Copyright Infringement and Hotlinking Harassment Plague This Furry's Blog

This is a nightmare...

Well, this isn't a very common furry question this time, but I have a huge harassing problem.

I have a blog and I decided to make some judgment against intolerance, after some small issues, a horrible drama website decided to post my blog info and made up crap about me, using no real critique, etc., etc.

They also make fun of the term "Autism" and now, I feel like I have no power to stop them from doing more crap. They even posted an offensive "ad" on the side saying something about "Autism?" and when clicked on: It goes to my blog. No joke.

I think it all started when I posted some slight non-taking-serious graph about some "fandom" based off a reaction that actually happened. Then it all started when this brony a person decided to post more news about my blog in the most crappiest way as possible. But there was another before (and I made a response to it) that compared random stuff to "bestiality" or something.

I am very worried about this. I fear so much that an even MORE horrid site will notice this and post even more offensive crap against me.

Do you know, if there is ANY legal way to stop them from posting current or future content from my blog? Or perhaps any talk about it? Is there any secrets, or trick to slide through the legal system?

I know there is copyright, and even though I hate copyright, I did try to abuse my own will and tried putting notices for it, but they think I "can't" do that. And yet, I have no idea how to file a copyright complaint off to a whole different website. Sadly, the website may not be connected with Google like mine is.

The only other thing I could do is try to "ignore" them, but that may stop me of my rights to criticize intolerable crap. I also tried modding my own URLs to avoid being clicked on but that bully keeps on updating the damn link to the new URL.

I wrote this kind of fast, but I am in great fear of what will happen the next day!

Note: By the time I send this, I may change the URL of the whole blog, mainly to prevent them from linking to them. And make it more hidden.

There is ANOTHER problem. They found away to link to a old captor of my blog. No joke!

Ever heard of the Wayback Machine? It's a website that captures old websites, and sadly, my blog was at least captured once. If you have any ideas on how to delete the wayback machine problem, you can post that too.

Anyway, my blog is a blogger, which is part of Google.

Anonymous

* * *

Hi, Anonymous,

This is a complicated but important issue you are bringing up that touches on a lot of issues. Let me try and reply to your letter in a clear and logical manner. I have a very Germanic process on such things, favoring numbered lists for clarity, but a Q&A might work best here.

Without even going into the problem that the people who are harassing you are jerks, let’s see what can be done.

Q: How can I block websites from linking to my website or blog?

A: This touches on the issue of hotlinking, which usually refers to people linking to images on your website without your permission. Disregarding copyright issues, the problem with this practice is that if a lot of people are pulling images directly from your site rather than downloading the images and then reposting them to their pages is that they are using your bandwidth, which can really gum up the works on your site, causing it to slow down or crash if the images are really popular.

Hotlinking can also refer to accessing other files, such as css or other program files, and it can refer to accessing the URL itself. There are ways to block specific sites from linking to you, but it can be a little complicated as it involves adding lines of code to your .htaccess file. (cf. http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Preventing_hotlinking and 
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess10.shtml for more information). 

Since you are using Google Blogger, I would contact the people at Google and see if they can help and/or post on their forums page to see if you can get advice, as well.

Q: Can I have my old site versions excluded from the Wayback Machine?

A: Yes. To do so, you need to place a robots.txt file on your site (cf. https://archive.org/about/exclude.php). If you can’t do this because you’re using Google and can’t get access to code, contact the admins at the Internet Archive at info@archive.org and ask for their assistance.

Q: How can I prevent people from quoting from my blog or using other information and files on my blog without my permission?

A: As with authors of articles, books, etc., when you write something on the Internet and publish it, it is automatically copyrighted. However, it is very difficult to make a case about this without registering your copyright. The folks at LegalZoom advise that in some cases it might be best to register a copyright: “Copyright violation is always illegal, but it can be difficult to prosecute offenders without copyright registration, which establishes a public record of ownership. In addition, owners of registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation against infringers.”

Remember, though, that there is a thing called “fair use” rights. Fair use means that people have the legal right to quote a portion of your text (general rule of thumb is no more than about 10% of the text) without your permission if they are doing so for such things as writing a review. Also, satirizing a book, film, or even a website is legal because it is protected under free speech. If this is really irksome for you and is causing you financial damages (which I doubt in your case), you could consult with an attorney to assist you (cf. http://www.whoishostingthis.com/resources/student-copyright/ to learn more about copyright laws and your rights.)

While the people who are harassing you sound very unpleasant, and certainly their apparent mocking of sufferers of autism is in very poor taste, they, like you, are entitled to their rights of free speech, even if that speech is very ugly (but not to the point of being a hate crime or Internet bullying).

One thing you might try is this: On your website, put a prominent notice about the website that is harassing you, stating that you find their practices hurtful and in poor taste and whatever else you feel like saying (within reason). Have this notice appear on the page to which they are linking from their site so that people can see it easily.

When it all comes down to it, if you are confident in what you write about on your website and that it has value to those who read it, then others mocking that content are making themselves look bad more than they are hurting you. Indeed, as my partner, Yogi, says, there's no such thing as bad PR. These people are drawing attention to your site, giving you the opportunity to step up and show everyone who visits you what an awesome blog it really is despite their puerile attempts to make you look silly.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

Papabear