Airchecker Steals Content, Gives No Credit, Ticks Me Off

Published by Toronto Mike on March 16, 2010 @ 15:58 in My 2 Cents

aircheckerAirchecker has a blog and a Twitter account. The official Airchecker bio states they're based in Vancouver and "Canada's number one source for the Canadian Radio Industry. The first social networking news provider. Radio insiders, powered by YOU.".

When they say "powered by YOU", they really mean "stolen from YOU". Here's the sequence of events that ticked me off, in chronological order.

1. I Post An Exclusive Interview on My Blog
I conducted an interview with Rick Hodge, using questions I wrote, and with Rick's explicit permission, I posted this interview on my blog.

That's my content, licensed under a Creative Commons License that permits anyone to "copy, distribute and transmit the work" so long as it's noncommercial and I'm attributed as the source with a link back to my site.

2. Airchecker Posts My Content On Their Blog
Airchecker takes my entry, likely from my RSS feed, and reproduces it on their blog. They don't credit the source, they reproduce almost the entire Rick Hodge interview with "Posted by Airchecker" in the footer. Here's a screen cap of how my entry looks on their Blogger blog.

A

3. Airchecker Tweets About Their Interview With Rick Hodge, Linking to Their Blog
Now that Airchecker has my exclusive content on their site as if it's theirs, they may as well promote it via Twitter. Their tweet, of course, doesn't include @torontomike or a link back to my blog. Here's their tweet:

B

I'm aware there are thousands of scraper blogs out there, stealing content from RSS feeds for SEO fodder, but this is different. This Airchecker is an attempt to provide a Canadian radio news aggregation service, and that's why this practice of theirs has me peeved. It's just wrong. It's stealing.

Airchecker, I'm sentencing you to five minutes in the sin bin for unethical blogging and tweeting practices. If you need good content, write it yourself. If you want to borrow some of mine, at least mention that it's mine and link back to the appropriate permalink, or put me on the Airchecker payroll. Play by the rules or Colin Campbell will suspend you... or not.

Permalink Entry Permalink Comments 39 comments

39 Responses to "Airchecker Steals Content, Gives No Credit, Ticks Me Off"

matthew ross
March 16, 2010 / 16:48

Really pathetic. All you have to do is credit the source, minimal effort to do so. Very weak and very wrong.

Buffalo Boy Mike
March 16, 2010 / 17:32

That is for all intents and purposes plagarism you should sue mike, do they make any money to sue them?

hodge
March 16, 2010 / 18:40

Mike, looks like you're having a "moment" like I had when you dropped by the EZ studios. (LOL) I promise I wont blog about this unless of course you cut me in on the settlement if you sue.

GC
March 16, 2010 / 20:17

They can't afford to buy a domain name?

MississaugaBlogger.com
March 16, 2010 / 21:37

Do you think AirCheck is a Habs fan?

Airchecker
March 16, 2010 / 22:06

Hold the presses lots of ego running on the page. Our viewers are not stupid and clearly your site is linked as the source of the story.

We have even put your name in neon this afternoon. Feel free to post our interviews on Toronto radio. We did not steal anything we link and credit all sites. Thanks for your hate mail.

Warmest,

Airchecker


Lorne
March 16, 2010 / 22:43

Mmm, nothing says legitimate news site like playing the victim and blaming the person you stole from. Bravo Airchecker. Bravo.

Lorne
March 16, 2010 / 22:46

PS: Airchecker tried to start a new hockey chant.

Toronto Mike
March 16, 2010 / 23:38

@Airchecker

Sure, after you get caught you add a little "Toronto Mike reports". Too little, too late.

VegasGeoff
March 16, 2010 / 23:47

And i'm certain it didn't always link back to your site, Mike. Check out his entries about the billboards in Windsor and the one from Corey Deitz about radio contests. Click either headline link, and you are not sent to the original article, but kept on the Airchecker site. If I was reading, I would assume Corey Deitz works for you, which clearly, he does not.

Also, nice twitter posts. You ask someone if they are 12, but call someone an asshole earlier in the day. Classy.

Airchecker
March 17, 2010 / 00:04

Appeared to be a 12 year old tweet. We credit our sources. Are you just sorry we posted your thunder. Not much more we can do for you. Feel free to post our radio personality stories. We call spade a spade don't mix words.

AC!

VegasGeoff
March 17, 2010 / 00:09

RT @torontomike: Stealing someone's content ain't cool, @airchecker http://bit.ly/dc21px
about 8 hours ago via web

@perryvmonaco CLICK ON THE LINK ASSHOLE..
about 6 hours ago via web in reply to perryvmonaco

There's the exchange.

And it's MINCE words, not mix.

@airchecker douche bag
about 8 hours ago via web

@perryvmonaco WHAT ARE YOU 12?
about 2 hours ago via web in reply to perryvmonaco

Airchecker
March 17, 2010 / 00:22

Look we have said or bit.

Continue with your slag and bitterness. We put up his name in NEON.

Thanks for coming out!

Airchecker

Airchecker
March 17, 2010 / 00:23

Look we have said our bit.

Continue with your slag and bitterness. We put up his name in NEON.

Airchecker

VegasGeoff
March 17, 2010 / 00:28

After looking through your site a little more, it seems that stealing content is status quo for your site. Very rarely do you link back to the source. Pretty sleazy...

Airchecker
March 17, 2010 / 00:31

Thanks Vegas, are you done yet?

VegasGeoff
March 17, 2010 / 00:48

I assume by your non-rebuttal that you obviously know exactly what you are doing.

VegasGeoff
March 17, 2010 / 00:58

Thanks for the mention on Twitter! That video has over 27,000 views. Don't you dream of the day when your site pulls in those numbers?

