1 – His is a commercial interest as he's earning money via ads.

2 – He is republishing without permission.

3 – In some cases, he is not using a "snippet" of content as he called in in email to me. He's using full posts, and he's using several snippets from one source. In nearly every case.

4 -His republishing of writers' works, even with the lame excuse of "driving traffic" to each of our sites (because some are click-throughs to the source sites), clearly does not benefit any of the writers he's lifting from.

I've started a poll to see just how many people have come here via his site. I can think of one, and that's only if he himself visits.

More importantly, he's covering some very short posts there as well (such as intros to podcasts) and publishing almost the full post. That would more likely be a direct copyright violation. So short alone doesn't always protect him.

There's also recourse beyond removal. For example, he monetizes the site with Adsense. And Adsense policies blatantly forbid you from using their ads on any site where you publish others' copyrighted material without a license to do so. So even if not every post is a copyright violation, the fact that some are puts him in violation which can lead to suspension or cancellation of the account (and ads from that account on ANY website he runs).

So thinking he's skirting the legal issues doesn't mean he fully is.

It's also important to consider fair use issues. Using a limited portion of something CAN be fair use. But that doesn't mean it always is, especially if it doesn't meet other fair use requirements (and in this case not only is it commercial which makes it questionable, but there's also the potential for a direct impact on the copyright holders if he's pulling subscribers from their site to his — which in turn hurts the main site's revenues if their traffic is affected).

It's also important to note that fair use really isn't an excuse to do something. It's only a defense, meaning it only comes into play after you're sued when you try to use it as an excuse. But if you don't meet enough fair use requirements, that defense won't necessarily hold up. That's why there are no hard and fast rules about how much someone can use, how they can use it, etc.

Lori – It's a crappy way to learn something when it's affecting you but I still appreciate that you're all sharing stories so the rest of us kow what to look out for.

I'm being more circumspect both in what I'm writing and reading and that's even knowing I have nothing to be guilty of.

Cheers, Fi

I understand that if they scrape the post (even with the attribution) that that is illegal, but this guys skates around it. Look at the list he has on the tab of "writers" and the volume of their post titles and links.

Look over on the left for the tag "Writers worth." Under that tag you'll find articles titled "Worthy Tip: This Job Not That Job." They're meant to be guides to help you drop the low-paying work and move up the food chain.

Mind you, I present alternatives sometimes that aren't super paying, but they're exponentially better than what a content farm pays.

And please, stick around. We're happy to guide you!