TechyDad

Defeating BuzzMyFx Content Scrapers

January 20, 2014 TechyDad Blogging, Copyright, Internet

My next post was going to be one about WordPress issues, but then something else came up. That post will still go live on Wednesday. Right now, I want to talk to you about content thieves and scrapers.

We had a run-in with some content scrapers two years ago. That scraper took the content, but left the image links intact. At the time, I showed how to defeat that particular variety of scraper. This scraper, however, was trickier.

I’m not sure what the purpose of “BuzzMyFx” is beyond content hijacking. If you “check” to see if your site is scraped by them (by going to YourSiteName.buzzmyfx.com), you might see that your site isn’t being scraped. However, your mere act of checking will CAUSE them to start scraping your site. Scraped sites have all content redirected through their servers. Images, Stylesheets, JavaScript files, and more all seem to pour through BuzzMyFx’s servers instead of yours. What’s worse is that, since all links go to BuzzMyFx now, clicking on a link to another site causes that site’s content

It didn’t take long to deduce what was going on. BuzzMyFx is a server side scraper. Imagine someone coming to your site under normal circumstances. They tell their browser to load “www.MyWebSite.com”. The browser then contacts the server hosting your site asking for that page. The server gives the page to the browser which shows it to you. Simple, right?

BuzzMyFx adds an extra layer. If you go to MyWebSite.BuzzMyFx.com, your browser goes to BuzzMyFx’s server first. BuzzMyFx’s server then contacts your server (as if it was a browser) for the page. Your server gives the page to the “BuzzMyFx browser” as it does to all other browsers requesting pages. BuzzMyFx then alters the page’s code to direct all links back to them. They also add in their own StatCounter script and change ad code to give them the revenue instead of the site owner. Finally, they give the changed version of the page to you.

Pretty scummy, right? Of course, by doing this, they are committing massive copyright infringement at the very least. At $750 – $150,000 per infringement, dozens of infringements per site scraped, and possibly hundreds of thousands of sites affected, this could land them on the hook for millions of dollars. Then there are the problems encountered if they are using a trademarked logo/name without authorization.

So how do you stop them?

Thankfully, servers keep logs of every visit. As you loaded this up to read this post, my server dutifully recorded information such as your IP address, where you were referred from, the current date and time, and what page you were loading up. This happens at all websites you visit, but not all people know how to read the logs. As a webmaster, I am well versed in reading server logs.

I loaded up their scraped version of my site while checking my server logs and there it was: 192.151.156.170. That was the IP address doing the scraping.

Next, I opened up my “.htaccess” file. This is a special file on your web site that controls who can access your site and what they can and can’t see. I added the following lines at the beginning:

RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^192\.151\.156\.170$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/content-thief.html
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /content-thief.html [R,L]

Finally, I created a simple HTML page called “content-thief.html” with big, bold, red letters warning people that this was a scraped site and they should go to my real site. (I didn’t link to my real site since the link would be altered, so I just spelled it out.) You can go ahead and copy my “content-thief.html” page for your own usage. Just be sure to change the site name to your own.

Unfortunately, BuzzMyFx has already cached some of my content, so the main page of my “BuzzMyFx-ed” site doesn’t show this warning. Still, as their content expires and their server tries to grab the new content, it will be replaced by my warning. (I went easy on them. My initial reaction was to redirect them to some hard core pornography. I didn’t want my name linked with that though.)

The other problem is that they can change their IP address which will let them bypass this rule. I can add their new IP address in, but it will be a constant effort to keep up with them. Perhaps the best remedy would be for all affected site owners to contact the people who run this “service.” Unfortunately, they’ve hidden who they are from WHOIS, but they can’t hide two things: 1) Their domain name is registered from eNom and 2) Their site is hosted by ~~CloudFlare.com~~ DataShack.net. If we can’t get them to stop, we can always get their hosting and domain name cut off.

Here’s hoping this scraper menace ends soon so we can all get back to producing great content instead of trying to protect our content from being scraped.

UPDATE: CloudFlare.com is denying being their host. As Heather commented below, they say they are a “reverse proxy, pass-through security service.” I’m guessing that BuzzMyFx is using CloudFlare to hide their server’s real IP address. However, the IP address I obtained that was seizing my content (192.151.156.170) isn’t “hidden” at all. That IP address comes from DataShack.net. So focus communication on them, not CloudFlare.

