Disqus - Latest Comments for Jeremy Steele

Re: Exclusive: Gmail – Scandalous Email Filtering At Source

Jeremy Steele — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:38:03 -0000

One reason why I stick to my own domains and server for 99% of my e-mail needs.

Re: Exclusive: Gmail – Scandalous Email Filtering At Source

Jeremy Steele — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:38:03 -0000

One reason why I stick to my own domains and server for 99% of my e-mail needs.

Re: Laziest Spam Blog Ever

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:56:07 -0000

Nice blog, I just saw that you visited my blog. Thought I'd stop by and subscribe :)

Re: Laziest Spam Blog Ever

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:41:50 -0000

"I’m curious how much money these puss balls make."

Many of them run hundreds of splogs, so they do walk away with quite a bit of money. Not millions, or hundreds of thousands, but many of them make around $50 a day.

Re: 302 Hijacking: An Old Danger Made New Again

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:03:10 -0000

Great tips, thanks, I have never heard of the base tag before.

Re: Housekeeping: Comments Disabled on Old Posts

Jeremy Steele — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:56:15 -0000

I've been thinking about doing that for a while now... stupid bots have been commenting on posts from 6 months ago lol.

Re: Using .htaccess to Stop Content Theft

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:22:48 -0000

The flaw with that image hotlinking htaccess entry is that if you run a blog, users who use Google reader or other RSS readers won't be able to see images.

Using a script to track bandwidth theft is a much better solution, because then you can tell who is actually stealing your bandwidth without interrupting users who are innocently using RSS readers to view the pictures.

Re: Using CMI to Sue for Unregistered Works

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:04:33 -0000

And if they are out of the country, good luck trying to sue them anyways. Most sploggers I've deal with are in Thailand, China, or Russia.

Re: Using CMI to Sue for Unregistered Works

Jeremy Steele — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:13:19 -0000

But there is the catch, can the foreigners legally file a counter-notice, or do they not have the legal capacity to because they aren't in the U.S. thus aren't subject to U.S. DMCA laws? I've yet to get a good answer out of anyone, some say yes, some say no, and some say try suing one just to see, lol.

Re: Using CMI to Sue for Unregistered Works

Jeremy Steele — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:10:50 -0000

Good to know, thanks!

Re: Plagiarism Today Featured in The Guardian

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:51:58 -0000

Congrats!

Re: Game: Find the Valid DMCA Notice

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:00:24 -0000

#1 definitely aint right, since it doesn't say "I declare under the perjury laws of the United States of America that this notification is true and correct."

#3 definitely ain't right, because it doesn't include a link to the source of said article.

They both also include the phrase "The information in this notice is accurate, and I am either the copyright owner or I am authorize to act on behalf of the copyright owner.", which makes me iffy about if my guess is right

I would have to say #2 is correct because of that. The overall format is also much more DMCA-like.

Re: Game: Find the Valid DMCA Notice

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:22:19 -0000

Wait a second, your rules didn't say bribery isn't allowed..... heh... I'll give you $20 for the answer. What do you say? :P

Anyways, this is really hard..

I almost have to change my answer to say #3 is correct, the DMCA takedown procedure doesn't require you to post a link to the "original work", since if can be used for songs, images, etc, which may not have a original URL online.

Then #1 is incorrect because it doesn't have anything about perjury, and #2 is incorrect because of the "You are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as the Designated Service Provider Agent to receive notifications of alleged Copyright infringement with respect to users of the Service for which you are the Designated Agent." paragraph and possibly the fact it does include the work's original URL (which isn't required).

If that's not it then I give up :P

Re: DMCA Game Answer

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:05:18 -0000

This stuff is too confusing

Re: New Feature: Top Commentators

Jeremy Steele — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:57:39 -0000

I win :P

Re: How the Copyright Office Hurts Bloggers

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:51:47 -0000

I'm almost at the point of giving up on trying to understand the copyright system. It's just... ick.

Re: Plagiarism Today Turns Two

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:56:00 -0000

Congrats, and this really should be an a-list blog - it has better info on it than most a-listers.

