This guy is simply stealing people’s blog posts, making slight changes and re-posting them as his own writing.
What’s different about this guy is that he runs in the same circles as many of my friends and apparently used to work at Yahoo. I can’t wait to meet you, Josh.
Josh’s email is Jstomel@oversee.net. He works at Oversee.net.
There were rumors in the market that the company was being acquired for around 30 million.
Tonight, Founder and CEO Munjal Shah finally addressed the acquisition rumors around Riya on his blog, stating flatly that Riya continues as an independent company:
For the past few months, there have been many speculations about our future as an independent company. For various legal reasons I couldn’t and still can’t directly comment on these. However, at this time, Riya continues as an independent team fully focused on making our photo search dream a reality.
Robert Scoble just wrote about this as well, admitting that Microsoft took a look at Riya (passing on the price), and expressing his hope that they’ll take another look now that the Google deal has fallen through.
Either way, I’m just looking forward to the product finally shipping. Munjal says that will be at Demo in February.
And as an interesting side discussion, Peter Rip, a Riya investor (and a friend of mine) takes us all down a notch (TechCrunch is specifically mentioned) saying “Every report was factually incorrect at the time it was printed. I did not see one accurate characterization of any discussions Riya.com may or may not have had.â€
Ouch. But this can’t be entirely correct – Robert has confirmed in his blog that Microsoft met with Riya and passed on the deal. So at the very least, acquisition discussions were taking place.
Riya, the celebrated facial recognition company that has allowed in a few lucky alpha testers over the last few months, was the subject of significant acquisition rumors a few weeks ago. “Sources†put the price in the $30 million range, although the company was understandably silent, even during their launch party a few days later.
Tonight, Founder and CEO Munjal Shah finally addressed the acquisition rumors around Riya on his blog, stating flatly that Riya continues as an independent company:
For the past few months, there have been many speculations about our future as an independent company. For various legal reasons I couldn’t and still can’t directly comment on these. However, at this time, Riya continues as an independent team fully focused on making our photo search dream a reality.
Robert Scoble just wrote about this as well, admitting that Microsoft took a look at Riya (passing on the price), and expressing his hope that they’ll take another look now that the Google deal has fallen through.
Either way, I’m just looking forward to the product finally shipping. Munjal says that will be at Demo in February.
And as an interesting side discussion, Peter Rip, a Riya investor (and a friend of mine) takes us all down a notch (TechCrunch is specifically mentioned) saying “Every report was factually incorrect at the time it was printed. I did not see one accurate characterization of any discussions Riya.com may or may not have had.â€
Ouch. But this can’t be entirely correct – Robert has confirmed in his blog that Microsoft met with Riya and passed on the deal. So at the very least, acquisition discussions were taking place.
Here’s another one he stole from me. Compare the screen shot below from Josh’s site to my post here.
UPDATE: Josh called me today and apologized (I forgot to ask, but I wonder who gave him my cell phone number). He also posted an apology on his blog. Ok, I’ve accepted his apology and I’m now over this.
We are with you Michael, we first read your blog before reading anything else…
Here’s an instance where http://www.copyscape.com come in very handy!
At least you called him out. I don’t think he will do it again. Remember, imitation is a form of flattery no matter how pathetic it is.
I see now that he took the first post down and added a link to techcrunch. The second one is still up. This is so pathetic. This is not some anonymous splogger, he’s in my circle of friends. Unbelievable.
How pathetic. Keep mentioning his name for a few days and people will have it stuck in their heads as a non-credible source pretty quickly (Penny Arcade effect?).
wow that is pretty lame. what a jerk
Should be interesting to see if he responds to this on his blog, or better yet – reword what you just wrote about him.
WTF?
What on earth is the advantage in doing that?
Infamy?
Bigger picture: this is small fries compare to what is really going on out there. Asia is making more than fake handbags and fake tamiflu – they are making fake copycats of popular web sites.
If he shares friends with many of you it’s for a reason. He’s not bad… only his blogging style, which will improve along with his ability to share the proper “link love.” (Thanks Greg.) Jason Bentely is right. Imitation is a form of flattery. I’m sorry he hasn’t shown it in the proper way but know that will improve. Patience all. No need for the blog rage. He is a co-worker and a friend, and I post on his behalf or the latter.
Jay – huh? He needs to publicly apologize, and take the second post down, and any others that he’s stolen. He didn’t fail to link. He outright stole content and pretended it was his. This isn’t “beginner’s error”, this is bullshit.
I like the comment from Josh who asked you to keep repeating Josh’s name so that it becomes a non-credible source. Funny. Also, I have sony disks at home if that proves to be the only solution for your computer problem. Email if needed.
