From time to time I'm reminded that I need to have a clear copyright policy for the content I make available on my blog. Today was yet another reminder: I received notice that a website called Decade 1980 was linking to me. The problem with this website is that it has pulled some of the content from my website and is using my words in what's called a "spam blog". Splogs exist to boost traffic to some particular website. In this case it appears as if the splog is attempting to boost traffic to a website dedicated to Survivor: Fiji.

Decade 1980 only copied a portion of what I wrote, but my content is still being used in a splog, and I have a problem with that. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out how to account for legitimate instances of copying (for instance, Bloglines and Google Reader letting people subscribe to my feeds) and illegitimate instances (such as websites stealing my words in an attempt to defeat email spam filters, or to boost their ranking in a search engine).

How frustrating!