Re: A Scrape of a Scrape

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:55:29 -0000

That is pretty humorous when it happens. I had that problem a few times in the past with some articles I wrote for places like Article City. A splogger stole the article, then another one got it, and another one, etc. Got about 5 levels deep.

Re: The Need to Modernize the DMCA Agent List

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:07:47 -0000

$80. Didn't know it was that much.... ick.

I might actually have to file for safe harbor for this little project I'm doing, so that sucks... need an extra $80.....

Stupid crooks.

Re: The Need to Modernize the DMCA Agent List

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:10:48 -0000

Actually one more thing....

At least the form is easy to understand.

Re: 7 Lessons Learned 2 Years After Katrina

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:30:43 -0000

Excellent post, and thank god you didn't go on a rant about the govt. If I see another one of those rants I swear I'm going to scream lol.

Re: Copyright 2.0 Show - Episode 22 - iPhone Unlocking

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:25:00 -0000

I listened to it earlier and your little disclosure "we are not laywers... blah blah" at the beginning was cut off. Not sure if it was just a bad DL, but figured I should let you know.

Re: Why Fair Use Suffers on YouTube

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:22:26 -0000

The only problem I can see with hosting it yourself is if you get a DMCA your whole site could get taken down, not just the video. While that can be great for dealing with sploggers, it can be a pain in other situations.

Re: Copyright 2.0 Show - Episode 24 - Oddities

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:28:43 -0000

To remove data from a hard drive just do an NSA grade zero-out of all the data (7 times or greater). Or use a sledge hammer to pop it open, then use a car battery to make an electro magnet and pass it over.

At least that only works for regular magnetic HDs

If it is one of the newer flash-based HDs then you can just fry it. I'd recommend frying it with a lot of electricity or just starting a really hot fire and tossing it on there ;) .

Re: Copyright 2.0 Show - Episode 24 - Oddities

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:07:56 -0000

You're right about the sledgehammer thing, hard drives are a pain to get apart even with all the proper tools. They use funky screws, and usually the top and bottom half are glued together using that crazy industrial-strength stuff. Pain in the butt, much easier to just dig a hole and bury it ;)

Actually get some screenshots of the junk on it before digging its grave, then post the pix on your blog and claim you sent it in for repair and it came back with all this illegal stuff. Instant Digg bait, especially if you claim you sent it in to Apple, Dell, or geek squad. :P

*legal notice: Don't do that*

Re: Game: Copyright 101 Quiz

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:32:55 -0000

1) - To reproduce the copyrighted work
- To make derivative works based on the copyrighted work
- To distribute the copyrighted work
- If it is a sound recording you can play it in public
- In the case of entertainment (songs, movie scripts scripts, etc) you can perform the copyrighted work in public.

2) No clue, but I'd say yes.

3) - Lets you file a lawsuit in court
- Allows you to get statutory damages
- Registration = public record that YOU own the rights to the work

4) It lasts around 70 years after the last person dies

5) Up to 70 years after the author dies

6)- Nature of the work
- Purpose of the use (parody, news reporting, education, etc)
- Amount used (quote vs whole friggin thing)
and - value of the work

7) None.

8) Copyright owner or an agent who has the legal authority to file it.

9) $150,000 I think

10) No clue

Bonus) No clue again, but I'd guess The lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Re: Copyright 101 Quiz Answers

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:08:52 -0000

So Amita is the official winner ;)

Re: Copyright 101 Quiz Answers

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:40:23 -0000

Yeah Jonathan, i noticed that and edited my comment. A bit of an early-morning/noon brain fart.

I kinda figured it was the lion and the witch and the Wardrobe because all the others I know were written in the late 1800s. Kinda guessed they would be in the public domain by now.

So, if putting something online isn't publication, would creating a members only section and putting content on there be publication? That's kind of a sale... but not really.

Nice quiz by the way - it's really got me thinking about this stuff.

Re: Copyright 101 Quiz Answers

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:41:44 -0000

J.K. Rowling is a billionaire, she can sue for anything and win.

Re: Copyright 101 Quiz Answers

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:27:35 -0000

Good answers, thanks!

Re: Copyright 2.0 Show - Episode 29 - Usenet Sued

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:35:48 -0000

I can't believe Usenet is even around still. I would have thought it'd die off after porn and warez became easier to access.

