challenge them. They know they will lose their case in any serious court, so their strategy is to make that option as difficult, painful and expensive as possible for you. And they can spend all their time and money on that, since maintaining their website(s) costs next to nothing.
My advice: try to get this in the mainstream media somehow. Possibly the Turkish media? His comments about Turks and Turkey are sure to strike a nerve there. You could possibly report this blatant racism through the embassy.
I’m afraid only this kind of high-profile media attention will scare away the advertisers, cutting off Sys-Con’s revenue stream. No online petition or mailbombing of info@microsoft.com is going to move advertising money away.
The Gnu/Linux community has endured years of Sys -Con lies, Fud, and general crap funded by Microsoft using this shill site—– literally lies for hire.
One of their shill writer’s has even tried to sue every one in the U.S.A. who had the same last name .
Another gem of a shill is a writer with the initials MOg.
Microsoft pays well for Sys-Con to keep on doing this crap.
The Gnu/Linux community can and has mobilize millions of energetic responses to Sys-Con lies.
Hi guys and gals,
Thank you again for your continued support. I can’t believe how far this has been retweeted and thank you for your blog posts and emails.
Regarding taking them to court: I get this question and advice quite often. While I’m not ruling it out, it appears that it would be prohibitively expensive to do so. From what I’ve been told, filing a libel suit in the US from the UK starts at around £15K and could balloon up from there depending on how actively they decide to fight it. And you’re apparently not guaranteed to get even your costs back if you win. In other words, the courts seem to be the option for the big fish to fight it out amongst themselves. Not having recently won the lottery I don’t think I have the funds to pursue a legal recourse. (That said, I am still talking to a few people and I’m not ruling it out; just saying that it appears unlikely for financial reasons.)
However, we have had a minor victory today as the libelous articles about me have been removed from Google News.
Google News, however, continues to syndicate content from Sys-Con.
I have not heard back regarding my spam reports to Google itself for the duplicate content that Sys-Con is flooding Google with (which should get them deindexed from Google as per the latter’s terms and conditions).
Again, a big thank you to all of you for your support, advice, and the tips, research, and information you’ve been emailing me privately.
It’s disgusting what they are doing. Never liked them before, like them even less now.
Yes, some template information to report to the google spam report would be useful. For example, its asking for URLs etc.
Hi Jibber,
This is the letter I sent them regarding Sys-Con spamming Google with duplicate content:
* * *
Sys-Con are spamming Google with duplicate content.
This is just one example:
http://eclipse.sys-con.com/node/429490
http://dotnet.sys-con.com/node/429490
http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/?q=node/429490
etc.
(Look at the tabs in their header and substitute the names of the “sections” for the subdomain names for any article and you’ll see that it’s the same for all their so-called “articles”).
I’ve also reported them because all their “articles” (most of which are scraped from other people’s blogs) are also released as “press releases” and get indexed on Google News. They’ve recently begun to attack me again because I called them out on using my content without permission and for misappropriating my identity (they list blog authors as their own authors, many times without notifying them).
You can find their libelous articles about me (including racist comments on Turks in general) with this Google News search:
http://news.google.com/news?q=aral%20balkan
Please stop indexing these people both in your main search engine and on Google News. They are spamming Google with duplicate links and posting libel and racial hatred as news.
Thank you for your consideration.
All the best,
…
* * *
This is the letter I sent them regarding the libelous articles on Google News (which have now been removed by Google):
* * *
Sys-Con is attacking me with libelous articles because I called them out in March for using my content without permission and misappropriating my identity (I was listed as an author on their Ulitzer site without my knowledge). They have done and continue to do this to thousands of other authors.
You can read about their behavior on The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/01/ulitzer_farce/) or on my blog (http://aralbalkan.com/?s=sys-con).
Please remove these libelous articles about me from Sys-Con and Ulitzer from Google News.
I also hope that you will discontinue syndicating articles from Sys-Con and Ulitzer. You should probably discontinue indexing them also as they’re spamming Google with duplicate content from their many sites.
Thank you in advance,
…
Hope these help.
[...] Anti-Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree ← My Sys-Con Nightmare [...]
Just another heads-up on Sys-Con; many of us in the Linux community have been attacked quite like this by one of Sys-Con’s “writers”, and I use that term loosely, Maureen O’ Gara. She appears to be on a “cihad” against Linux, and Linux users, and has been for years… not sure why, though. I’ve posted your story, and my take on it, here;
http://exposingyahooabuse.blogspot.com/2009/07/aral-balkan-my-sys-con-nightmare-tale.html
As I comment on in my blog, perhaps the EFF would be willing to assist you; http://www.eff.org … good luck, and keep us posted!
