I have no respect for those who rip off the content of others. Sorry to see that this has happened. I guess the only way to protect your content these days is to put giant copyright notices all over the place. Some people should learn how to be a little more creative, then maybe they would really appreciate not only their work, but also the work of others.

Brian, Let it be known that I did not take any images, concepts, ideas or text from your website at all. I didn’t draw any inspiration from your article. Nor was my own article built upon or derived from yours.

Sorry I don't see how it is he same. Similar topics on blogs that have similar niches are bound to happen.

I think this post is childish, unfair and plain stupid. Perhaps you'll spend some time looking at his other posts? Must be a busy company you're running there. Instead of trying to leech traffic and discredit from other sites, you should spend some time on your own. Fix some of this broken links, perhaps? Or write some posts that aren't recycled industry news or vague "SEO tips"...

Not impressed.

Hmmm... I just read the doshdosh defense and he seems pretty adamant that you jumped the gun on this and leaves a very comprehensive and thorough defense. If you are somehow sure you are right I would be interested to see your response. If you leave no response to his defense I think the guilty party is obvious at that point. If you do realize that you may have cried wolf I do hope you have the integrity to publicly apologize -false accusations ARE NOT FREAKING COOL.

Uuuummmm, I have reason to believe that there's similarity in these 2 articles for a reason. I have a suspicion that Brian Gilley and Maki are the same people. If you look at these 2 sites with SEOquake for Firefox you'll see that the articles are not the only things that are similar. We'll just have to see if this comment ever sees the light of day! Brad Masterson

after reading his post, and yours.

on april 9th i wrote

"SponsoredReviews.Com seems to be a mix of ReviewMe and other sponsored posts services, yet they better connect bloggers AND advertisers. You can apply for a task and set your price, as well as have advertisers FIND YOU."

does that mean i stole your content.....

wait... ive never been to your blog

One thing i noticed about his blog is that he very rarely sends out any outgoing to links to other blogs besides his own. So maybe, he didn't wanted to put up your link to credit you. i hope you guys resolve the issue soon.

Dude-you clearly didn't research doshdosh.com well enough before making your accusations public...this is bad for your reputition and for doshdosh.com

greetz

...controversy creates cash?

but be careful when throwing accusations... you need to have proof of what you say... or you risk your reputation.
and here I found no real proof.

Well , i , for one , have been reading DoshDosh's blog for a while , and i couldn't agree more with you . Not only he scrapped some of your content , but i did find some resemblance with SEOmoz's content , and a few other websites . what i hate about this person is that he pretends he's somewhat of a guru of SEO . The only thing i've seen so far from him was scrapping content and republishing with a bit of a twist .

I'm glad that finally someone took the word and announced the truth about this guy .

It's almost impossible to believe you have had no comments on this ridiculous post. Where are they? If you are going to stir up trouble you should be prepared to allow feedback.

Wow, that's rude. Something similar happened with a list of blogging advertisers I published recently on my blog. I wasn't flattered either. The gal that copied it could have mentioned my site in any small way and I would have been cool with it.

I don't think Maki would steal and such. Actually he is never short of ideas :)

It's really gross how you are link baiting. Leave Dosh Dosh alone, if anyone is a cheat, it's you.

Do you really have the time to go finetooth comb
other sites to look for similar content?

I only know that I have been getting DoshDosh's posts
for 2-3 months and I'm impressed with his knowledge and his integrity.

Now that I have visited SEO position I see that you
also have valuable content and I wonder why you didn't just email Maki of DoshDosh? or phone him?

I hope you two can take the high road and make a joint statement about unexpected synchronicity in
the blogosphere output.

Fran

Sorry, I just don't see it. Just because someone had the same idea as you at the same time as you doesn't mean he stole it from you. I think you're missing the whole idea of Zeitgeist.

Besides, if you and DoshDosh aren't even saying the same thing in the single citation you make in this post (as you admit when you say "yes, it's different"), then I doubt there is anything else that is really all that in-common or derivative between the two works. When you make the claim of plagiarism, I expect you to make citations from the two works where there is little or no doubt that the citations are the same. I assume the citation you chose is the best argument you can make as to DoshDosh's derivation of your work. As such, since you yourself admit it is different, your argument holds no water.