UPDATE #2: If you aren’t technically inclined enough to know how to fiddle with htaccess and/or FTP files to your server, but you are using WordPress, you can also use the WP-Ban plugin to keep them off your site. This plugin lets you list IP addresses and even leave a specific message for those IP addresses to see.

UPDATE #3: According to Lazy Budget Chef, even if you manage to contact BuzzMyFx, they will try to sell you a domain protection package to “steal the blogger’s legal right to their blog, their log in credentials, mailing list, and other personal information.” So even if you manage to contact these scrapers, don’t sign anything they give you! You shouldn’t need to sign some form of contract for them to cease scraping – they should just stop. Be very wary of these people.

UPDATE #4: It looks like we’ve won this battle. BuzzMyFx seems to be down. They could still flee to another hosting provider (or even the same one signed up under a different account) and start their service back up. Even if they don’t come back, I’m sure other scrapers will take BuzzMyFx’s place. Still, you need to take each victory as it comes. Congratulations and thanks for helping take down this scraper, everyone!

NOTE: The “burglar” image above is by tzunghaor and is available from OpenClipArt.org.

The Purpose of Social Media

January 20, 2014 TechyDad Social Media

I’ll admit it: Sometimes I wonder why I spend time on social media. All too often, it feels like a treadmill of giveaway entries, product tweets, and photos of locations that – while beautiful – I’ll likely not see in person anytime soon. Often, it can feel like time spent on my "social media life" can take away from time spent in my real life. Furthermore, speaking on social media can often feel like you are trying to whisper in the middle of a hurricane. Something that happened on Thursday, however, reminded me of the real purpose behind social media.

I was getting ready to make dinner, when I saw this series of tweets from SelfishMom. (Screen captures are linked to the actual tweets.)

We’ve known Amy for years. We’ve seen her at various Disney World events as well as at BlogHer. In addition, B spoke with her quite a lot at SheStreams one year. Beyond the face-to-face meetings, though, we all tweet to each other quite a bit. B and her send messages to each other via Facebook as well.

So when I saw that Amy was having blog problems I asked if I could help. After all, I considered Amy a friend and couldn’t leave her in a fetal position surrounded by empty potato chip bags and Hershey bar wrappers! I was able to talk her through some debugging steps to solve the issue. In the end, it wasn’t a hacker and we were able to recover all of her posts. How we did it will be a second blog post. Look for that on Wednesday.

Back to the question of "why social media", though. At one point, Amy asked me how much I charged per hour. She mentioned that she wouldn’t want someone to expect her to write for free. She was right. I do freelance work and, when I do it, I expect to be paid. However, this was different. This was a friend in immediate need. Helping a friend recover their blog is a lot different than, say, redesigning a website (even if the site I’m redesigning is a friend’s).

In the end, that’s what social media is all about: Forming friendships with people whom you would never have met were it not for the Internet. Amy lives in the same state as we do, but the chances of us running into each other (much less forming a friendship) sans Internet/social media would be slim. Add in the other people we’ve met online who hail from across the coast or even different countries and it’s easy to see the real power of social media: Helping people befriend people online when you would never have even known about them otherwise.

Though I don’t get to see my social media friends in real life as often as I’d like (and some I haven’t met in person yet but really want to), I enjoy spending time chatting with my online friends. I like seeing what they are up to, sharing their highs, comforting them if I can during their lows, reaching out if I need help, and helping in turn when my friends need it. Social media is about the people you meet.

A WiiU Multi-Tasking Addiction

January 17, 2014 TechyDad Video Games

We recently got a WiiU (thanks, GeekDads). As I hooked it up, I figured that it would let us play some new games – perhaps with better graphics – but I didn’t think it would radically change how I play console games. Boy was I wrong.

The core of this change is the WiiU’s new tablet-controller. When I first saw photos of the controller, I figured it would be a huge failure. After all, it was very bulky compared to the Wii’s minimalistic controller. What I didn’t consider, though, was the multi-tasking possibilities.

Suppose I want to play Super Mario 3D World, but B wants to watch The Colbert Report. Previously, our only option that would let both of us do what we wanted would be having B go into the bedroom to watch. Now, however, I can use the WiiU tablet controller’s screen to play a game while B uses the TV to watch a show. In addition, thanks to the tablet controller having a headphone jack, I can listen to my game without bothering B as she watches her show.

