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*Update – EntireWeb has since changed the author bio informatiion to the proper source, however they refuse to send an email to their userbase acknowledging the mistake.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, I started receiving newsletters from Entireweb on a regular basis, as some 413,883 other subscribers do (as of March 23rd, 2006).. Somehow I got signed up and I guess I never much minded them coming to my inbox on a regular basis. But from the first time I read it to this very day, I’ve seen nothing but obvious or very low level SEO information come from it. Needless to say, it’s not one of my daily reads.. However, today something compelled me to take a closer look. So I did..

As expected, it was a basic beginner’s article about title tags and meta data. Offering nothing new, but information a beginner might benefit from nonetheless. After I finished reading, I took a look at the author bio to see the source. This is when the unexpected happened.. My jaw dropped and a silent anger crept through my veins. The author name, Akash Kumar, was the same person I had discovered stealing my own articles a few months back. Articles I had written for the benefit of our clients that I used to write on a regular basis.

In fact, Mr. Kumar’s theft of my own hard work actually caused me to STOP writing these articles because of the helplessness I felt reading my own words attached to his name. Not only did Akash Kumar steal my articles but he also syndicated them across the internet through various sources under his name, as if it meant nothing to him. By weeks end I had found over 50 instances of my work syndicated on websites thanking him for the contribution.

I worked tirelessly to have these copyright violations taken care of. I contacted webmasters, article syndication sites and anybody else that played party to this theft. Most parties I contacted were very helpful. They removed Mr. Kumar’s information and replaced it with my own. But they all spoke of how difficult it was to control such violations, which I disagreed with. Today, when I saw the name Akash Kumar attached to this so called expert article, the feelings of rage came back and I knew this would be another case of blatant copyright violation. Cheaters always cheat, Akash Kumar will always pretend to be an expert while passing off others work as his own.

As I suspected, it took me about 30 seconds to run the Entireweb newsletter issue url through copyscape and find the exact same article, word for word, elsewhere on the internet. One of the url’s that came up was to a SiteProNews newsletter issue dated December, 2002, written by a man named Donald Nelson (note: not only is entireweb allowing copyright theft but they are also handing out information that is outdated by 4 YEARS!). I’m sure Mr. Nelson would not be happy to find out his article has just been sent out to over 400,000 subscribers 4 years later.. attributed to Akash Kumar.

It’s no wonder the field of SEO is looked upon with suspicious eyes.. So called credible sources of information like the Entireweb newsletter are nothing but mass advertising with little regard for their actual reader base. Entireweb doesn’t care if the article has been stolen, evidently. They only care about gaining more subscribers and pushing their search engine to a greater audience. Unfortunately, many of the newsletter recipients are beginners. They don’t know right from wrong in this field. They subscribe because they believe the information they are reading is valid and the source of that information is valid. Many people today looked at Akash Kumar as a helpful, knowledgeable person in the field of SEO. Many may try to contact him for further advice or even for services. Little do they know Donald Nelson is the person they should be contacting, not Akash Kumar.

Article thieves are true scum. They hawk on the altruism of others to progress their own cause. Instead of taking the time, doing the research and writing something useful of their own, they steal from those who do. Unfortunately, this tactic seems to work. Akash Kumar got mass exposure today through stealing, which is bad enough. But Entireweb is ‘entirely’ to blame as it’s their job to force quality control and ensure their users are being exposed to the truth. Anyone who’s ever put any stock into something seen in Entireweb’s Newsletter is now forced to reassess its validity. That’s all 400,000+ of you. My hope is that you unsubscribe immediately and find yourself a better, truthful and more quality source of SEO information.

*note: the following links no longer show proof of the copyright theft as entireweb rightly changed the author bio information

For proof of this blatant copyright theft, feel free to run the Entireweb Newsletter url through copyscape or compare the links below.

Entireweb’s Latest Newsletter aka: Stolen Content:
http://www.entireweb.com/newsletter/archive/2006/ISSUE229.html

Original Article from 2002:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2002/dec/2.html

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