It's for similar reasons that SCO did not succeed in its suit against IBM regarding Linux --- the source code SCO produced to support their claim was buggy and unclear, while the corresponding Linux code was clear and without bugs. SCO (and you) need to produce irrefutable evidence of your claims of plagiarism. Otherwise, they are baseless.

And, by the way, it's "derivative". Look it up: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deriva...

Two i's, not three. "A" follows the "v".

So what you're saying is that because you both agree that reviewme and sponsoredreviews are similar, that he's plagiarizing you? Give me a break. I'm a member of both, and I can see that both sites are *very similar.* This is not a new opinion, nor do you own this opinion. In fact, Maki mentioned that they were similar in a post in January. So by the logic you've applied here, you would be plagiarizing him.

But it's not plagiarism. Not even close.

DoshDosh did a well-written, in-depth article covering more networks than you. If ProBlogger puts out an article on the same topic tomorrow, will you accuse them of copying as well?

Your post amounts to little more than Libel, and frankly I hope DD has a lawyer because i am so sick of people like you on the internet. This is a really despicable thing to do for linkbait, and i hope you realize that you're going to lose a lot of readers because of this.

Griffin

Nice link baiting article but not orginial enough

Hi Brian,

I posted this on the dosh-dosh web site, but wanted to post it here as well (in case they don't). I still don't see where he gets a "personal" attack -- that would mean you saying something like he is gay (when he has a wife and kids)or that he has man boobs (without having ever seen him). From reading your article, it appears that all you were really looking for was credit for your images and content since they were very similar and posted almost a week before his. Granted his article was more in depth, but a good explanation for that could be that it took five days from reading your article to expand on the list you created -- haha.

Leigh

--------------------------------------

Whether or not you decide to post this opinion is totally up to you. I am a writer and I know how it feels to be plagarized...it sucks...
I think a lot of people are missing the point on this... I believe the major issue SEO Position has here is with the images being so incredibly similar... they are the same size and use the same "snippet" of the page for the shot. In fact, you can transpose the images on top of each other (minust the drop shadow) and they are exactly the same. With that being said, I don't think what he is saying is remotely libelous.
I think you both take a lot of pride in the work you do and I think everyone on here who is jumping on the link baiting wagon is really jumping the gun.
Furthermore, by responding to this article, you actually do personally attack him as well as create a hostile platform for people to say rude and baseless insults about a person you don't even know. For example, in your post you say ... I could make snide remarks about how anyone could even want to hire or work with a person who behaves like that but I digress. Unlike Brian, I’m going to refrain from any personal attacks and just present my side of the story."

Question: Where in SEO Position's article does he "personally" attack you? He didn't "attack" anything about you as a person.

Also, did anyone ever think that the reason why he hasn't approved any of the replies on his site is because he has an actual life on the weekends... What a concept..

I think everyone here should stop licking your wounds and look at this situation for what it is... One writer/blogger saying his content/images were used by another writer/blogger without being credited. I wouldn't be "flattered" by that either...

Leigh

I posted a comment but you seem to be censoring my comments. Everyone should please read my response in the following article before commenting further. Link to the article on his site

Brian, I would highly recommend that you approve this comment..because its a highly relevant response to Leigh's long comment above.