As you can see on his blog, anything greater than a single sentence is a challenge for him.
He must be from the age of college grads who plagiarized papers to make it through. It’s not just imitation; it’s plagiarism and violation of copyright.
Where’s the RIAA when you need ‘em? Seriously, though…that just sucks.
He has now amended his post and added a link to Techcrunch. No apology just a cover up.
My comment “Plagiarism – Shame, Shame, Shame” has been removed.
Would he really like to be on a site like Raven’s Rants, “Copycat Hall of Shame”
http://www.ravensrants.com/chos.shtml
Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow
It’s 1:18AM and this is what I come home to.
First and Foremost, let me APOLOGIZE Michael!
I am extremely sorry for taking your post.
Now
#1. I am super swamped these days, and when I take content I always, if you look in the past Link where the article was originated.
#2. I have only been blogging for about 3.5 weeks now, and I am still learning.
#3. During the day when i do posts usually i through the content up, then at 2-3am I will go back and edit. (This because our interface on http://www.blogsource.com is still very general, thus it takes me more time to put in hyperlinks and to modify the html)
#4. I take NO NO NO credit for copying and modifying the articles and writings. This was NOT my intent at all! I apologize!!
Last and final, i appreciate everyone commenting on this issue as everyday I learn new things. Tonight, i just learned a HUGE lesson. Re; Credibility, I am sorry, I am just so passionate about this .com world right now that i try to put out everything as fast as I can, and there are still 4-5 stories i still need to put up this evening.
Your right, my posts are usually short and sweet, if they are long article I will either post the url or I will post the article with the url.
Thank you very much for calling this to my attention, and I apologize for everyone and anyone i may have offended. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to elaborate further.
This market is too small to step on anyone’s toes, and I am trying not to do that. Please forgive
Josh Stomel
I would also like to call to the attention of Stephen Labuda
I want to aplogize personally to you as well Stephen, as I have just began to blog about 3.5 weeks ago. I would like to inquire to your post though;
” More importantly, Josh is being called out by a number of bloggers who are accusing him of stealing and re-publishing blog content. ”
Can you please give me more information on any other bloggers that I am “Stealing” info from?
Thanks
Josh Stomel
Jay, I appreciate you stepping in on this issue.
Michael, also, if I am in the same circle of people you know they you must believe me when i say, I am not a bad guy, and by all means I had no intention of hurting you. Again, i apologize. If and issue like this arises in the future, it would be best to call it directly to me.
Again, it’s best to deal with issues directly with the person, rather than posting it online.
Thanks
Sure Josh,
After I posted my previous post I thought I would simply enter your URL into http://www.copyscape.com and see if anyone was copying your site. It would appear that you have edited another 4 entries on your site to hide the original source of the entries since I first looked.
You still have the nice first line cut & paste job from the cnn.com news item regarding ‘Amp’d Mobile’.You have also now edited the last two as I type this comment as we speak.You can see the image snapshots of this activity in the past 45-60 minutes.
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/8593/joshstomelcopyscapelinks14nx.jpg
http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/1645/joshstomelcopyscapelinks20kr.jpg
http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/9645/joshstomelcopyscapelinks33gx.jpg
You know you have done wrong here. And ask for evidence or proof, whilst you are in the process of going even further in deceiving others.
Regards,
Stephen Edgar
******
113 Domain names registered.
http://joshstomel.blogsource.com/bio.mhtml
44 posts December – 52 posts November
******
“Looking for an EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT”
http://joshstomel.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=41681
“We are in Downtown L.A. and growing fast.. need a strong EA.”
******
Sounds like you got an apology Michael. You might want to check out: http://Plagiarism.org
since plagiarism on online and in the blogosphere appears to be a growing problem.
1. Thank you for removing the second post.
2. Thanks for the apology
3. I hate qualified apologies. I’m certainly do not feel the need to defend my actions, and how dare you come on my blog and tell me what I did wrong after your despicable behavior.
4. I see that you had time last night to make four new and insightful posts, and yet were too busy to post a public apology on your blog. I find that interesting.
This provides an interesting insight into the creation of an online reputation. Most people blog for reputation issues, and bad blogging can seriously damage a reputation. Clearly blogging is a double-edged sword. My only question is whether Josh’s newfound infamy will increase his visibility. Is it true in blogging that the only bad news is no news? In short, Josh’s stealing and Michael’s smackdown are interesting, but the long-term impact of this interaction will be far more interesting.
Stephen, thanks for your comment (two above). Josh, its time to face reality. You should just shut this blog down.