Re: Housekeeping: Site Improvements

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:33:53 -0000

ick - that install is even a bit too messy for my liking. Think I'll stick with WP-Cache for now....

That's a pretty gory haunted house you got there, I love the little "and... we're out" at the end of that video.

Re: Housekeeping: Site Improvements

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:27:46 -0000

WP-cache is working fine for me. Then again I've manually disabled a lot of the extra crap in WP to speed it up and work with my setup and it wouldn't surprise me if one of those things made it work correctly.

And yeah they'd have to rewrite a good chunk of WP to get it faster. It is getting much faster in recent versions (even a year ago it ran much slower) - but there is a lot to be desired. The main problem isn't with too many MySQL queries - the problem is it loads probably 100 files every time it gets executed. That's actually one big problem I've noticed with a lot of open source software - it can get quite bloaty if there aren't people who do nothing but remove useless code. Basically what they need to do is stop adding new features for one revision and do nothing but optimize it and fix bugs.

Probably the single best way to speed up wordpress - besides using something like Wp-Cache - is to have your host install something to cache your PHP scripts - that'll keep them from being recompiled every single time someone loads your site.

Ah yes - and Jonathan - the "gory" comment was, indeed, a compliment

Re: Housekeeping: Site Improvements

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:26:58 -0000

Ah yes - what's up with the copyright 2.0 site? Seems like it has been down for a while.

Re: Massive Trackback/Comment Spam Attack

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:06:37 -0000

So far Akismet has held up nicely for me - only 5 or so made it through and went straight to moderation. Been getting average of 300-500 per day for a few days now, a bit scary considering the previous average (for all time) was only 70

Re: Linkblogging and PlagiarismToday

Jeremy Steele — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:04:53 -0000

Some sort of weekly roundup would give me something to link to - so yeah go for it :P

Oh yeah, and did you hear about wikimedia going creative commons? http://blog.jamendo.com/index.php/2007/12/01/br...

Re: Saturday Linkroll: Slower Week

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:14:26 -0000

Not sure if you read digg or not - but that "ISP gave data to NBC" story is being marked inaccurate like crazy. It seems like what happened is NBC hired a company to track some of the files and snatched IPs that attempt to download them - then report it to NBC who send the notice to the ISP. It doesn't seem like the ISP shared anything with NBC though.

Re: Protecting Content by Using Static Pages

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:29:04 -0000

Hmm, maybe if the RIAA/MPAA win their campaign against torrents and scare users from using bittorrent we will have to start suing the pants off of all those sploggers for $150,000 per infringement and scare them so much they won't want to mess with bloggers anymore ;)

Just kidding of course.

Re: Useful Site: Who Is Hosting This

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:06:34 -0000

I've done the report error form a few times, but it still seems like they can't properly detect my host. It is HostGator, but it reports as theplanet. Oh well.

Re: Useful Site: Who Is Hosting This

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:36:44 -0000

Actually I don't think it was a merger. Host Gator simply leased (a lot) more servers from The Planet's data centers, but they are still separate companies.

I think The Planet shows up as the provider because they technically own the servers, but the problem is Host Gator is my ISP, not The Planet, so if someone sent a DMCA to them instead of HG it wouldn't technically be valid, since The Planet and I have nothing to do with one another.

So it depends how you read between the lines, The Planet owns the servers so they could be considered the host, but Host Gator is the one managing and reselling the server resources.

As least as far as I know it wasn't an official merger. I never got an e-mail about a merger... and that seems like something you'd directly tell your customers. Could be wrong though.

Re: Useful Site: Who Is Hosting This

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:27:35 -0000

Ah OK, good to know it gets transferred on.

Re: Typo Domain Bought

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:01:13 -0000

Good idea, it's better you buy it than some lame spammer.

By the way, good job on the new layout. Blog looks great :)

Re: The Spread of Spam

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:28:26 -0000

I've noticed more EDU domains hosting splogs and other questionable spam pages as well, is this something you've seen more of?

Re: The Spread of Spam

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:38:49 -0000

Yeah... we can thank those darn SEOers for causing that little problem... Good to know I'm not the only one noticing it. Thanks.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:51:36 -0000

I agree 100%.