Leigh, I’m aware that the images are similar. I didn’t say they were not. However they are not the same size exactly and using the same snippet doesn’t mean that one has stolen material from another. I have explained myself clearly how I always created snapshots in the same way and it seems that you’ve overlooked that. I’m not creating a hostile platform for anything. Let’s be honest here. We all know who started this. Brian wrote an article attacking and claiming that I stole material from his blog and I’m just responding in kind. He pitched his opinions out in the public arena and I have a right to respond on the same platform. I’m sure this makes sense to you or anyone who’s been long enough in the blogosphere. Stuff happens like this quite often. My commenters have their right to express their opinion on this matter, so do his commenters as well. I have published ALL comments: both those that support my point of view and those who are protested against this. This is called having a discussion and I do think you are the one that’s missing the point here. There are no censors here but I’m not sure about elsewhere. I’m actually offended that you criticized all my commenters and suggested that they were ‘licking their wounds’ and saying that they were ‘all jumping on the linkbait wagon’. There are some very valuable opinions here from respected bloggers on topics concerning content monopoly and plagiarism and I’m sure you somehow conveniently neglected to read them. I’ve mentioned the line twice in my article and I’m not sure how you missed it and failed to understand what I’m saying. This is really a time waster but I’ll put it out clearly just for you one more time. “Perhaps I’ll spend some time looking at other posts by him to see if he’s the actual creator of the stories on his site.” This is just the most offensive one. If you have the time, go read the title of his article. It claims without any doubt that I stole (”copied”) material from his website. And he goes along and suggests that the other content on DoshDosh are stolen as well. He has absolutely no idea who I am and the level of integrity I uphold and this entire post is dedicated towards refuting his untrue, baseless and libelous suggestions. Whether he approves all the comments left is yet to be seen. This is my blog and I want to tell you straight out that I’m not a fan of anonymous commenting at all. If I had the time, I’ll double check the ips to see who’s trolling around. Your point in the previous comment is well taken enough so if you have anything else to say, I would appreciate it if you please send me an email instead of commenting again.

Cristian,

Prove your claim that my content was scrapped from other websites. That's just hogwash and you know it. Which article did I steal from SEOmoz? You are completely talking out of line here and I'm not sure what you are referring to at all.

I'll be really care with what you say if I was you.

To clarify my previous comment, when I said something similar happened to me I meant a similar situation, not that Maki copied my content. Someone else did.

Would it hurt to spend a little more time trying to resolve this between the two of you before publicly shooting Dosh Dosh down?

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I won't assume that you would stoop to attacking someone just for the purposes of getting attention, but if we can all just try to cooperate a little more and practice the ole innocent-til-proven-guilty routine, we'll find that in the long run, we'll all see better results.

hi..it so big issue and involving many guru's..im really afraid with this situation..

but..from this issue, im learn something..

one of factors that boost our own traffic is good controversion...hehehe...thanks a lot...

This is just ridiculous! Marketers minds work in a similar fashion. Just because two people think along the same lines doesn't make it copyright infringement. Holy crap!

Maki, I mentioned twice in emails sent to you already that we have a robust log tracking software we use on our site and all of our sites for that matter. I saw your IP and you visiting that blog review page and others on our web site well BEFORE you ever posted that article. But you told me in your first email, and I quote:

“Yes, I did come across your blog half and hour after the post was published and noticed the similarity.”

This just isn’t so and I can prove it with our tracking software. It doesn't lie and neither does your IP address. So why would you say the above statement? I don’t get it.

To many, this would seem as if you were trolling around my post before you ever hit the submit button on your story. But you're telling people on your blog that you created and wrote your post before we did and that you didn't even see our post until well afterwards. That's just hard to believe according to the evidence and I hope anyone with enough insight to this situation can understand that because it doesn't add up in your favor.

But, I think the real point of my original post was missed by many on your site. That was the fact that our images were seemingly copied and cropped slightly by you for your own blog review post just 4-5 days after ours.

Read back over my post above. I say more than once the word "derivative" which you stand so adamantly beside. I made it a point to say derivative as the driving point behind my post.

If people that are bashing us on your site understood that:

a) You were on our web site right before you posted your own blog review post.

b) The images were of the same portion of the web page as we grabbed (this would be hard to duplicate since many of those sites are 100% width span).

c) The same size was used of 502px wide.

d) And that your post was made just 4-5 days after ours.

I would imagine many people would think in our favor that those add up to reason enough to make our stand that you took a derivative of our post. I'm not just pulling this stuff out of thin air, but I guess we'll agree to disagree on these points above.

