I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (Full Version)

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RRR -> I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 15:09:39)

Since October I have been dealing with a person illegally using copyrighted images and text off of my site. Also he ownes an internet forum and has really been trashing my reputation and business with so many slanderous lies and things he claims I have done I can't even keep track anymore.

We do have civil and criminal grounds to get him on but since he is in another state and I am a small business I can't afford it. I have been in touch already with lawyers, FBI and the US attorney about it but all of them say we have to file suit in his state. So......


Also when you type my business name in a google search I come up in the first two or three positions then a thread full of lies about me on his forum comes up. It's entitled AVOID!!! (my business name)*******

You can all probably imagine the damage that is doing to my reputation. All people can see is the page title on the google search page because when you click on it you must login and be a member of the forum to read the content. That puts enough doubt in peoples minds to go to another business.

So I need some help in a couple of areas.
First I need to block all links (text and pictures) on his forum that go to copyrighted material on my site that he is using illegally.

Second I would like to know if there is any place I can report this person to for the slander and lies about me. And also for the thing on the google search. I know that has got to be against google standards rules or something but I don't know where to start trying to have it removed.

I am being a little vague on purpose about my business name and other details so this stalker doesn't see it but if anyone has any ideas I can prove everything about him in private if you require proof.

This all started when I was a moderator on this persons forum. It was family freindly back then and I agreed to help out. Then it started having porn posted all over the place and other objectionable things and the owner also started demanding money and goods from me. So I told him no more and that I was leaving. That day he started threatening me and my family and said if I didn't give him what he wants he would ruin me.

And I've been dealing with it for months now.
Since I work on things that criminals can not own and he is using images and articles from my site without my permission I really need to block all access to my site from his forum.
I know there is a way to do it but I don't know how.
I need your help figuring it out.

Thanks.



coreybryant -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 16:06:13)

Do a search for stop hotlinking (on here and google). This will show you how to stop hotlinking from your server to theirs.

I would ignore him. Being in business for so many years, and having millions of customers - sooner or later someone is not going to be a happy camper. the more times you reply to him / acknowledge him, the worse it will get.

You can report his site to Google, but I doubt they will do too much.



womble -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 16:47:14)

Welcome to OF RRR.

You might also want to check out your hosting control panel. Mine (cPanel) has some sort of anti-hotlinking built in - not sure if it's any good or not (never tried it), but it might be worth investigating if your control panel has anything similar. As Corey says, there are also plenty of anti-hotlinking scripts around if your control panel doesn't have anything like that. I also seem to remember seeing something on my control panel for denying IP addresses, so if you can find out his IP address by checking your server logs, and particularly requests for image files you know are being hotlinked, you may be able to block him that way. Actually, I've just realised, you may not even need to do that - if you go to www.dnsstuff.com, you can do a reverse DNS lookup (all the DNS tools are down at the bottom of the page - you have to scroll down to see them) and find an IP address from a domain name.

I know Nicole here on Outfront recently had someone using copyrighted text from her website, so you might want to check out some of her threads (unfortunately I can't remember which forum they were posted in, but with a little searching you should find them). I remember she was in contact with the copyrights office in the US - you might want to contact her and ask if she has any helpful suggestions from the dealings she had with them.

<edit> Also just another thought, if you know who his ISP is - you should be able to find that out by doing a whois search on his domain name (again, you can do that at dnsstuff.com), his ISP may not be too impressed with his antics if he's acting illegally. Usually ISPs have an email address for reporting abuse - usually something like abuse@yourisp.com - might be worth a shot.</edit>



jurgen -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 17:39:34)

For a first step I would restrict his IP address in your .htaccess file...

Something like that: 

deny from 219.153.9.11
deny from 219.153.9
deny from 24.29.16
deny from 24.199.81.206



Mike54 -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 18:12:02)

For a next step I'd rename your "images" folder to something different (that will break all the links immediately). Then create a new "images" folder with a bunch of disgusting images having the same names as the ones that were hot linked. That might give him some pause when they start showing up in his forums...[;)][8D]



BobbyDouglas -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 19:03:00)

As long as you notified the person about it, I think it is time to be a little evil.

quote:

Then create a new "images" folder with a bunch of disgusting images having the same names as the ones that were hot linked. That might give him some pause when they start showing up in his forums..

- ... and to go into it even more, make the images incredibly large in physical size and file size. Save each image in a very high quality format to ensure that it is going to take a long time to download.

Please give us a link once it's done, so we can all laugh about it [8D]



jurgen -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/14/2007 19:16:34)

You guys are mean....... and I love it...... [8|][8|][8|][8|]



womble -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 5:10:43)


quote:

ORIGINAL: BobbyDouglas

As long as you notified the person about it, I think it is time to be a little evil.

quote:

Then create a new "images" folder with a bunch of disgusting images having the same names as the ones that were hot linked. That might give him some pause when they start showing up in his forums..

- ... and to go into it even more, make the images incredibly large in physical size and file size. Save each image in a very high quality format to ensure that it is going to take a long time to download.

I'd also block access to the new "images" folder to bots in your robots.txt file so that the SEs don't start indexing your new images either - probably wouldn't do much for your rep if those images started showing up in SE results for your domain.

quote:


Please give us a link once it's done, so we can all laugh about it [8D]

We do evil very well here. We do laughing at the fw's that think they can get one over on us even better. [;)] [sm=EbilGrin.gif]



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 8:49:54)

You guys are good! I may take all of the suggestions you gave and real deal him a good one.

