supersoakers dot info

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SSCBen
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supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:15 am

I found supersoakers dot info (type in the URL so that Google doesn't visit this guy) in our referrer logs today. Interesting website. The domain was registered on the 16th so it's very new. I'm not quite sure what the point of it is but I assume it's some sort of scraper website. Most everything is links to eBay. Their modifications page is directly copied from one of our pages. The video page is just a bunch of YouTube videos. I'm not sure if the history page is even original, but after skimming and searching for it I believe it is original.

Sadly, there's no contact link for me to ask him to remove my modifications page. Doing a whois offers no help. I'm going to send an email to his host to ask the webmaster to remove the page. If that doesn't work I think I'll send a DMCA take down notice. I assume those can be used by people not affiliated with the RIAA or MPAA. :p

Edit: After taking a look at the logs, I have two IP addresses associated with this website. I'm going to make a list of those who access the page that has been copied as well...
Last edited by SSCBen on Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Specter
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Specter » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:12 am

I did a whois and managed to find this: (it has the guys address and some sort of email, not sure if it works though.)

Code: Select all

Domain ID :D 25185633-LRMS
Domain Name:SUPERSOAKERS.INFO
Created On:16-Jun-2008 18:02:12 UTC
Last Updated On:18-Jun-2008 04:23:41 UTC
Expiration Date:16-Jun-2009 18:02:12 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Name.com LLC (R279-LRMS)
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:ncr-1225015-cd03
Registrant Name :P rotected Domain Services
Registrant Organization :P rotected Domain Services
Registrant Street1:125 Rampart Way
Registrant Street2:Suite 300
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City :D enver
Registrant State/Province:CO
Registrant Postal Code:80230
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.5555555555
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:supersoakers.info@protecteddomainservices.com
Admin ID:nca-1225016-4032
Admin Name :P rotected Domain Services
Admin Organization :P rotected Domain Services
Admin Street1:125 Rampart Way
Admin Street2:Suite 300
Admin Street3:
Admin City :D enver
Admin State/Province:CO
Admin Postal Code:80230
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.5555555555
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:supersoakers.info@protecteddomainservices.com
Billing ID:ncb-1225018-c010
Billing Name :P rotected Domain Services
Billing Organization :P rotected Domain Services
Billing Street1:125 Rampart Way
Billing Street2:Suite 300
Billing Street3:
Billing City :D enver
Billing State/Province:CO
Billing Postal Code:80230
Billing Country:US
Billing Phone:+1.5555555555
Billing Phone Ext.:
Billing FAX:
Billing FAX Ext.:
Billing Email:supersoakers.info@protecteddomainservices.com
Tech ID:nct-1225017-0211
Tech Name :P rotected Domain Services
Tech Organization :P rotected Domain Services
Tech Street1:125 Rampart Way
Tech Street2:Suite 300
Tech Street3:
Tech City :D enver
Tech State/Province:CO
Tech Postal Code:80230
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.5555555555
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:supersoakers.info@protecteddomainservices.com
Name Server:NS949.HOSTGATOR.COM
Name Server:NS950.HOSTGATOR.COM
My "arsenal": Customizable APH, Storm 600 pistol (still haven't finished fixing this), launcher- Model:AB1.0(Decommissioned), AB1.5, soon AB 1.1(2"rebuild) maybe ill get something else in the future
My site Image My website/forum is back up and running, for the most part after it having been deleted in october

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SSCBen
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:20 am

That's all fake information. This guy's trying to hide probably because he knows what he's doing is shady. His websites are designed to take as little effort as possible to make and make a little bit of money off Google ads. It's called spamdexing. His website will rank decently in search engines and get decent traffic and that'll translate into decent pay. If you do this for many many websites it turns into a lot of pay.

After doing some digging I've figured out that the guy's name is Geoff Wasserman and he runs a few shady websites. I'd post some but I don't want to help the guy out in Google. One of them is extremely similar in design to this one which makes me think he just copied the design.

I've contacted his host and already got a response. They've forwarded my email to their security team who also handle copyright problems. Hopefully this will turn out good. If not I'll fire the guy a warning email. Since he's obviously making an attempt to hide, hopefully that will scare him enough to remove the pages. If that doesn't work, I'm going to his domain name registrar and ISP. I know both.

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Specter
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Specter » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:34 am

Nice work. I was thinking the info was probably fake but thought I could at least try. At least you got contact with the host. Hopefully it will turn out good in the end.

I also tried searching the nickname by the copyright at the bottom of the page but didn't get anything. He obviously is trying to hide since he used that nickname thing.
My "arsenal": Customizable APH, Storm 600 pistol (still haven't finished fixing this), launcher- Model:AB1.0(Decommissioned), AB1.5, soon AB 1.1(2"rebuild) maybe ill get something else in the future
My site Image My website/forum is back up and running, for the most part after it having been deleted in october

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Drenchenator
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Drenchenator » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:16 pm

When Ben first showed this to me, I laughed, but then got serious. What? Someone copied some of our content? He was lazy about it too: He didn't even host the images in the article he copied! He relied on our site to handle that. I hope Ben can get through to someone to take down the mods page.
The Drenchenator, also known as Lt. Col. Drench.

