The other day I received an email from some blogger who had his entire blog taken down because I told his web host about his purely stolen-content blog. So, you can guess what came next. A lovely email to me that basically said “Why did you have my site removed, I’m going to sue you, you shut my site down!!”
Everyone gets emails like these from time to time. Especially from the little pipsqueaks who steal content and republish it. Many times these emails are so preposterous that you should do one thing: shut up.
This is where human nature kicks in. Whenever we get negative comments from someone we always want to get back at them. It is just one of those things. Negative comments can hurt, a lot.
I guess it is a good thing that it is pretty easy to ignore “regular” negative comments, from people who just don’t like your site. What isn’t easy, however, is ignoring pointless and threatening emails from content stealers. Now don’t get me wrong, most people are incredibly nice and won’t get angry at you for getting their post taken down, but there are people out there who will make it seem like you did something wrong.
So, this fellow emailed me and yelled because I got his blog removed. He stole several articles from me, as well as from other bloggers, republished them, and claimed he wrote them. His web host was more than willing to remove the blog. Now, I personally don’t like seeing whole sites removed for something like this, but since his entire blog was nothing but stolen content, he earned it.
Two days later, the guy must have remembered that I asked him to remove the content about a week earlier (before I contacted his host). He sent me an angry email telling me to get a life, to stop stealing his content, and to stop getting people’s posts taken down. He made me seem like the bad guy.
In reality what I did was right, and the guy is lucky none of the victims of his copyright infringement crusade didn’t sue the pants off him. I didn’t respond to his email, and I still haven’t. Why? Because sometimes it is just better to shut up.
By talking to these people you often feed their anger, and they will go onto sites like Digg and post slanderous comments (luckily those stories don’t make it to the front page). It is pathetic how annoying some of these content stealers can be.
There isn’t any real point to this ranting post other than, don’t feed the other party’s anger. If you know you are right, and you have proof that you are right, just ignore them. Often times the people who send those threatening and angry emails are nobodies. They pose no real threat.
However, if it gets out of hand and they start destroying your reputation then you should take action. Firstly you should expose them for who they are, liars and thieves. Secondly you should look into legal options (if it gets that bad, it probably won’t). It is one thing if someone is mad because you reported them for stealing content (that is understandable, their site may have been taken down), but it is a completely different thing if they start calling you a thief and a liar.
These sorts of things happen all the time. It is human nature to blame others for your own problems. However, it makes you look a lot better if you take responsibility for your own wrong doing. If you don’t, the consequences can become overwhelming.
The best way to avoid the problems of feeding people’s anger is to learn how to walk away and ignore them. Well, I will say you should keep track of their activity, because if they start slandering your name publicly you should take action immediately.
Walking away won’t make you look like a “wuss” or anything like that. In fact, it will make you look like a strong minded human who is above the instincts of primates. Most of these problems come from having a bad initial reaction and sending an email while you are angry. Don’t do that. Plan everything out, and think about every move you make.
In case you are wondering, the person who called me a liar and such has since apologized. Why? He must have realized that I wasn’t going to give into the temptations of yelling back at him. He has since apologized for all of the problems, and that is that. And yes, I did respond to his nice email :).
Note: I am not a lawyer in any way, shape, or form in this universe or any other. If someone starts slandering your name it is up to you to look over your options. This post should be used as a general guideline.
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