Aral, thanks for outlining this. Very disturbing. I work at IBM – in marketing/communications. We are looking into this right now. Stay tuned.
> filing a libel suit in the US from the UK
No. Slap them with a UK suit. They don’t show up, you get a cheap victory by default. And they will have to mind the little business they have in the UK.
And if they show up, well… you can start singing.
Good luck.
– frank
Thanks, Adam! :)
Frank: I’m sorry I wasn’t clearer; I actually meant a UK lawsuit would start at around £15K. Then, you win but have no guarantee of even getting your costs back since they’re not a UK company. :(
Thanks @saltydogmn, I’ve contacted Kodi at the EFF. Yeah, I know it’s their pooch but I know him as well as any of the other staff members and I can only imagine that they all look through that email address :)
I glanced at the author list and noticed the two Bruces – Byfield and Perens. You might want to give them a heads up, they have some weight to throw around …
Hmm – I wonder whether this URL might get some action, if sent to the right people:
http://wsjeditorialboard.ulitzer.com/
(Might be popcorn time soon :-) )
Hi Aral,
Quite a story you have to tell here. I suspect the people defaming you online wouldn’t have the balls to repeat their comments to your face.
I’ll throw in my .02 here; please take it for whatever you think it’s worth.
I suggest refocusing your tactics. Your current suggestions for pressuring Sys-Con are too broad; they might cause some inconvenience, but they will not cause any serious pain.
Instead, connect with the other authors whose content Sys-Con is probably using without permission. It’s a long list, and it reads like a who’s-who of prominent, and in many cases very powerful, IT experts.
Tim O’Reilly? Bruce Perens? Jim Zemlin? I mean, really — if you can mobilize these folks, then you will have enough leverage to apply some SERIOUS pressure against the trailer trash currently running Sys-Con. And I guarantee that they will take a dim view of what is going on, as long as your attempts to communicate with them are clear, concise, and get directly to the point.
Consider the resources these folks have at their disposal and then consider whether you can afford NOT to make every effort to get them involved.
Also, it sounds like you have at least consulted with an attorney. If you have not, then I urge you to do so. Only an attorney will give you sound advice about the feasibility of a lawsuit, and most U.S. attorneys, at any rate, will arrange an initial consultation for little or no money.
It is even possible that the right attorney would take a libel case on contingency, assuming your case is strong enough. As a rule, most contingency-fee cases in the U.S. involve (physical) injury-related lawsuits, but there are some exceptions.
Finally, the suggestion about looking into DMCA takedown notices sounds like a great idea. Here too, however, getting some of these other authors involved first seems like a good idea. That way, you multiply the impact of using DMCA takedown notices by hitting Sys-Con many times from many different directions. This approach will also reduce the risk of Sys-Con retaliating against you; while they might not hesitate to bully you, they will think twice about bullying a whole group of pissed-off potential litigants, some of whom have very deep pockets.
IANAL, in case you hadn’t guessed :-)
Good luck!
No search or news indexing by Google; IBM possibly investigating their relationship with SysCON; EFF notified; WSJ having an axe to grind with them; lots of people discovering they’ve been plagiarised ( https://twitter.com/#search?q=%23syscon ) – this is getting good! WIN.
Hi James, I don’t believe they’ve been dropped from Google Search or Google News results. Matt Cutts did tweet that they could look into the company again, though. Their duplicate content definitely goes against Google’s terms and conditions and would be grounds for not indexing them.
As for the WSJ, I don’t think they’re referring to the Wall Street Journal but the WebServices Journal (which, I’m assuming, is just one of their “magazines”). Please do correct me if I’m wrong on this.
That said, there is a lot of momentum. Many authors are being contacted and are asking for their content and likenesses to be removed from the Ulitzer pages and, as you stated, IBM informed us on Twitter that they’re looking into their relationship with Sys-Con.
Microsoft has been silent. However, I know first-hand that they were notified internally back in March. I hope that they do the right thing also.
And, finally, I know I’ve repeated this ad nauseam but thank you all for your tweets, comments, blog posts, and emails of support. :)
Thank you for your advice, Matthew :)
@aral: http://google.com/search?q=site:ulitzer.com *bang*
I wish you all the best, I’ll send a newstip to a german computer magazine. I hope they pick it up, allthrough its unlikely.
Sys-con, Sys-con…that name is familiar. Ah, yes, they publish Maureen O’Gara, The SCO Group’s favorite go-to smear artist. When you bring Sys-con’s activities to IBM’s attention, you should mention their association with Ms. O’Gara and her shilling against IBM.
Do not use “report an issue” or “flag” forms with Google. Google is not staffed up to handle abuse complaints, so they ignore all that stuff.
