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I know this isn't ethical, but is there anything we can do about other sites copying from SU?

Any information about the AsyncMapLite Trojan?

http://answerleaks.com/any-information-asyncmaplite-trojan/superuser/321635

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  • Thank you all for your updates!
    – Nixphoe
    Sep 19, 2011 at 15:48
  • Wow, all three within one minute. Not bad :P
    – slhck
    Sep 19, 2011 at 16:02
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    Google already did something about it earlier this year, they changed their algorithm so that websites that are "copying content from other websites" amongst other low-quality characteristics get ranked lower. Given that most visitors come from Google, this has already been a huge change; so, I don't see any problem with those sites anymore, they do not form a real risk to our community... Sep 19, 2011 at 22:19

3 Answers 3

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Questions & Answers are licensed under Creative Commons Wiki with Attribution Required license.

As Jeff had written:

So let me clarify what we mean by attribution. If you republish this content, we require that you:

  • Visually indicate that the content is from Stack Overflow, Meta Stack Overflow, Server Fault, or Super User in some way. It doesn’t have to be obnoxious; a discreet text blurb is fine.
  • Hyperlink directly to the original question on the source site (e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12345)
  • Show the author names for every question and answer
  • Hyperlink each author name directly back to their user profile page on the source site (e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username). Furthermore, the links must not be nofollowed.

Since Answer Leaks is respecting all the above conditions, it is abiding by the user contribution license and not doing anything illegal.

As Jeff mentions:

I hope that clears up any confusion — feel free to remix and reuse to your heart’s content, as long as a good faith effort is made to attribute the content!

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  • They don't attribute answers. See e.g. here.
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Sep 20, 2011 at 16:53
  • @Daniel Beck, on that question, down below the "Other Answers" section, there is a line noting the question originated on SuperUser and provides a link to the original question as well as to the profile of the OP. Sep 20, 2011 at 22:55
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    @music2myear try reading that blog post everyone is quoting in their answers. All posts they copy must be attributed by name, questions and answers. But there's no answer attributions on that site.
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Sep 21, 2011 at 5:07
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That particular site manages to meet all the attribution requirements for creative commons licensed work from Stack Exchange.

On the page you linked they hit the nail on:

  • Indicate the source of the text
  • Link directly back to the question

    This question and answers originated from superuser.com

  • Show the author name

  • Link direct to each author's profile

    Question by WinWin

Not only that, but the links aren't rel="nofollow" as well. Another good mark.

And the bit from the blog post:

This is about the spirit of fair attribution. Attribution to the website, and more importantly, to the individuals who so generously contributed their time to create that content in the first place!

Anyway, I hope that clears up any confusion — feel free to remix and reuse to your heart’s content, as long as a good faith effort is made to attribute the content!

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  • * Show the author names for every question and answer* -- they fail to do this is the few topics where they copied answers.
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Sep 20, 2011 at 17:00
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Bear in mind that the content on the entire Stack Exchange network is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike license, so others are allowed to copy and reuse the content as long as they attribute it to the source correctly.

The team have previously defined exactly what they expect of someone reusing the data to do:

Let me clarify what we mean by attribution. If you republish this content, we require that you:

  1. Visually indicate that the content is from Stack Overflow, Meta Stack Overflow, Server Fault, or Super User in some way. It doesn’t have to be obnoxious; a discreet text blurb is fine.

  2. Hyperlink directly to the original question on the source site (e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12345)

  3. Show the author names for every question and answer

  4. Hyperlink each author name directly back to their user profile page on the source site (e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username)

By “directly”, I mean each hyperlink must point directly to our domain in standard HTML visible even with JavaScript disabled, and not use a tinyurl or any other form of obfuscation or redirection. Furthermore, the links must not be nofollowed.

The page you've referenced appears to do all four, and I can't see any nofollow on the links, so to me this appears to be a valid reuse of the source question.


Here is the Meta Stack Overflow question that covers attribution issues (what I've said here mostly repeats that). The second answer there can be edited to add in any site you find that is breaking these rules (otherwise, consider emailing the team or posting on meta).

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