PSA: Your Work Is Being Plagiarized

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Morningstar

Senior Member
Apr 2, 2006
1,390
2,531
CA
www.alliance-rom.com
So, I just came across this website, http://www.openeducationsa.com that has all sorts of instructional OPs copy/pasted from here at XDA, with the contributing members' name nowhere to be found. Instead, everything is "Posted by roma".

For example, HERE is a word-for-word copy of a tutorial that I originally posted HERE on XDA. It was copied the same day I posted it here, but " Posted by roma", with my name nowhere to be found.

After browsing through the site for awhile, I found several other posts by "roma" that I recognize from here, so chances are, if you've contributed anything here, it's being copied there, without any sort of acknowledgement that it's your original content.

Knowing how major websites operate, I suspect that 'openeducationsa' is, in fact, owned/operated by XDA, and simply exists as a means of generating more traffic. This is fairly common practice, and I have no problem with it. I do, however, have a problem when a user's work is directly copied, with no credit to the person who created it. That's blatant plagiarism, and is not cool.

Regardless of who is behind it, it needs to either be removed, or proper credit needs to be given for its' (stolen) content. If XDA is not behind it, I expect the owners/operators to immediately send a cease and desist order.

Plagiarism is not acceptable.

Domain Name: OPENEDUCATIONSA.COM Registry Domain ID: 1904904917_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2015-02-24T06:36:38Z Creation Date: 2015-02-23T13:23:14Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-02-23T13:23:14Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: mena saad Registrant Organization: Registrant Street: tanta Registrant City: tanta Registrant State/Province: AL Registrant Postal Code: 32255 Registrant Country: United States Registrant Phone: +1.201220301755 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: el_kanass_r@hotmail.com Registry Admin ID: Admin Name: mena saad Admin Organization: Admin Street: tanta Admin City: tanta Admin State/Province: AL Admin Postal Code: 32255 Admin Country: United States Admin Phone: +1.201220301755 Admin Phone Ext: Admin Fax: Admin Fax Ext: Admin Email: el_kanass_r@hotmail.com Registry Tech ID: Tech Name: mena saad Tech Organization: Tech Street: tanta Tech City: tanta Tech State/Province: AL Tech Postal Code: 32255 Tech Country: United States Tech Phone: +1.201220301755 Tech Phone Ext: Tech Fax: Tech Fax Ext: Tech Email: el_kanass_r@hotmail.com Name Server: NS1.MALTOT.COM Name Server: NS2.MALTOT.COM DNSSEC: unsigned
 

bitpushr

Retired XDA:Administrator
Knowing how major websites operate, I suspect that 'openeducationsa' is, in fact, owned/operated by XDA, and simply exists as a means of generating more traffic. This is fairly common practice, and I have no problem with it. I do, however, have a problem when a user's work is directly copied, with no credit to the person who created it. That's blatant plagiarism, and is not cool.

Just to be clear we do not own/operate this site and we don't copy content anywhere else to try to get more traffic. We do however often deal with sites that copy our content; and have varying success with knocking them offline.
 
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Morningstar

Senior Member
Apr 2, 2006
1,390
2,531
CA
www.alliance-rom.com
Just to be clear we do not own/operate this site and we don't copy content anywhere else to try to get more traffic. We do however often deal with sites that copy our content; and have varying success with knocking them offline.
It's nice to know that XDA doesn't utilize such tactics, and that appropriate action has been taken.

This is a fantastic community, full of very talented individuals. People post things here with the intent of sharing it with others, but for them to copy it and not even so much as give proper credit is pretty low.

[emoji106] [emoji106] [emoji106]
 

cipherswitch

Senior Member
Dec 26, 2009
610
598
I actually just noticed they had copied one of my threads, it kinda popped out when one of my firmware files was downloaded over 2k times vs just a few hundred for the others, it was the only file where they hot-linked it, didnt even bother to re-up it somewhere else, just took ,my mediafire link.
 

cipherswitch

Senior Member
Dec 26, 2009
610
598
Yup, I confirmed 2 more as of yesterday. They pretty much copy threads in real time to get traffic.
 

XNecro

New member
Feb 17, 2015
4
0
there are many site packs out there, mostly for blackhats.
you select just some topics for your site, the contet is generated automatically by scraping websites / forums / RSS

mostly used for traffic generation, SEO, Advertising, or Malware or in other words - easy money making with the work of others.


would be surprised if that is an other case
 

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  • 5
    Seems like my block worked for XDA. I see they are still pulling in content from other websites but it has stopped for XDA.
    4
    So, I just came across this website, http://www.openeducationsa.com that has all sorts of instructional OPs copy/pasted from here at XDA, with the contributing members' name nowhere to be found. Instead, everything is "Posted by roma".

    For example, HERE is a word-for-word copy of a tutorial that I originally posted HERE on XDA. It was copied the same day I posted it here, but " Posted by roma", with my name nowhere to be found.

    After browsing through the site for awhile, I found several other posts by "roma" that I recognize from here, so chances are, if you've contributed anything here, it's being copied there, without any sort of acknowledgement that it's your original content.

    Knowing how major websites operate, I suspect that 'openeducationsa' is, in fact, owned/operated by XDA, and simply exists as a means of generating more traffic. This is fairly common practice, and I have no problem with it. I do, however, have a problem when a user's work is directly copied, with no credit to the person who created it. That's blatant plagiarism, and is not cool.

    Regardless of who is behind it, it needs to either be removed, or proper credit needs to be given for its' (stolen) content. If XDA is not behind it, I expect the owners/operators to immediately send a cease and desist order.

    Plagiarism is not acceptable.

    Domain Name: OPENEDUCATIONSA.COM Registry Domain ID: 1904904917_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2015-02-24T06:36:38Z Creation Date: 2015-02-23T13:23:14Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-02-23T13:23:14Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: mena saad Registrant Organization: Registrant Street: tanta Registrant City: tanta Registrant State/Province: AL Registrant Postal Code: 32255 Registrant Country: United States Registrant Phone: +1.201220301755 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: el_kanass_r@hotmail.com Registry Admin ID: Admin Name: mena saad Admin Organization: Admin Street: tanta Admin City: tanta Admin State/Province: AL Admin Postal Code: 32255 Admin Country: United States Admin Phone: +1.201220301755 Admin Phone Ext: Admin Fax: Admin Fax Ext: Admin Email: el_kanass_r@hotmail.com Registry Tech ID: Tech Name: mena saad Tech Organization: Tech Street: tanta Tech City: tanta Tech State/Province: AL Tech Postal Code: 32255 Tech Country: United States Tech Phone: +1.201220301755 Tech Phone Ext: Tech Fax: Tech Fax Ext: Tech Email: el_kanass_r@hotmail.com Name Server: NS1.MALTOT.COM Name Server: NS2.MALTOT.COM DNSSEC: unsigned
    2
    Thanks for the heads up. We have contacted Singlehop, who is hosting this site, with a DMCA complaint. I've also blocked them from our server as I believe they are just pulling our RSS feed.
    1
    Knowing how major websites operate, I suspect that 'openeducationsa' is, in fact, owned/operated by XDA, and simply exists as a means of generating more traffic. This is fairly common practice, and I have no problem with it. I do, however, have a problem when a user's work is directly copied, with no credit to the person who created it. That's blatant plagiarism, and is not cool.

    Just to be clear we do not own/operate this site and we don't copy content anywhere else to try to get more traffic. We do however often deal with sites that copy our content; and have varying success with knocking them offline.
    1
    Nice find @Morningstar hopefully they will be able to successfully handle this.