Bastards!

24 hours after getting my blog delisted from Blogshares it’s back on there again. This, despite me putting a no bots tag in my headers.

I don’t want to be a part of this site yet they have an automated system that denies me this choice. They claim that they don’t have to give me the choice as my blog, once published, is in the public domain. Well, legally, they may have a point. There is, however, the ethical consideration. When people don’t want to play your game, it’s downright bad manners to force them. Certainly I have no wish to be associated in any way with this site and the more I find myself embroiled unwillingly with it, the more annoyed I become.

Ultimately if they cannot control their spiders, I’ll have to take matters into my own hands and close this blog. I’ll replace it with one where I can ban their IP from accessing it.

Let’s see how things develop.

Update Well, they’ve delisted it again.

I have to say, it’s a long time since I came across a business model based upon such outrageous arrogance. The assumption is that blogs are fair game because they are published on the net. Blogshares’ owners take the stance that they are not infringing copyright because they are not reproducing the writing, merely the URLs linked in and out and using these to "value" the blog for trading. In that, they are perfectly correct, my copyright has not been breached. And, indeed, I have not been too bothered when I’ve encountered my writing when it has been borrowed by others on the net when that clearly is a breach of copyright. Providing they recognise the work as mine, I’m not too fussed; such is the nature of the net. So why does Blogshares piss me off so much?

This a commercial site that relies on the work of others that it obtains for free in order to make money. In other words, I am contributing to the business of someone who has not bothered to ask my permission to use my work in this way, has no intention of doing so, has no intention of paying me for doing so and is arrogant when challenged about it. Indeed, reading the fora on this site reveals some pretty nasty people who round on anyone who dares to suggest that they should be asked for permission. The general response is that we don’t have to and don’t care. I have to ask is this a community I would wish to be a part of? The answer is pretty obvious, I think.

At best, it’s bad netiquette. At worst it’s intellectual theft – although the latter would probably be difficult to prove in court. The opt-out nature of the site means that unless you seek them out and request de-lising, you are in; like it or not. You are a part of their game; like it or not. You are contributing to the wealth of the site owners; like it or not.

That’s why they piss me off; they are ethically reprehensible.