My comments may be too geeked for this conversation but there are ways using technology to try to cut down on stealing. If you are using a hosting company that is running Apache (most are) you can use access to deny access to individuals.
You can modify your .htaccess file to deny access to the IP address of the person stealing. It won’t work all of the time, but it might work. In the case of an individual if you can log their originating IP, block them. In the case of a web site that is using your RSS feed, do a netcraft.com search to find the IP of their server and block that IP.
If you are not that geeked, but have a friend that is, show them this post and ask if they will help you block some bad visitors.
I have had a content site online since 1995 and have had people stealing my content for years….this can work.
josh,
if i were you, i’d take a deep breath and step out of the blogosphere for awhile. you can’t be that naive to blame your plagarism on being a newbie or being busy or not knowing better. you stole michael’s work and now you have been caught trying to cover up some of your other postings. your credibility has evaporated to the point where why would people want to read you given they’ll never be sure if its actually original thought.
Whoa! That comment goes straight for Josh’s jugular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugular_vein
Mike don’t mess around, Charlie Brown!
Josh, I see you just got another post up at 10:44 am. That’s five since this mess started! Good work, don’t let us over zealous attack-bloggers get you down. I can see you are waaaay too busy to post an apology.
Josh’s excuses, to me, mirror very closely the ones I listed in a recent article on Plagiarism Today.
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/?p=143
Though I need to include the “lack of time” excuse because it’s more common than I remembered when writing the article, I think pretty much everything he said can be summed up in one of those excuses.
In the end, it appears to me that Josh is just another unapologetic plagiarist who got caught. However, I am going to write him for an article on this incident and see if more lies under the surface.
Stephen: I’m glad that you liked my Copycat Hall of Shame. I really need to get around to updating it though. It’s just hard to figure out which ones really belong on there anymore. When you’ve dealt with 300 cases, they all begin to look alike.
Josh Stomel AIM = GBUNIT2
As of 3:35pm he is online.
I doubt he’d be stupid enough to give out his actual phone number, but in case he was, feel free to give him a piece of your mind.
[15:43] GBUNIT2: 8184585877
Josh… now you know the power of blogging.
Josh, if you’re still reading this comment feed, stand up for yourself. there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and the traffic you’ll get from all this is probably your best chance to actually get an online presence. DON’T shut down your blog. STOP tripping over yourself to appologize. DO learn from your dumbass mistake. DO make sometime to come up with original content and take advantage of all the traffic and buzz going on about your site.
Whoever wrote that last comment is awesome! Yeah! I made a mistake, who cares, everyone makes mistakes. I learned a lesson, i apolgized and I am going to kick some more ass. Next year q1 is going to be HOT!!! No way on Hell i am taking down my blog!! I have a great readership, i know some amazing people, and this is not holding me back 1 BIT!! Thank you everyone who supports me, and for those that don’t, so be it
Thanks whoever you are !
Yeah, who cares!
Funny.
Sad.
Josh, here’s the deal. This situation isn’t about me. It’s about you and whether you feel bad about what happened. And more importantly, whether you feel bad that you did this, or feel bad that you got caught. Because, ultimately, that determines your character, and the kind of life you will lead. Everything you’ve done suggests you are upset that you got caught only, and that tells me you won’t be able to gain people’s trust in life.
I admire your can-do, always positive, never-say-die attitude. But real life is much deeper than what you learn in a self help book.
I don’t mean this to be condescending. Really. But what you are writing is screaming out that you are not a deep, thoughtful, high quality individual who recognizes that there are other people in the world besides yourself.
I bought a domain name from someone who worked at oversee.net. I definately got the impression, while I was talking with the previous owner, that that was a somewhat spammy operation. I know they’ve been intentionally hiring search engine employees from Yahoo and Google, and I can only assume it’s because of their knowledge of the internal workings of the respective search engines and/or ad systems. Actually, IIRC, he said that the guys they picked up from Google were still employed by Google, and were working at oversee.net part-time. I got the impression that they weren’t disclosing the employment to Google.
Actually, amusingly enough, he offered to fly me out to Los Angeles for a job interview with oversee.net, but I turned him down. (The mention of Yahoo/Google employees was part of his pitch, incidentally.) Heh… go to buy a domain name, get a job offer from a shady purveyor of fine domain parking products. Cute.
I am a recent victim of this blatant plagiarism as well, and am spending some cash on advertising making sure others in the industry know of the shady ways of this individual.
Figures…look who he is working for… a wannabe google.
Josh Stomel is the biggest scam artist on the tech planet. No one should ever work with him. He runs a fake recruiting company called NeoHire that spams people on LinkedIn and calls itself a company. Doesn’t surprise me he stole content. He also has some resume site that is a joke.