Forums > MobyGames > websites stealing MobyGames content
Rola (8483) on 4/30/2014 3:53 PM · Permalink · Report
No wonder our traffic drops if Google finds our screenshots on other websites first.
http://www.myabandonware.com/game/kings-bounty-xg
(The above is just one example, among numerous other entries.) They even blatantly state they got MG permission? Of course without even providing a live link to us.
I can hardly believe it, especially that they are abandonware (read: old warez) site. (probably existing to promote some mobile app)
Shouldn't our staff take some action?
Simon Carless (1834) on 5/11/2014 5:19 PM · Permalink · Report
Yep, they didn't get permission of course. It's very difficult to enforce this type of stuff, obviously - a lot of the websites are fly by night and we can't DMCA them since we don't actually own the content. However, I hit these guys up so we'll see what happens!
Jo ST (24038) on 5/16/2014 5:11 PM · Permalink · Report
No work on comparing screenshots must be done in this case. Just a look on their starting page:
Quote:
"Screenies!
A lot of our games have screenshots, allowing you to discover the game, or confirm it is the right game you are looking for. Many thanks to MobyGames for the most of the screenshots."
Karsa Orlong (151835) on 5/16/2014 5:52 PM · Permalink · Report
Still, the source is added, so we may have some profit as well... "Screenshots from MobyGames.com"
R H (3) on 5/16/2014 9:31 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Google is a ton worse traffic "stealer" than all other websites combined when it comes to content in image form.
I can sing you all a nice song about 60% less traffic on the 26th January 2013 when google enabled its new image search which lets you view AND download any images directly in google itself instead of automatically link a searcher to the source of the website.
Without anti hotlinking scripts Game-Art-HQ.com would have had like 800 visitors per day instead of the handful thousand at that time. A ton of website owners worked on different scripts and made these available for the public. For two months my site where images are a more important part than texts did not even generate enough renevue to pay the server costs.
Sites like abandonware etc. are nothing against that. Together with the scripts i tried to find other channels to generate traffic like social networks. FB, Twitter, Tumblr etc. That and content which was interesting enough for big gaming websites like kotaku destructoid etc. helped to make it more independent from google. Today only a bit more than half of my visitors are finding the site through it thanks to these alternative ways to make something more known online. + a rising number of people who bookmarked the page.
I can only recommend to use more alternative channels to get visitors as well.
Here in Germany, we still have the old google image search btw because we have stronger copyright laws. The new /current image search by them would be seen as illegal by our laws.
As far as i know..Germany is today the ONLY country worldwide with that old image search lol.
Karsa Orlong (151835) on 5/17/2014 12:03 AM · Permalink · Report
Simple - source link leads to mobygames, even if one person will click on it, we could have one user more. Now try to imagine page with no such link. No link, no click. Better this than nothing I guess. It's obvious that MG has no human resources to fight with such activities, so even such link is a tribute to our website
Simon Carless (1834) on 5/17/2014 12:25 AM · Permalink · Report
BTW I spoke to the MyAbandonware guys and they said they had permission from previous MobyGames editors - either way, I made sure that they actually link to us, which they have done in their brand new redesign. So that's a nice step :) Eventually we will probably go Creative Commons Attribution license, which is pretty much the 'link to us with attribution' that we just set up with those guys.
But in the meantime, they appreciate us, we get some peripheral traffic, it works! I don't really think we can/should ask them to pull all the screens, given the confused 'ownership' issues... can you own a game screenshot by taking a picture of it if you don't own the game, etc? :)
Karsa Orlong (151835) on 5/17/2014 3:58 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Truth, covers belong to designers, game belongs to developer, music belongs to compositor, etc. - we can't own these materials at all. Of course, we could make an irremovable water mark like on the HOL http://hol.abime.net/5406/screenshot - but this will limit the rights of the original uploaders to use their materials (one of the (far) reasons why I have chosen MobyGames is a possibility to preserve my materials). I have nothing against using my contributions to non-commercial purposes - as long as the source is indicated.
lilalurl (733) on 5/17/2014 7:39 PM · Permalink · Report
Watermarks on HOL screenshots were done to prevent the very issue pointed in this thread.
If people are interested in getting some screenshots without the watermark, they can still contact Cody. Requests are usually well received if they are reasonable and soundly argued.
vileyn0id_8088 (21040) on 5/19/2014 10:50 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Karsa Orlong wrote--]I have nothing against using my contributions to non-commercial purposes - as long as the source is indicated.[/Q --end Karsa Orlong wrote--]
This.
It would be courteous of them to mention the original submitter's username. What sucks (for me) is that they drop the captions.
Pseudo_Intellectual (66360) on 5/20/2014 12:21 AM · Permalink · Report
We need an "embed this shot" widget that retains credit and caption!
MobyReed (325) on 5/22/2014 2:21 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Yeah, honestly, this is actually one of the least egregious examples I've seen. Sites scrape MobyGames every day and most don't credit us at all.
I block a lot of scrappers (and Brian did before me as well), but it's impossible to stop it entirely. They just change IPs.
If they link back to us, that's pretty much the best we can hope for, especially if they're outside the US (which they usually are).