The downside to this? Games are now much easier to pick up and play on a whim. For example, as I try to write this, the tablet controller is beckoning me to play just one more level of Super Mario 3D World. I can see this becoming a dangerous addiction.

NOTE: I won the WiiU and Super Mario 3D World from a GeekDads giveaway. However, I wasn’t asked to blog about it at all. I just felt like writing about it.

Learning Lessons From Frozen Songs

January 15, 2014 TechyDad Disney, Movies, Music

Disney’s Frozen is a fantastic movie about the power of true love. It also has a series of amazing songs. From the enthusiastic "First Time In Forever" to the touching "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" to the hilarious "Fixer Upper" and "Reindeers Are Better Than People", the songs never feel tacked on. They are a part of the plot and advance the story as much as the non-sung dialog does. They also can help teach some valuable lessons.

(Warning: I’m going to discuss some plot points in the movie. I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, though. If you haven’t seen the movie, go and see it now.)

"Let It Go"

Elsa has lived for years afraid that people would find out about her magic powers. She’s repressed them and hidden them away. However, once her powers were uncovered and she fled into a self-imposed exile, she found the experience freeing.

The lesson here is that fear can imprison us. We can get so wrapped up in the fear of what other people will think of us that we put on an "other people friendly" mask to hide our true selves. It can be very freeing to stop caring what other people think and just do what makes you happy.

I learned this lesson a long time ago. There is a small group of people whose opinion I value. Beyond that, I’m not going to stop doing something that I enjoy just because some stranger or acquaintance might think that I’m odd for liking that.

"In Summer"

Anna and Kristoff have just met Olaf. He’s a nice fellow who likes warm hugs. Of course, he’s no ordinary person. He’s a snowman (brought to life thanks to Anna’s sister’s magic). Olaf dreams of experiencing summer. Despite his lack of experience with warm things (and they tend to do to snow), he holds on to his dream of one day experiencing summer.

Olaf teaches us to follow our dreams. Other people might tell us that we’re crazy or that we’re destined to fail horribly. Maybe they are right and maybe they aren’t. If we don’t try, though, we will definitely fail. So ignore the naysayers and keep pursuing your dreams.

If you haven’t already seen Frozen, go to the movies and see it as soon as possible. It’s a wonderful movie, right up there with the Disney classics. I’m also not surprised that Frozen is going to be a Broadway show. This movie is destined to be a Disney classic.

NOTE: I’ve worked with Disney in the past, but I received no compensation for this post. I just wanted to share some lessons that I saw within the songs in Frozen.

Smartphone Fun Cutting Button

January 13, 2014 TechyDad Games, Smartphone/Tablet Apps

When you think of fun smartphone or tablet games, you think about launching ill-tempered birds or slicing ropes to feed candy to monsters. What you don’t usually think about is taking a pair of scissors and cutting some buttons off of a piece of fabric. So when I saw a game called Buttons and Scissors listed as Amazon’s Free App of the Day, I was skeptical. By all rights, this should be one of the most boring games around. However, it not only works, but is fun, challenging, and highly addictive.

The basic premise is that there are a series of buttons in various colors on a piece of fabric (as I said before). As you match up two or more buttons horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, a pair of scissors appears to cut them off. You can’t match up buttons in a string if other buttons, of different colors, are blocking the path. As you clear some buttons, other possible button clearances emerge.

You need to be careful, though. To win each round, you need to clear all of the buttons. One wrong move can easily lead you with buttons remaining and no way to clear them out. This means that the obvious clearing might not be the one you have to take. The game forces you to think out every move.

Don’t worry about getting bored with the game either. Each game package includes 100 levels and there are 16 packages. That’s 1,600 different levels to puzzle out. More than enough to keep you cutting off buttons for a long time to come.

After trying this game out, I found it so much fun that I gave it to my kids as well on their Galaxy tablets. They loved it too. Finally, B tried it and, before she knew it, she was addicted to cutting buttons off of a simple piece of fabric.

This is a wonderfully addicting game that challenges players of all ages to think out each move. I definitely recommend it. Buttons and Scissors is free from Amazon and Google Play. There’s also a pro version available from Amazon for $1.99.

NOTE: I received Buttons and Scissors as part of Amazon’s Free App of the Day program. There was no requirement to blog about it. I simply wanted to share a game that I loved playing.

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