... written for Panbo by Ben Ellison and posted on Mar 26, 2009
Well, ain't that a bitch! Thanks to the vigilance of Steve Roberts I now know that an online "store" called Discount Marine Electronics is posting Panbo entries as though "it" created them. Actually all they're doing is putting up the same first picture and paragraph anyone can get via XML feed or email (see Subscribe button top right). But Discount Marine Electronics is cutting out the "read more" link, so readers really don't get the whole jist of the entry but may be fooled into thinking that the diligent staff of Discount Marine Electronics is testing gear and writing about it on a regular basis.
Here's the irony: I've spent the last two days surveying and test running the still maybe future Gizmo,
and am so besotted that I don't care if these rip off artists suffer
consequences immediately, or just rot in hell at a later date. But I
will be pleased if Discount Marine Electronics
has automated the posting of my posts, and hence we might see this post
go up on their site. If so, grab that screen! And don't forget to buy
all your marine electronics at Discount Marine Electronics.
PS (six hours later): Ah, God is good. And so are you guys. Thanks to everyone who sent in delicious screen shots like the one below. And especially to the various Panbots trying to sleuth out the perpetrators or alerting eBay about how Discount-Marine-Electronics is abusing its Partner Network by presenting itself as something it's not in order to attract Google hits and skim affiliate commissions. But Web shoppers (and Google) are getting smarter all the time. Many have learned to Google the shopping site itself, and if they do that to discount-marine-electronics.com they just may end up here ;-)
PPS (eighteen hours later): Discount Marine Electronics did the right thing, taking down all the Panbo content they were presenting without credit (and even claiming copyright to). Cased closed hopefully; thanks all!
Ben- It looks like it's some sort of aggregator for eBay, none of the products come from the same person if you try to order something. I think you are being plagiarized by a robot. Maybe congrats on the maybe new boat!
Jeff
Posted by: Jeff McLaren at March 26, 2009 8:07 PM |Reply
Too funny. Sure enough, this post hit their site already! Idiots.
unFreakinbelievable...well I guess not...only too believable in todays world. This is flattery in the lowest sense of the word. Carry on the good work, Ben, and good luck with Giztwo.
Posted by: Visions at March 26, 2009 8:59 PM |Reply
Ben this is crazy. I truly love reading your test results about new products. I am a communications guy and love playing with cellular modems, and WiFi systems for boats and marine Hot-Spots. Why don't they just purchase space here if they want to be legitimate? I guess that is never going to happen now! Shame on them there was a time when a man's word and reputation meant something.
Good luck with the new boat I am envious!
Bill
Posted by: Billlentz at March 26, 2009 9:28 PM |Reply
Wow...this is really not OK. And unfortunately, a little WhoIs'ing reveals that there's really no "there" there. There isn't an office to picket, no phone number to call, etc. It's registered privately, near as I can tell, possibly through Dotster.
OK, if Ben can't mail a genuine cease and desist letter to these bastards, then at least his hoards of loyal minions can harass the hell out of whoever this is.
Once you've tried some passwords, assuming you didn't succeed in logging in somehow, why not click the "Lost your password" link, give it a username of "admin", and we can fill up their inbox with password resets.
Go forth and hack, brothers and sisters!
Posted by: An anonymous Panbot at March 27, 2009 1:18 AM |Reply
Ben,
I would suggest removing all of the http links and write them out as text. Otherwise you are helping their search engine ranking.
The captured screenshot of this post on the DME site is comedy gold. I will keep that one in my archive. Goes in the "stupid criminals" file.
Idiots!
Preston
Posted by: Preston Calvert at March 27, 2009 12:12 PM |Reply
Looks like today they have some sort if half finished site that now does not include the Panbo information. I guess there was a human somewhere behind the scenes.
Posted by: Mike Hervey at March 27, 2009 12:42 PM |Reply
What a bummer. I see this happen all the time on the Internet. Just the other day I read a story at yachtpals.com and then went searching around for more information on the subject. I found 3 different sites that had reprinted their article as their own!
By the way one of the sites that often reprints these types of articles without permission is Mad Mariner who I see you are associated with. Might want to check into that.
I would take these guys to court if I were you. Someone should stand up to these guys. They shouldn't get away with it.
That site is nothing but a keyword farm... they just list as many "search terms" as possible for electronics and then link to ebay to earn a commission on a sale.
Don't take it too personally - they're ripping everyone off - not just you.
As others pointed out, you're helping them by linking to them - remove the links.
David, I'd be surprised if you could produce one paragraph that's been published by MadMariner without permission. The owner/founder has more professional journalism experience than most folks in the boating magazine world, online or in print, and he's earned an excellent reputation for treating content, and the people who produce it, ethically and respectfully. I wonder why you made that accusation.
Matt, Until this morning almost all the actual content on Discount-Marine-Electronics, aside from a few press releases, was from Panbo.
Posted by: Ben E at March 27, 2009 10:05 PM |Reply
Live by the web, die by the web.
I think laughter is the best response, too. It's like tricking a rat by using poison cheese in a trap: He's dead six ways before he gets his taste.
Not too much different from my battle with Shiptalk.com, except they steal everyone's content and only removed mine after a journalist friend called. This was 2 years ago and they haven't changed their practices. Good thing they get little to no traffic!
The is a lot more of this going on than we think. Just recently, I had a few articles straight copied from our Houseboat website and used as if it was their own content.
It's frustrating, yet, a cease and desist email usually takes care of it right away.
Way to go Ben, to have put an end to this incident :)
Share
There should be a law...
I had a customer call me today to report that when his company name is searched, it redirects to a competitor's site. Ahhh the magic of the internet.