I often do keyword searches on the major search engines to determine my current position within them. I noticed that docstoc was embedding .pdf files I had created. Not only were they using my bandwidth, they were redirecting the internal links within the .pdf file to their own site.

How is this anything other than…

A.) BANDWIDTH THEFT
B.) COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
C.) OUTRIGHT LINK THEFT

Outrageous!

I sent them an email, and they removed the content, but what balls! Now I often use the meta information from websites to display information regarding websites I may or may not be linking to.

The difference is, META information is intended for use by bots. PDF files that authors create were never intended to be embedded and have their links redirected to another website. I would imagine someone will be suing the hell out of docstoc fairly quickly.

Anyone else have experience with the same problem from this website???

***Update***

As it turns out, they have a ton of additional files from my website embedded in their website. What’s the difference in my putting an Iframe in my website and redirecting their links with JavaScript? Not freakin’ much I can tell you, and anyone with any REASONABILITY will easily see it.

I’ve had to make an additional requests to them, and will let you know how it turns out.