More importantly though - you and anyone else can write about blog review sites all day long. Hell, I invite anyone to make the post because it's completely open territory for anyone to do so. I never said anywhere that people are not allowed to write anything they wish. I could honestly care less what people write about and if someone wrote an articles about 500 blog review sites then great for them - as long as they don't come to our web site first and grab images or anything else that we created to use as their own.

But you stand so boldly behind your 'derivative work' statements and go so far as to say that you're completely ruin someone's livelihood and web sites online for doing it to you. I feel the evidence above and even more that I haven't even posted yet (you on our site beforehand by IP address), our image transparency overlay snapshots on top of yours, etc., give enough supporting material to stand behind my original post. I can post those if you'd like or if others think it will help clear this up.

NOTE: I will admit though that the last statement that I made where I said "perhaps I'll spend some time looking at other posts by him to see if he's the actual creator of the stories on his site" should be changed and I will retract that comment since I should only be referring to the one we have raised question about.

Hi Gary Jones and Mark,

Please read my remarks above.

Note to Mark - I'm not seeing any earth shattering news on your web site. Is it new and why would you want to sling shit when you have nothing that great to compare it to? You have no idea about what I do and how many companies or sites I run, so I'd suggest not talk about things you have no clue about.

Keith - I posted a lengthy response above as well as on DoshDosh's web site this morning. Please have a look.

Brad Masterson - Huh?

Matthew - No, it doesn't mean you stole content from us. It would however mean you took a derivative of our work if you were on our web site hours before or the previous day before you posted it and used the same snapshots of sites and put them on your site along with some supporting copy that mimicked ours.

Tsewang - I also noticed that looking at a few dozen posts with lots of references and materials posted. I guess that's OK though and his right but it seems fairly consistent in the lack of outbound references.

Max Leon - Please read my posted comment on his site (if he approves it) and the post I made above. I will likely post more supporting material very soon, so stick around.

Cristian - Thanks for the post. I'm not sure about other posts that this may've occurred with, so for now I'll keep my remarks towards the one we're referring too. I do appreciate the feedback though!

Denise - We approve all comments. Is that so hard to understand?? It was the weekend you know? Do you see comments now? Ok, good. Nobody is "stirring up trouble" as you put it. Please have a little more reason in your comments because I feel like my lengthy comment above with more stuff that we may post later today or tomorrow will support our side even more.

Anna - Yeah, As we see and read this type of thing daily we understand this happens all too much. It sucks.

Brian Aldrich - If you'd like to take a minute and believe that sometimes discrepancies are not always linkbait that would be nice. I don't want links!! I say that on DoshDosh's blog pretty clearly. In fact, I could care less for one link or one visitor over this whole ordeal. We're not really trying to build any links over this and it was NEVER in the forefront when the article was posted.

Fran - I couldn't agree with you more. No, I don't have the time to go through all of DoshDosh's posts and, quite frankly, don't think that it's needed. I'd like to settle this off-line and get back to other more important things, so yes - 100% agree with you.

Rick S. - The point wasn't to protect an "idea." I think you missed the point a bit. If you read over our post and comment on DoshDosh, it's not over an idea at all. In fact, I said in a comment above that anyone should write about blog reviews all day long if they chose to do so. I just don't think it's fair to, let's say, go to your site and pick a post that you spent hours creating, grab images, then put them on our site without any reference back to you. This is strictly going by the derivative regulations that DoshDosh explains on his site and what I feel should be adequate for most online and off-line mediums.

Griffin - That's nice... Please read all of the comments made up till now and, if need be, I'll be posting the other images, path that DoshDosh was taking through our site before he posted his blog review post, and so on. As I said before, we're not looking for building readers. SEOposition's readers is way down the list on our business goals itinerary. Also take note of my link bait comments, because it seems that people like you want to convict before hearing anyone elses side of the story. It's pretty sad really...

Leigh - Thanks for the post. You're right. I never attacked this guy personally at all. But he insists on taking words out of context and putting a twist on them. This coupled with the fact that he was on our site hours/day before posting his blog review post, and the other points I made above should suffice - but I'm sure to many it will not.