Unfortunately there's no real solution to the problem besides wiping out every spammer on the planet (time to create a deep-earth spammer-detecting bomb) But that won't happen any time soon.

The best way I can think of for a search service to succeed is to check every single blog before it is accepted into the service, and use some nice algorithms to automatically detect spammy blogs (based off of whois data, whether or not the content is copied, etc). It would be hard, but possible.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:46:51 -0000

Conspiracy Theory:

Google secretly has several spammers who works for the Google Blog Search department and wanted to keep spam sites in there!

End Conspiracy Theory

Actually now that I think about it does Google have any way to report spam blogs that pop up on blog search? I know you can file reports for regular search, but I'm unsure of blog search.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:33:44 -0000

Thanks, I'll look for an answer as well... maybe I'll try e-mailing some of those SEO guys to see if they know.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:11:00 -0000

I looked around a bit also, might start sending out e-mails and asking about this.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:12:48 -0000

I've seen the page, didn't realize it had that on it though. Thanks Jonathan, I guess their spam form does work for blog search as well.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:17:03 -0000

Wouldn't surprise me if it does nothing. I know many small (and even large) software companies delete many bug reports if it can't be easily fixed, wouldn't surprise me if google did that with most spam reports.

Re: U.S. Copyright Registry Called a Scam

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:29:30 -0000

Gotta admit though, its a good and (probably) legal scam. Unethical, but pretty creative.

Advertise and hope someone who is ignorant to the real registration prices takes their $300+ service (without telling them it actually costs much less), give them a $30 copyright, and take the rest as profit. I could see many small business owners falling for it.

With that said, I'll be writing up a post about it on Friday. I think I've gotten one of those e-mails before... UCR sounds a bit familiar.

Re: Why Blog Searching Fails

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:35:36 -0000

Oh yeah, I was just writing up a post for tomorrow about Google blog search and spam and went to grab the link for a comment above and noticed you got a bug. The comment links goto the root url for Plagiarism Today, not the current post. For example: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/#comment-94266

Re: Content Theft and Second Life

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:39:59 -0000

I'm all for protecting intellectual property, but I do think there needs to be a line drawn between the real world and the virtual world. Games are games, life is life. If someone is trying to make a living in the real world from selling items in a virtual world, they need to get a life. Seriously. That isn't being creative in how you market items, it is being pathetic. Just have fun, it's a video game, not real life.

And as far as theft causing a decline in membership, I doubt that. I think the second life users are realizing how dumb it is to obsess over a video game and are moving on. It had a good run, but it's time for it to go. The same thing will eventually happen with every other MMO.

Re: Content Theft and Second Life

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:39:01 -0000

Touché guys, Touché

Re: Spam Blogs and AdSense Dollars

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:31:03 -0000

I've noticed sploggers follow some sort of plan. Back when everyone and their dog had an SEO blog there were many more SEO splogs than before, and now that the whole SEO market is cooling down a bit I've been seeing less and less of those splogs (at least compared to the total # of splogs). Same with mesothelioma, vacation packages, gambling, etc. It seems like the hot markets that affiliate marketers and make-money bloggers are in the sploggers soon join. I wouldn't be surprised if they have programs that follow google trends and technorati.

But even though I think they follow trends, they are also pretty random. Sometimes it seems like they use a random market picker to pick what their next splog will be about.

Re: Copyright 2.0 Show - Episode 50

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:53:54 -0000

Episode 50 already? Jeeze, I'm still down on Episode 43 trying to catch up with all the episodes I missed from December to Feb.

Re: Should You Register Your Site’s Copyright?

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:57:13 -0000

I totally agree - for a constantly changing site like a blog registering it would make little sense (who sues over a stolen blog post anyway?). It's much better for non changing content like a static site, computer program, etc.

Re: Open Call: Your DMCA Stories

Jeremy Steele — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:34:13 -0000

There was the time a lawyer stole my content, and I found out he was running at least 50 other splogs under his law firm. After doing more research I realized he had several bad marks on his record, and was even banned from practicing for several years because of one. I never sent a complaint to the state's bar, but I did get his splogs and domains removed.