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Silence
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Silence » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:37 pm

That's quite infuriating.

I know you can use .htaccess to stop hotlinking of media from other websites to save bandwidth. That said, there are some legit cases in which others may want to link to media hosted here - like if somebody is quoting an article here and doesn't want to host the file elsewhere. You yourself might find that handy.

It's a different situation when somebody is just ripping you off, regardless of whether or not it affects you. Thank goodness you caught the problem.

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SSCBen
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Mon Jun 23, 2008 4:13 pm

I tried doing something with .htaccess but I couldn't figure it out so I just replaced the images in question with something else. Now it's blatantly obvious that he's infringing. To keep him from infringing again I've blocked his IP address.

Edit: If he gets around the IP block with something like a proxy I'll put in my proxy-block list I made before. It's a list of a good 90% of all public proxies and tor servers. This'll at least annoy him enough that he'll get the picture. I can also do the thing that gets around non-high-anonymity proxies too.
Last edited by SSCBen on Mon Jun 23, 2008 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Silence
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Silence » Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:53 pm

Fortunately there's no way he can get links off of SSCentral thanks to the IP ban. It should be easy enough to delete any others that get through.

At this point he won't have an easy time getting traffic. For all you know, his hosting/domain costs will exceed Adsense revenue. :)

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SSCBen
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Mon Jun 23, 2008 5:57 pm

After I replaced the images, it looks like he wants to host them on his own server, though he has no images uploaded because of the IP ban. This I find hilarious but at the same time sad. He obviously knows that I don't want him to host my page, yet he doesn't seem to care. I'm going to start writing the DMCA takedown notice and fax it to his host. I'm also going to get some of the other places he infringed from to send DMCA takedown notices. Hopefully this guy will be shut down for good.

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Specter
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Specter » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:26 pm

This is starting to sound like a conversation in a detectives office in some sort of sting operation. haha. Good work Ben. :)
My "arsenal": Customizable APH, Storm 600 pistol (still haven't finished fixing this), launcher- Model:AB1.0(Decommissioned), AB1.5, soon AB 1.1(2"rebuild) maybe ill get something else in the future
My site Image My website/forum is back up and running, for the most part after it having been deleted in october

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SSCBen
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:09 am

True. I enjoy snooping actually. But I don't enjoy people taking credit for my work.

Turns out that I scared this guy so much that he's removed the page in question, which is good. He probably was intimidated mainly by the fact that I could track him down so easily when he's made an attempt to hide himself. :p

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Silence
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by Silence » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:33 am

Heh, my snooping abilities end with Whois. More power to ya'.

I'm glad that guy's out of our hair. Although if you say you like snooping, that probably means you're still going to forward his information to other people who've been scammed. :)

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SSCBen
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:44 am

Yep. I've found one that's obvious infringement and I know who wrote it. I've started looking into some of the other pages on his other websites but the problem is that he seems to copy or paraphrase from multiple sources on some websites.

He also stole a bunch of images from this website: http://plaza.ufl.edu/cbiggs/images/

More research needs to be done, but it's not on the top of my priorities at the moment. I will eventually contact content owners to tell them about these infringements.

SuperSoakers.Info
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SuperSoakers.Info » Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:49 am

Hello All,
I would like to publicly apologize for the copyright infringement that occurred on supersoakers.info I would also like to assure you that all the content which is now found on the page is 100% original content written by myself and my friend Cbiggs. That link you posted is his free hosting account that belongs to him. We are both very avid Super Soaker owners and fans.

The site is not a spamdex or a scraper site. It was created using template software as we are both very knew to web design. The site provides historical information, popular exposure, and soon a unique section on modification. The links to Super Soaker videos were posted by request and we will be adding more and voting on favorite super soaker videos.

And Yes, I was scared when I got your email. I did not realize that the content lifted from your site was live and active online. I take full responsibility for this and I take copyright infringements very seriously. Also that is pretty impressive how you were able to track me down like that. I'm sorry I had not yet posted a simple link to my email address at that time... Anyways, I would like to say again that we at SuperSoakers.info are true Super Soaker aficionados and want nothing more but to create a dedication site and to immerse ourselves in the Super Soaker community. Please accept our apology...

Thanks,
Geoff Wasserman
SuperSoakers.info

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SSCBen
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Re: supersoakers dot info

Post by SSCBen » Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:03 pm

That clears a few things up. Thanks and apology accepted.

I should give you the benefit of the doubt because I was fairly angry about this. I don't take these things lightly and from the wrong angle any website will look bad. So I should apologize for anything I said that was uninformed or taken from the wrong angle.

Oh, and you might want to check on one of the other websites you run if the content is original or not. One page is directly copied from an eBay guide. I can PM you the link if you want. That's what made me think your sites were just scrapers.
Last edited by SSCBen on Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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