30 replies to this topic

[Faken]

If you own a website and buy tutorials from authors and publishers to post on your site, let me mention that there are little thieves out there that sell RIPPED tutorials. So if you do buy tutorials, do a bit of homework to make sure the tutorial you are buying is not a rip off. If a guy is producing 5 Photoshop tutorials a day, then you should seriously be worried about where he's getting them so fast.

A very simple check is to take a full sentence or a group of words in the tutorial, open up Google and copy/paste that line into the Google search box with quotes ( " " ) around the text. Google will then search for sites that have that exact line as well. If there's a rip already out there, it's a good chance this will catch it. You can also pop onto P2L and quickly do a couple of searches for a similar tutorial.

As a webmaster, you are responsible for the content you publish, and ignorance is not an acceptable excuse. So be vigilant if you purchase tutorials and make sure you're not getting scammed. No matter how honest or decent a publisher seems, protect yourself and do a bit of homework before you end up spending money for something that isn't yours.

Dan

[Donna]

This is pathetic and it's happening a lot all over the place atm, and Dan is right a simple paragraph will pull them up in search.

There's other methods such as google image search, checking your log files and if you have a forum and notice members viewing your tutorials daily they are not reading them, they're actually removing your content to post elsewhere. I have lost count on how many we have had ripped from 13 now or to how many DMCA notices I have sent out and webmasters I have contacted.

I know myself I have fallen into this trap and submitted a tutorial here that was taken from another big tutorial site submitted by a thief, had Dan not have pointed it out I wouldn't have known I also contacted Zach from GT and asked him to remove it because you risk your entire site being banned. I went around and notified all the sites this same person was submitting copyrighted tutorials too and let them know what he done at our site and showed them the site where all the originals were some written as far back as 2001.
What action they take is upto that site but be really suspicious of tutorials perfectly written as those are the ones usually ripped.

I search every tutorial now that gets submitted to my site and if even one paragraph is suspicious I dump them. I dunno how other sites operate but all my staff do their tutorials inside the staff forum before they ever hit public we do that to protect them firstly with a date as we have noticed everytime we do something unique within a week we will see copies go through GT or P2L on exactly the same tutorial. And I will persue them cus it's really annoying and it's got to a point where tutorial sites are just everywhere atm and instantly filled with 1-2000 tutorials in a few months is just not possible for any tutorial writer to do that much. And any certified PS tutorial instructor will say the same.

I feel sorry for the webmasters being caught in this trap of paying tutorial writers for stolen content, personally would love to see them spread the names to site owners so other sites are made aware of them.

[Pepper]

good post...great of you to point out to everyone!

[fiked]

cough dan you got to always make me look a idiet lol

[Donna]

cough dan you got to always make me look a idiet lol

Theres been a few sites caught by these spammers lately so your not on your own here. This needed to be posted because it's happening too much and I sincerely don't think it was directed at you because Dan does not do that.

[Joablen]

I feel sorry for the webmasters being caught in this trap of paying tutorial writers for stolen content, personally would love to see them spread the names to site owners so other sites are made aware of them.

for counter-strike (the game) there is a site called SteamBans (steambans.com) that is used as a common bans database... maybe it would be a good project to create a spammers db and rippers names so that ppl could use APIs from that site and be protected from spammers and also know the names of ppl who is ripping tuts...

[Tirus]

I feel sorry for the webmasters being caught in this trap of paying tutorial writers for stolen content, personally would love to see them spread the names to site owners so other sites are made aware of them.

for counter-strike (the game) there is a site called SteamBans (steambans.com) that is used as a common bans database... maybe it would be a good project to create a spammers db and rippers names so that ppl could use APIs from that site and be protected from spammers and also know the names of ppl who is ripping tuts...

problem is that people are usually known by usernames or email addresses, both of which can be easily changed/recreated. I'm not sure if something like that would really work.

Edited by Tirus, 19 October 2006 - 10:18 PM.

[Joablen]

problem is that people are usually known by usernames or email addresses, both of which can be easily changed/recreated. I'm not sure if something like that would really work.

in that case every username/email would be in the database and the ripper would get tired of getting new email addresses or usernames... anyways it would really help i think...

[Netcades]

Always ask for PSD files

Edit: Anyone wanna post some sites that got caught ripping? Just curious.

Edited by Netcades, 20 October 2006 - 06:51 AM.

[Faken]

Always ask for PSD files

Edit: Anyone wanna post some sites that got caught ripping? Just curious.

I don't think that's really fair for some sites out there because they may not have known that what they were buying was ripped off. For now I'll keep it on the down-low, but if I see it getting worse, I'll share the goods.

Mike - Wasn't at you bud, you were one of many

Dan

[Kai Fluegel]

I've been seeing a lot of this going about lately but theres not much you can do about it because its so easy to rip tutorials.

[Donna]

Always ask for PSD files

Edit: Anyone wanna post some sites that got caught ripping? Just curious.

All the big sites usually have psds available so that's of no use either because anyone can come along and say it's theirs.

[BFTP]

Always ask for PSD files

Edit: Anyone wanna post some sites that got caught ripping? Just curious.

All the big sites usually have psds available so that's of no use either because anyone can come along and say it's theirs.

I think he was referring to the PSD of the tutorial. Most sites offer a PSD for the final product, but not many do so for the actual tutorial. It's good advice in my opinion, and very informative post Dan & Donna.

Andrew

[Esnetni]

yo thanks a lot for mentioning this I never thought that because a lot of people can get ripped and you don't want that.

[Netcades]

Always ask for PSD files

Edit: Anyone wanna post some sites that got caught ripping? Just curious.

All the big sites usually have psds available so that's of no use either because anyone can come along and say it's theirs.

I think he was referring to the PSD of the tutorial. Most sites offer a PSD for the final product, but not many do so for the actual tutorial. It's good advice in my opinion, and very informative post Dan & Donna.

Andrew

Correct, the original PSD should have all the elements on the design, pixel 2 pixel. For tutorial sites offering PSD just give out PSD files with one layer. Hope no1 else get ripp, good luck

Edited by Netcades, 20 October 2006 - 05:03 PM.

[Donna]

Maybe, maybe not and what about all the non photoshop tutorials?

[Faken]

Maybe, maybe not and what about all the non photoshop tutorials?

Well I think 99% of tutorials sold are Photoshop, and most other software programs have source files of some kind.

Dan

[Donna]

Wonder if anyone rips scanlines they're about 99%

lol sorry just couldn't resist that one.

[Faken]

Wonder if anyone rips scanlines they're about 99%

lol sorry just couldn't resist that one.

You know how everyone loves those scanlines!

Dan

[Net-Margin]

I gave up doing this for C++ when I helped administrate a site and I learned how to program the basics so I could write my own tutorials because the owner was sick of having ripped tutorials on his server because assholes submitted them saying that they owned them.

I know about that DMCA now and SamsSpade so I can hopefully deal with some of the nonsense next time.

Awesome post guys.