Airchecker
March 17, 2010 / 01:32

Look we are ending the card game not playing.

brad
March 17, 2010 / 14:58

vegasgeoff, i just went through that gawdawful blogger site and stealing content is what airchecker does. it's about time someone called them on it.

airchecker also deleted all his/her crude/rude tweets about this - it's the aircheckers of the web that fuck it up for legit publications like this one

Vanessa
March 17, 2010 / 15:01

Airchecker, never heard of you before & today i learned you are LAME!!!

James
March 17, 2010 / 15:20

Not sure why Airchecker didn't just write 'Sorry, our bad. We've credited you now', instead of being jerky. Would have looked a lot better than being jerky about it.

James
March 17, 2010 / 15:21

Hm. Odd double use of the word 'jerky' on my part there.

Toronto Mike
March 17, 2010 / 15:36

I've heard from other radio bloggers off the record who tell me they've experienced he same thing with this Airchecker. No integrity to be found... and he refuses to stop.

VegasGeoff
March 17, 2010 / 15:44

Did you notice all of today's posts on his site contain links to the source, contact info for the original author, etc...

Looks like someone got caught.

Airchecker
March 18, 2010 / 05:31

For the record we deleted the story due to lack of interest. AC overnight..

Buffalo Boy Mike
March 18, 2010 / 08:05

@ airchecker, regardless of what you say, lack of interest, maybe because everyone who cares already saw it on Mikes site, you initially did NOT list the rightful credit of who wrote it. therefore that is plagarism whether you deleted it or not. You used someone elses material for your own benefit without citing the proper credit, If I write an article and submit it to a newpaper and give them the name of sources a day later it doesn;t matter its been printed without giving credit for where I got my information.

Toronto Mike
March 18, 2010 / 11:10

Airchecker, you're an embarrassment to everyone trying to do something legitimate in these here tubes.

Sure, you've protected your tweets now that you have shit to hide, but here's a screen cap of you tearing down Hodgie. The fact there's a lack of interest in Rick Hodge's first interview since he left the most popular morning show in Toronto tells us everything we need to know about your "business".

And thank you. Really, all I ask is that you stop copying my content and pasting it on your shitty blog. That's all. It's my content, go write your own.

If anyone has a legitimate interest in radio, they should know who they're in business with when they follow Airchecker. Stay classy, AC!

Liar!
March 18, 2010 / 11:23

From Airchecker blog:

"We don't update once per day and you won't have to listen to old school message boards complaining."

Hahahahahahaha

Steve
March 18, 2010 / 15:05

I went to that site once a while back. I could tell right away that they were in the business of ripping off other people's work. Never went back. glad to have my suspicions confirmed. Thanks Mike.

Homegirl
March 18, 2010 / 17:10

I once did the unthinkable and asked Airchecker who was behind their name. I was barraged with insults and he/she/it was indignant. When you're legit, you come into the light and play nicely. They're best ignored.

hodge
March 18, 2010 / 18:01

What the hell's going on?

Toronto Mike
March 18, 2010 / 18:13

The SOWNY board just got wind of this: http://members2.boardhost.com/scrapbook/msg/1268934752.html

I'm guessing SOWNY provides the "old school message boards complaining" Airchecker is so against.

Airchecker
March 18, 2010 / 23:45

Is this TMZ?

Thanks for the extra traffic to our site gave us 1 or 2 views.

We hold the owner of this site responsible for fueling the slander. Maybe Toronto will love you AS YOU ASKED. Your interview with HODGE some of our viewers may have enjoyed it. We deleted it as this sites does not follow our values. Stay tuned as we script a critique. Shame on you for even starting a post like this. You are so out of tune as to what we do on our site. Carry on in the sand box. Maybe we will get one or two more viewers as a result of your post. We love hate mail so keep up the B.S. We will refrain from bringing out the big guns. Have a great day Toronto.

"Blogging up a storm since 2002, Toronto Mike is just a boy, standing in front of a city, asking it to love him"

DSM-IV
March 19, 2010 / 09:03

You're not well in the head, are you?

Looks like the masked Airchecker spent all night having a tantrum on Twitter about this too.

Toronto Mike
March 19, 2010 / 10:42

The SOWNY board started another thread on this topic: http://members2.boardhost.com/scrapbook/msg/1268999457.html

Here's their "official" response to being called out for stealing content and claiming it as their own, posted on Toronto Mike's site. This guy is the worst kind of troll. You're best to block him on Facebook also.

http://www.torontomike.com/2010/03/airchecker_steals_content_give.html#comment-102981

And Airchecker, you protect your tweets so even when you include @torontomike they don't actually go into my stream, because I'm not following you. However, people have been emailing the dozen or so tweets you made about me last night and I'm now convinced you're stupid and dangerous.

You went off several times on my Twitter bio, which just tells me you clearly don't get it.

Airchecker: "Blogging up a storm, Toronto Mike is just a boy,standing in front of a city, asking it to love him" Anybody want to offer this guy a hug?

Then, you went off on my quest to get martinstreek.com back online as a tribute to the man.

Airchecker: Toronto Mike blogs a request it says "martinstreek.com: Help Me Get It Back Online" Mike won't help so he blogs it. Why?

If you misunderstand a plea that substantially... I feel for your followers.

I'm done with this topic. I've said my piece. I'm ending this now. Goodbye, Airchecker.

Irvine
March 19, 2010 / 20:40

LOL, if this was a movie it would be called Dumb and Dumber.

Gloria
March 22, 2010 / 19:57

Review of the above you are all childish on this issue. I noticed "flickr" is uploaded on this site as a way to avoid hosting your own content.

Ayerchecker
November 24, 2010 / 03:46

For all your Airchecker slander needs, follow @Ayerchecker

Leave a Reply



« McDonald's Shamrock Milkshake Happy St. Patrick's Day, Grandma »