Ryan Wiggs

Anyone heard of a Ryan Wiggs? If not, than perhaps you need to. This toad has stolen a large number of clips from GH Online and, even worse, several clips/graphics from TV Ark. What's more, he's been cross-linking the clips and therefore stealing our bandwidth!

The offending material can be seen at

http://www.freewebs.com/ryanmikeandyinka_2/videovault.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/ryanmikeandyinka_2/vidvault2.htm

I wouldn't give this creep the thrill of publicity if I could help it. But if you run a TV site, Ryan could well set his sights on it. TV Home graphics have also been posted.

So be warned. Ryan is either very stupid or very determined - he gave us the runaround on the GH Online forum until I banned him today.

Another Lee Bedwoo?

Why have you linked to a site that's stealing your bandwidth?

<camp> I despair. I really do. </camp>

What's the clip of the memorial plaque?

How can one "steal" what has already been "stolen" from television in the first place?

Are the compilers of such sites as TV Ark interested in personal glorification or getting their clips of love out to every Clarky Cat possible?

It's their encoding so it seems right they'd want to protect their encoded files, no matter how badly done they might be. Sure, it's already stolen from some VHS tapes with Star Wars and Beadle's About bookending them but their tapes, their property so that digital version of it is common thievery as far as that persons concerned. Personally, I think they're pretty much against others using their content and bandwidth and saying it's theirs with no permission of it. Wouldn't link to the offending site though, what's the point? Just chewing up more of that bandwidth, isn't it?

And...
No, get over Lee already, he's just some weirdo who's out for attention so stop giving him it otherwise he will be back.

I agree its probably a very bad idea posting the link to this guy's site, as folks like him will probably not understand the 'its not good publicity' idea. Personally on the subject of the websnatchers, I think it's better when the leechers *try* to link to stuff directly, as its so much easier then to track them down through logs, block the downloads and/or play allsorts of dirty tricks based on the referrers. Goatse images anyone?

I'd rather not have to of course, but at least you can see what a monkey this prat is making of us. Other webmasters might also recognise their own work on these pages - Ryan isn't at all fussy.

No thanks, you know how I am but yes, that is a very good idea and many sites do that to stop hotlinking and the like but in Luxo's case, to circumvent the leechers.

Let's get a few things into perspective here...

The website in question has been set-up on some cheapo webspace with a non-memorable URL, and quite possibly the worst web design I've ever seen.

Somehow, I doubt the visitor numbers for that website hit more than 10 a day. But now that you've posted the link on TV Forum, not only have you advertised it to the masses, but you've also pushed it up Google's page-ranking system.

Secondly, I believe that the owner of the website is taking the píss. He's simply lifted the code and photos from TV Ark and stuck them on his webspace. Once he had downloaded a few clips from his site and got himself noticed by TV Ark...job done. Forum fame is now guaranteed.

As with most things in life Simon, some people just aren't worth wasting time and resources on. Just carry on doing what you do over at TV Ark, and let the cretins get on with it.

If I ran a rich-media website, I would only be worried if the content was being put onto what seemed to be a 'proper' website.

Well, perhaps I have. But it's rather difficult to raise this issue without saying where the site is!


Hopefully not for much longer. A complaint has been submitted to the ISP and I have contacts who deal with FreeWebs on a regular basis, and who might have some muscle to flex.



But if we did nothing, what sort of a message would that be sending? We know this site poses no real threat, yet if we sat back and let him get on with it, people would think we didn't care about our work being stolen.

Websnatching has always been a problem for us. It's easy to say stream the clips or have a login system, but both methods can be circumvented. This whole issue is one of principle, and the leeches must realise we're no soft touch.

They can stop people stealing band.. by editing the .htaccess file