Small Biz Blog - Thanks for the comment. It's not about thinking along the same lines here at all. I think I was pretty clear in all the areas we feel we're right, so I won't explain again :)

Hi Maki.

You say in your reply above:

"I’m not creating a hostile platform for anything" and "I have published ALL comments: both those that support my point of view and those who are protested against this. This is called having a discussion..."

Yet on your blog you are letting people create libelous remarks and name calling without any moderation whatsoever. Almost all of the comments have no idea about the full story but are spattering off whatever remarks they wish. They've called me an "Asshole," "Jackass," "Baffoon," and so on. Are you really that narrow minded to think that this is not a hostile platform you are creating by letting people do this without cause?

You are responsible for your blog and everything on it legally. I've deleted any negative posts that have bashed you and called you names (there were at least 4), if for no other reason than to show that at least we do not stoop so low as to throw rocks instead of common sense and respectful discussions. I don't think anyone would agree that some of the comments on your blog are constructive and that the belligerent comments do anything to solve this issue whatsoever.

My comment of:

"Perhaps I’ll spend some time looking at other posts by him to see if he’s the actual creator of the stories on his site."

I have removed (or rather a strike through with comment) for this remark because I can see how this could be taken from your side and I should really just focus on the one story (images) in question. So, I'm officially apologizing for that last comment in my original post! But the rest I have to stand firmly behind based on our IP log and similarities.

See, some people can actually be responsible in debating these types of issues without the name calling.

When accusing someone of something like this you really need more than coincidence. I don't see anything definitive. There are facts when writing about any subject that don't change because someone else is writing about them.

I find it quite funny that you would attack a person who is known in the blogosphere for his outstanding work and content and accuse him of plagiarism and when you get a taste of your own medicine, you threaten to sue... and over opinions expressed by his readers. Your obvious lack of professionalism is so clear. Your whole take on this is so incredibly unprofessional. You call the man a copycat and what is he suppose to do? Roll over and play dead? He defended himself and rightly so... and from his defense, it is clear to most of us that while the content might be similar; he did not copy off of you. and your response to Max "I will likely post more supporting material very soon, so stick around." makes it so OBVIOUSLY clear that this was clear link-baiting.

"We’ve grabbed a complete copy of this page for our own legal team to review since you are allowing people to libel my name without any idea of what’s been said between you and I offline and/or knowledge or facts of the topic. All of the web sites and libelous statements will be kept for review."

First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives strong protection to freedom of expression (now you are trying to take away our first amendment.. freedom of speech.)

that no provider or user of an interactive computer shall be treated as a publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider,” thereby providing forums immunity for statements provided by third parties

Opinion is a defense recognized in nearly every jurisdiction. If the allegedly defamatory assertion is an expression of opinion rather than a statement of fact, defamation claims usually cannot be brought because opinions are inherently not falsifiable. However, some jurisdictions decline to recognize any legal distinction between fact and opinion. The United States Supreme Court, in particular, has ruled that the First Amendment does not require recognition of an opinion privilege.

Well even if it were a case of blog post on the same subject,there is nothing wrong as long as there is posts show the indviduality of the blogger.Blogging is more of an expression of opinion and no one can claim that an opinion expressed by he/she should not be expressed by others.People visit blogs for their unique styles in presenting things and not necessarily on subjects that interest them.Just keep blogging and enjoy yourselves guys.If you love indy celebrities do visit mine :)

Hi Susie, I noticed you also posted on our site. Great for you since you're obviously an attorney! I'll publish them in a bit on our site. I'm not sure that you're an attorney, but if you are, then again, great for you! But I think you either need to read a little more about the laws that govern the blogosphere, commenters, and defamatory remarks that occur on forums, blogs, listservs, and other open online forums. They're not as "cut and dry" as you put it. There's more than enough cases here to prove my point. Happy reading!

http://www.internetlibrary.com/topics/defamat...

There's some interesting cases here. So, when you can come back to either blog and/or mine with your definitive proof from reading all existing cases and the outcomes with 100% conviction that you're right, then I'll listen to it and take note fully. If you can't or are not an attorney, then I wouldn't suggest not saying/quoting things that don't apply or that I'm taking away anyone's first amendment rights.

