I’m all for a more liberal version of copyright, but where a site steals every single post you write at 4aus.com, even when you work your arse off for it to find those offers…well, that’s a different kettle of fish.

Let me introduce to you “Thrifty Sue.”

And before you say “there is no proof” look at the picture above. The watermark was intentionally placed once I realized they were copying all of the free stuff from 4aus.com to try to catch them copying our text and pictures.

Suffice to say, they were caught in the act.

It gets worse: the site claims the following:

We are a family of 9, yes, you heard me right, and we actually have 7 children. I’m sure that you probably want to ask “How do you do it?” Well that’s what I’m here to talk about. With a large family such as ours, we realized early on that we needed to figure out a way to make sure we were still getting all the necessities and not breaking the bank in the process.

Balls.

I’ve done the research on the site, and every single free offer they’ve done for weeks copies 4aus.com. They even copy the language, but change it near the end.

You know the thing that disgusted me more is when I found that they are working affiliate pumping via CheckMyStats a company I work with.

So basically a company I work with is promoting a site that steals all my content with a few changes, but promotes others via an affilaite offer.

I guess there is no honour amongst thieves.

UPDATE

I’ve now sent a DMCA notice to their host.

I’m not fond of the DMCA in the US, but if you’re going to copy me, at least make an effort to not make it so blatent 🙂

me…in a horse mask 🙂

So long term readers of this site know that my life has been pretty topsy turvey for a long time. The irony that those words are both highlighted as spelling errors by Firefox sort of sums it up.

I’m not going to write an angsty post about the past, but share with you how Nichenet Pty Ltd is moving forward.

I’m happy to report that Nichenet Pty Ltd now has two active projects.

The first I’ve mentioned recently and that’s 4aus.com.

Oh, and it’s officially out of beta as of now 🙂

I started 4aus.com in August using one of my oldest owned domains (4aus.com) a domain I’d struggled for years (actually 12 years) to know what to do with.

From August I started posting free samples, competitions, and offers for Australian’s (with some international coverage.)

When I started it was hard to find a way to describe an offer…I cringe even now at some of my earlier posts. But the site has continued to grow, doing 50k + page views a month for the last few months and this month growing to potentially more again.

I’d note that linking to PR promos (freebies/ comps) is damn hard over the silly season as they dry up, but I still managed to find them.

I’m not yet rich off the site but it’s continuing to grow and I’m confident it will keep me in good stead going forward; it is covering its costs with a profit, but not enough yet for me to live off.

I’m also happy to announce that fortytwotimes.com is back (now 42x, but same domain.) I was running short of money last year, and I’d over time put most of the writers off.

I’m please to say that Steve Hodson of WinExtra (one of the original writers) is helping me out with a post a day, and I’m aiming for 2-3 posts myself. We’ve also engaged with a company that will contribute the odd guest post as well. The intent is eventually to get 8-10 posts up a day, but we’re back at 3-5.

It’s early days but the funny thing is that the site never really stopped getting traffic; sure, it dropped from its peak (no one writing does that 😉 ), but the content there still brings page views in. I’m the first to admit that it’s helped a lot by the fine folks at wahoha.com. That’s not an affiliate link BTW, they don’t do affiliates, it’s simply a recommendation to a service that delivers us 5 page views for every 1 we give them.\

Sorry, I can ramble on forever but the tl;dr is that in the last couple of months I’ve posted as much and even more than I did when I was still married.

I’m back, I’m going to kick ass, and I’m bringing some content to your screen sooner rather than later 🙂

If you’re an old TechCrunch fan, or an Australian who has met me or likes to follow a battler, please follow 4aus.com and fortytwotimes.com, the first will give you freebies and the chance to win stuff, the second will make you smarter.

The alternative title was going to be “this guy is a f&*kstick” but I try to keep the blog PG 🙂

2 points:

• you don’t need “authorization” under Australian law to give away tickets…unless it’s a game of chance, then you need registration in some states…noting though that you still don’t need “authorisation” from the company offering the tickets. The use of logos etc is still subject to copyright law, but the use of the name is not as it’s a factual statement.
• this guy seems to think that 4aus.com is Roger David and that somehow us linking to a perfectly legal competition is us running it. He clearly either hasn’t read the site and this is automated, or he is retarded.

While a more formal cease and desist can certainly be sent, I am hopeful that will not be necessary and that you will voluntarily comply with the following request:

The Roger David Coachella ticket giveaway is unauthorized, violates the terms of sale for festival passes, and violates our trademark, copyright, and other intellectual property rights.

Please remove ALL references to “Coachella” and the Roger David ticket promotion from your promotional emails, flyers, and from any other locations on your blog, website, facebook, twitter, and other social networking accounts.

Please confirm that the requested changes to your promotional materials have been made.

Many thanks for your anticipated cooperation.

Jason Bernstein
Associate Counsel
AEG Live
5750 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 501
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel:  323-930-7155
Fax: 323-930-5785