Then there was the time HostGator (my own host!) told me they wouldn't removed a splog because it was "content aggregation" and is legal. It took a bitching e-mail asking for the CEO to get it dealt with.

Then there was the other time Google Adsense told me a splog contained "no infringing material" in a response e-mail. I took a look at it and my stolen articles were right on the top of the friggin page! How they missed it remains a mystery to this day.

Then there was another time when a host (I think Blue Host) basically gave me the middle finger and said FU for sending a DMCA Notice. The lame custom support guy told me "That blog's owner is one of our best customers and we won't pass this notice along!" For the fun of it I told him I contacted a lawyer and would be suing both the host and the site's owner, and literally 2 hours later the guy's account was completely deleted. It was a little lie - but it worked :)

Take your pick :P

None of these are too bad - and usually all it took was a slightly "encouraging" e-mail to get the issues dealt with. I'm sure there's some real horror stories out there - especially with Google.

Re: Problogger Darren Rowse - Is Filing for Bankruptcy! What are we to do?

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:00:50 -0000

I'm a bit surprised you didn't make this one about John Chow. Oh well. Nice blog :)

Re: Untitled Document

Jeremy Steele — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:35:07 -0000

Thanks for the link :)

Jeremy Steele's last blog post..California May Force Website Owners To Make Sites Visually Impaired-Friendly

Re: James Robertson asks “where’s the social networking value?”

Jeremy Steele — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:33:40 -0000

Thank god a lot of those useless networks are owned by privatly held corps, or else there would sure be a lot of mad stock holders (or there would be another Internet crash)

Then again, I'm sure Facebook would make a lot of traders happy.

With that said, I've yet to sign up.

Re: Something’s up at Yahoo

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:29:07 -0000

Good, Yahoo can get started performing their changes by actually talking to my web host, who has sent several requests to them over the past 5 weeks in regards to several servers (including mine) being blacklisted on their mail servers.

Actually, Yahoo should fire every support person they have and hire new ones, everyone I've talked to who has contacted them haven't received a single response... ever.

Re: What I learned

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:48:50 -0000

Offtopic - wouldn't it be great if the WordPress devs implemented a tag you can use to temporarily disable smilies (so 8 ) will properly appear for listing things, etc)?

Re: The $600 Apple Tax (UPDATED: now only $300 for me)

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:21:55 -0000

Steve just announced that you can get a $100 gift certificate if you bought an iPhone before the price drop.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

Re: Bloggers “double linking?”

Jeremy Steele — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:54:48 -0000

Linking to your own posts should only be done when you reference the post, or if you have a "related items" plugin installed on wordpress or whatever. Other than that it is pretty unacceptable to make people have to click around to find the source of a news item.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Jeremy Steele — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:47:47 -0000

It should be up to the business/individual is they want to provide this stuff, the govt. shouldn't force us to fork up thousands of dollars to do this. If they really want to help take a million bucks out of their budget and invest in technology that will automatically make transcripts.

Re: Don’t Buy a New PC, Upgrade It’s Memory!

Jeremy Steele — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:15:58 -0000

Good point that isn't said enough. A good chunk of slowdowns with computers, especially if you play games (darn MMOs), has to do with RAM. Even SSD drives connected via the fastest interfaces out there still don't serve virtual memory anywhere near as fast as good ol' physical memory.

And don't forget, if you have to replace ram please sell your old stuff! It's amazing how many people I talk to just toss out their old memory - it's like throwing out money. I suppose those are also the same people who eat at McDonalds constantly and have TV dinners every day.

Re: How To Wigetize A WordPress Theme

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:50:15 -0000

Great article, I just Dugg it: http://digg.com/design/How_To_Wigetize_A_WordPr...

Re: How To Wigetize A WordPress Theme

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:50:15 -0000

Great article, I just Dugg it: http://digg.com/design/How_To_Wigetize_A_WordPr...

Re: HandHeld To Acquire eBaum's World For $15 Million Cash; Other Payouts Possible

Jeremy Steele — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:14:16 -0000

"user-gen site?"

Bull crap, All they do is go around, steal content, toss their watermark on it and profit by claiming it is "their user's creations".