You say: "when you get a taste of your own medicine, you threaten to sue... and over opinions expressed by his readers"

You're using the word "opinions" - Are you kidding? Let's talk about the words that are actually posted on his site that he has already said he isn't going to moderate at all, even ones the cause defamation.

Susie, it seems a little odd that you claim to know law so well. One law firm I've worked with in NC has won two cases over the last two years for similar defamation/libel suits online - one from a forum and one from a blog. If you'd like to email me your fax number through he contact form on our site I'd be glad to get a hard copy of each to fax over to you because they are not posted online (but are public domain information and already emailed my contact there to receive a copy of each if needed).

So, just to note - I've established the existence of a prima facie case, I've already noted the comments that were defamatory (if needed), and I've identified the allegedly defamatory statements clearly by saving a copy of the page and noting them in my comments.

**Note: I'm not claiming that I'm anything close to an attorney either. But I'm great at data research, making calls to the right people for info., and finding more than enough information to support things I say - unlike others.

Holy crap Brian... You are a force to reckon with. If you get tired of SEO, maybe you should go to law school.

In the words of Mr, T: "I pity the fool" that messes with you...

Keep kicking ass!

Hi Brian.
I ran a blog about two years ago and sold it earlier this year. A similar situation happened to me where a well known blogger used some of my concepts for a blog post he was writing. At the time his blog was way stronger than mine, but I felt it was the right thing to do to stick up for myself and what I knew I had evidence to prove. I had his IP address as well visiting the page he grabbed some ideas and images from, much like your story.

The same thing happened to me that seems to be happening to you to. More people supported him because he had many readers, way more than me at the time.

What DoshDosh isn't realizing is that his IP address on your site on that page the day before is pretty solid proof that he was researching the information on your post before he published his own article on the same idea. What more can it say?

I agree with the Tsewang above where he mentions DoshDosh not sending out many links to places he derives information from. It's a shame that he can't admit that from your evidence. And saying he doesn't recall being on your site but emailing you and saying that he was not on your site beforehand says a lot.

So, I just want to let you know that some people are in your corner on this - including me. Sometimes being the "big dog" doesn't mean that you're always right.

Keep it up. Jarod M. - Xanga.com

Interesting debate here.

One thing I've noticed at DoshDosh's site is that his timing on several other "X" lists he has made follow closely with others lists that were created just prior to his. If you look at Technorati and Google Blog search and do a few different queries and look at the dates closely his 'unique' article is within a week or two after someone else created the original blog post for that particular topic. That's strange how coincidental that is.

So, from what I can tell, he's riding the coat tails of other bloggers who've posted their idea just before. Lots of bloggers seem to do this lately, but if you know what to query and search for using a little research skills, you'll notice the similarities.

I feel you're right on this one bud. take care., DK

A. William,
I've always been told that so perhaps if I ever get tired of SEO it would be a good move for me ;-)

Thanks for posting!

If you want to take me to court for calling you a buffoon and a jackass... which I stand by on... you are more than welcome to.. just to let you know. You have the burden of proving that I tarnished your reputation and have to give proof of that damage. I expressed my opinion based upon reading your blog post and his.. Although I did not have the e-mail communication you and Dosh Dosh had exchanged. As a blogger, I would have given a benefit of a doubt to another blogger.. another blogger who has built a solid reputation. and not only that.. I would have tried to resolve any matters directly before I put anything on print. That is called professionalism. For someone who claims who has business experience; this is not how you conduct business. Then you threaten commenters who express their opinion with a law suit. You do not throw around threats of lawsuit over such trivial matter. Again another lack of professionalism and breaking the code of conduct that is set forth by bloggers. I wish you all the best in your endeavors but judging by your words and actions....

Time to make a few deletions from my RSS feed. The drama isn't what I'm in for. Thanks for what I got to both this and DD.

