If You’re Going To Steal From Me, Give Me Credit.

Blatant stealing and copying of information is something we all have to live with in the internet age. Sadly, many people just aren’t aware of copyright or intellectual property laws; they think that since something was on the internet they can freely use it.

Because of this thinking, it’s sometimes necessary to put “traps” into many web applications. You’ll notice that Google Maps uses something called trap streets to catch other map applications that are copying from them. Basically, a trap street is a street that exists on the map but doesn’t exist in real life. This way, Google can see if somebody just copied their information.

Print dictionaries have words misspelled on purpose, and online dictionaries have “trap words.”

On NoSlang.com – my internet slang dictionary I have several trap words as well, and it’s quite fun to find people just outright copying my dictionary.

Anyway, I came across this site that stole a pretty large list of my words. They even included my favorite trap word: istwfn which they define as “I stole this word from noslang.com.”

here’s a screenshot:

This is a pretty common occurrence since I don’t believe in making my dictionary any less accessible (if you’re looking something up it should be easy to copy and paste, right?)

What irks me is that today’s word thief didn’t just steal from me, they credited my word list to Netlingo.com at the top of the page. Now, I know netlingo.com’s admin and she doesn’t steal from me (as I don’t steal from her.) We each run our own separate databases. If we have some of the same words it’s most likely because somebody submitted it to both places.

“istwfn” doesn’t exist in netlingo, so they clearly copied this list from noslang.com. So why does netlingo get the credit?

As a copyright thief, SACS consulting fails. As a consulting company, I can only imagine what good advice you’d get from them if they’ve stolen most of their web page content.

Yes, I could have sent them a COD letter (and I will,) but I think it’s more fun to point out their failure here. Don’t you?

August 5th, 2008

Again, Why Is My Info On Somebody’s Laptop?

Bruce Schneier reports about another stolen laptop containing the information of 33,000 people enrolled in the Clear program. For those unfamiliar, the “Clear Program” is simply a $100 fee to avoid airport security.

Schneier is correct that nothing at the airport is actual security, but there’s a deeper question:

WHY THE FUCK IS EVERYBODY’S INFO LYING AROUND ON LAPTOPS?

There’s simply no need whatsoever for any of my information to be on anybody’s laptop. There’s no reason that law enforcement, government, retail executives, TSA, or any other employees need to take my information home with them at night. It doesn’t need to be on a laptop at all.

What if they need to access it at home you say? That’s what vpn taiwan service is for. My work computer is over 3,000 miles away from me and I still log in daily to access files – files that never leave my office. It’s not an issue.

I usually hate any type of common sense legislation, but I think it’s time we make a new law prohibiting credit card and social security numbers from being stored on portable devices. Not a day goes by where I don’t read about a laptop being stolen containing credit card numbers, social security numbers, or other personal information.

It’s ridiculous how often these laptops full of data are stolen and it’s not hard to avoid: Don’t store it on laptops, thumb drives, portable hard drives, cell phones, or ipods. There’s no reason to.

August 5th, 2008