The only thing that Google will actually pay attention to is a properly-formatted DMCA takedown letter. If someone scrapes your blog content, you can get it taken out of the Google index, like this: http://www.google.com/dmca.html
Don’t bother contacting a scraper or a scraper’s ISP directly.
@mt: Do you know if this just happened or was Ulitzer previously delisted? (Matt Cutts mentioned that they had looked into Sys-Con in April.)
If it just happened, that a major WIN :) Regardless, it’s a WIN :)
Unfortunately, Sys-Con.com is still being indexed (and they have tons of duplicate content just on that domain within subdomains).
Regardless, feels like things are happening :)
[...] has just fallen quite deep into the mud, again. When exposed, it started to personally prosecute and harass the messenger, who finally [...]
If your Turkish then spend a few bucks with local guys to take the sites out. Cheaper and quicker then a lawsuit.
@aral: I think I looked for the site listing in google (with ulitzer.com and site:ulitzer.com) after reading this around lunch yesterday and at this time it was there. It _could_ have been removed between lunch and james posting. Maybe @mattcutts got angry at them?
[...] mentioned previously in My Sys-Con Nightmare that Sys-Con.com are spamming Google with duplicate content. Even I wasn’t aware, however, of just [...]
[...] campaign to boycott Sys-Con, which started with My Sys-Con Nightmare, won a mini victory yesterday as Sys-Con was dealt a blow by Google: their ulitzer.com domain was [...]
Aral, I was putting together a template to email Sys-Con “authors” from your list, but was wondering if there are things you’d like volunteers to say (and *not* say) in such emails? I’m just worried that some of us, in our zeal to help, might end up making matters worse.
I’m eager to help, and am looking forward to seeing this come to a positive result for the content authors.
All the best,
-
Jack
Hi Jack,
I think that as long as we remain civil, things should be fine. We’re simply informing authors whose identities and content may have been misappropriated by Sys-Con.
Also, in appealing to Google, we’re trying to remove a site that spams search results with duplicate content and keyword stuffed articles.
As in all things, as long as we’re polite yet firm in our stance, we should not have any trouble making our case and having our voices heard. It’s already having an effect and I am hugely grateful to all of you for your support.
[...] eller Twitter, så har du højest sandsynligt allerede set, at jeg har gjort opmærksom på en af de vildeste historier om chikane og bagvaskelse på internettet. Men i mine øjne kan det budskab simpelthen ikke blive spredt [...]
This is really unbelievable. I can’t imagine what would provoke such a thing. Seems that simply asking to have your own material and image removed from their site wouldn’t spark such raving animosity. I’m certainly in favor of putting a stop to it.
Incidentally, while checking to see if my name was in the author list (it wasn’t, thankfully), the name Guy Watson jumped out at me. Something tells me he’s not there by choice, if anyone wants to pass on the info to him (looks like the flashguru site’s down at the moment)..
Hi Devon,
I realize that this whole incident is so ridiculous as to be wholly implausible. However, asking for my content to be removed and then calling them out on what they were doing to not just myself but to thousands of other authors is the sole factor that Sys-Con’s attacks on me. You would have thought it would have sparked some self-reflection, possibly and apology, and an effort to make amends but it has been quite the contrary.
Wow! I can’t believe this BS is still going on. I think it is time for a follow up post. This is ridiculous, and I hope that everyone supports this boycott. I’ll be much happier when our online publications can return to the important stuff: reporting news. Not cloning the same story 800 times!
if you need anything mate, let me know, will tweet to this article, if your gonna take them to court, will gladly put a donate button on my site to help.
Thanks, Mustafa, much appreciated :)
Seems they’re not on Google any more.. :)
(As an aside, coming back to this post has creeped the hell out of me. I could swear I read about this story at least several months ago, yet it was less than a month ago.. creeeepy.)
Aral,
FWIW I note that IBM & Microsoft have been replaced by Oracle, Unisys & Yahoo this time round. I guess IBM got the message last time – will be interesting to see if these three see it through and if they return next time round.
Sam
I used to work at SYS-CON and I can tell you that Fuat writes lots of stuff under fake names (Engin is his relative but has nothing to do with the magazine, last I saw him he was sent back to Turkey and while he was in America he was staying in the SYS-CON offices in a room with a mattress. Not quite a Private Island, as his “bio” says.) You cannot believe all of the names or pictures on the site or in the magazine. Even on the phone he will say he is Engin or someone else.
Thanks, Justice, it’s good to get confirmation from the inside. (In case anyone is wondering, “Justice” is a real person who provided his email address, which I will of course not be revealing.)