Susie,

YOU: "If you want to take me to court for calling you a buffoon and a jackass... which I stand by on... you are more than welcome to.. just to let you know"

ME: I never said in one word or sentence I've typed about taking anyone to court. You've conjured up or added more to this without knowing all the details. Please quote me on where I said I was taking anyone to court. All I said was that I felt is was justified for me to have any attorney review the name calling and what seemed to be defamation.

That's a fact. I think everyone in blogging and open forum communities feel the same as me about people who stoop so low as to call someone a jackass or buffoon when 1) they aren't even a part of either side but rather just an outside spectator that just wants to throw their two cents in or 2) just takes it upon themselves to call names without any evidence whatsoever.

YOU: "I expressed my opinion based upon reading your blog post and his.. Although I did not have the e-mail communication you and Dosh Dosh had exchanged." ME: Exactly - Then why pour gas on the flames and call names when you have no idea what Dosh Dosh and I discussed behind closed doors? I feel this shows that you jumped the gun and I think many reading this saga will know what's going on -- especially bloggers and community operators who ban people like you without a second thought for name calling.

YOU: "As a blogger, I would have given a benefit of a doubt to another blogger.. another blogger who has built a solid reputation. and not only that.. I would have tried to resolve any matters directly before I put anything on print. That is called professionalism. For someone who claims who has business experience; this is not how you conduct business."

ME: I did contact Maki beforehand. Hence the email(s) he and I exchanged. Are you saying you don't get this point because it's been made very clear in earlier posts/comments. Also, what does the original post I made have to do with "the way you [I] conduct business?" My business and this topic of copying are two completely separate things dear.

YOU: "You do not throw around threats of lawsuit over such trivial matter. Again another lack of professionalism and breaking the code of conduct that is set forth by bloggers."

ME: Read the posts I made. I never threatened anyone. I said that I saved a complete page copy (HTML) and snapshot to possibly have my attorneys review it. Like I said, I did contact Dosh Dosh before ever posting the post on our site. If you're talking about these codes of conduct: http://blogging.wikia.com/wiki/Blogger's_Code_of_Conduct then why have you broken them too? It says, and I quote: "When we encounter conflicts and misrepresentation in the internet, we make every effort to talk privately and directly to the person(s) involved--or find an intermediary who can do so--before we publish any posts or comments about the issue." You didn't contact me privately before making your comments and you're not involved or own any part of Dosh Dosh. So you commented freely without contacting me first or even posting on my blog first to ask questions for more clarity. This makes you look rather ridiculous that you can put me up to a standard that doesn't also apply to you. You are a blogger and made those initial name calling comments, correct??

Just for the record, if you're going to throw any "code of conduct" points this way then it should be known that it looks as if you broke (in part) #1 and #10 as well. I don't consider myself a "blogger" since it's far from my full time job. In fact, it's about 5% of what I/we do here at SEO Position on a daily basis (except for the past few days dealing with this mess). But I truly think you should really go back and read everything that's been said before you say that I threatened anyone or before any "blogger code of ethics" remarks.

Hey, I got tired after reading some of the comments on both sites :-( but I think the IP address of him being on your blog hours before and never mentioning this on his site even when you made it a point in your initial emails exchanged to him is a dead giveaway. He said he didn't know whether he was on your site or not or didn't remember he was ever there but considering the similarity of the two posts is seems super strange to forget something like this.

He said that he'd rather you not post his surfing habits on your site in his comments. Why wouldn't he? Or why would he care rather? Just curious.

I dont know either of your sites. Came across Maki's blog via google and read his retort to Brian, and of course I was real irritated with Brian. How could he say something like that?

BUT, then I come here and read this and start to think things through a little, now I'm just not sure.

Theres the IP address thing. That doesn't seem good. Then in Maki's reply on his blog he proclaims how he always gives credit to other bloggers by links, etc, but I don't think I found any links on the numerous posts I read (except the 3 or 4 articles with links he's quick to point out - but so few?)

Then of course theres the images. I'm not a graphics experts by any means, but even I know that the odds of getting the exact same image with same dimentions - near impossible.

Suzi please shut the f up. Your like a little chiwawa.

Now I'm not saying he stole the content, I'm just saying that its pretty odd.

John