I have been ignoring him. In fact every EMAIL and letter I get from him goes directly into a file for the FBI. I'm done even reading it.
I'm just really ticked about my articles being stolen and I get so mad I turn red when a new customer asks me about the mess on that forum.
A lot of people know about the source of the trouble and don't pay it any attention but quite a few do. My business was thriving and growing untill this. Now we are keeping our heads above water but that's about it since my website is my only form of advertising.

We have a small sign on the gatepost of my ranch for that part of the business too but there is NO local advertising for security reasons other than that. I've got military contracts and items here belonging to them that I have to keep secure and don't want many locals knowing about. We do the same service for civilians too but there isn't much business around here for it anyway so there really isn't any point in advertising it local.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will definitely let you all know how it works out. I wish I had come to this forum a lot sooner. I switched over my domain to outfront a couple years ago when the last one discontinued front page support and Thomas Brunt pointed me this direction yesterday. This is a great source for information!!!




RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 8:55:01)

I was just thinking, I don't know what kind of disgusting images I could put in a new folder that would bother these nuts.

They have a thread on that forum right now with about 100 pages all about blowing up cats with large caliber weapons. How much sicker can it get?

Maybe I can replace some of the pictures that I know he is using with the copies of prison inmate records and police reports on the people running that forum. That stuff was all public information and relatively easy to find.



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 10:15:42)

This worked for me.

[image]local://upfiles/9075/CFB81F33CA244795A7BBF804F007D62E.gif[/image]

There were broken MySpaces pages all over the place as it's so wide none of the layouts could handle it. [:D]



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 10:18:27)

That's good! Do you mind if I use it? I won't hotlink I promise. I was just about to upload the new .htaccess file with just an error message but this is much better.


Oh, I'm going to need someone else to check and see if this works. My IP was banned from that idiots forum and I can't even log in using an anonymous IP. He is so paranoid it has to have a valid one to allow viewing.

Here is the text of the file I was going to use. I hope this is right.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(.+\.)?warrifles\.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ - [F]



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 10:22:32)

Help yourself.



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 10:31:24)

Is it a forum he has set up on his own host or is it hosted in something like Invision or Aimoo? If it's hosted, you can report it to them and they'll take it down.

Plus, if he's got stuff on there like you say his own host will probably have TOS that prevent such content.



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 10:37:40)

It's not his own host. I know that. I'm waiting for a reply from someone on there now to find out the company name so I can report it. I have a state trooper on the inside with this forum too that is monitoring everything. I wish he was able to do something but then again. Jurisdiction issues across state lines.
This person, a couple months ago told everyone I was going bankrupt, knowing it's a lie. He then posted the number for the AG, ATF, FBI, sheriff, and police online and told everyone to call and file a report against me or they would never see their property again.

Only one person did and the county sheriff thought it was pretty funny. False reports are illegal too BTW. So is encouraging people to fiel false reports. This is seriously the type of person I am dealing with.



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 10:51:29)

I'm having problems uploading this file to my root director. Does anyone have any ideas?
I have front page server extensions installed and I thnk that is the problem.

The instructions I was following said to make the htaccess file as a .txt then move it to the root directory of my domain and rename it as .htaccess.

The problem is I can not get into the root directory in my admin control panel. Can I do it directly through front page?



coreybryant -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 11:13:55)

If you don't know his hosting company - you ping his URL and get the IP. Use www.arin.net as well. And then you can send a C&D letter to them. It worked for me a few years ago when someone was using my name on their website (saying I was part of their organization). The company actually had the site removed in about an hour after I emailed them.

If you need some help, you can PM the offending domain name and I can maybe give you a bit of information as well on them as well.



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 12:29:25)

quote:

ORIGINAL: RRR

I'm having problems uploading this file to my root director. Does anyone have any ideas?
I have front page server extensions installed and I thnk that is the problem.

The instructions I was following said to make the htaccess file as a .txt then move it to the root directory of my domain and rename it as .htaccess.

The problem is I can not get into the root directory in my admin control panel. Can I do it directly through front page?


No, you need to log in direct to your host. There should be an htaccess option or a file manager option in your control panel. If not, ask your host.

Oh duh.................. TOM! how does he get at htaccess?



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 12:34:36)

Haha, I won't say how but I've got him. Just having a nose round. Corey if you want details, shout.



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 12:37:57)

Well well well, If I were you I'd be honoured. An entire section of the forum dedicated to you. He must be scared witless. Nobody does that unless they consider you a threat. Hmmmmmmmm. Thinks.

Seems he lives in Locust, how appropriate.

On the good side, if anyone finds the Google link they can't see the details without logging in. You could put a disclaimer on your site. I've seen it done before.

There are other ways you can hit him hard. Sneaky ones. If Corey hasn't already given you details I have all his host info, address, phone number etc. [:D]



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 18:35:27)

Yeah, I'd say he considers me a threat alright. You wouldn't believe how many times he has called and emailed saying he was going to sue me if I said anything about him. I know enough to ruin him but I'm not like he is.
It sure is stupid I think what he has done though. Threatening and telling lies about someone is not the way to get what you want unless it has worked on so many sheep in the past you figure you can keep on doing it.

I'm not a sheep.


I went into the control panel and then to the file manager. I thought I was supposed to put that file into the "root" directory but I cannot open that one.
I don't see a htaccess file or directory anywhere either.
My other website has the htaccess file in the root directory but it's empty. I have that one on a server my mother ownes. I moved this website because front page still works here. I think I'm about to dump frontpage altogether. Any suggestions for a web editor to use in it's place?



I think I just figured out how to upload the htaccess file. Anyone want to go on there and see if that message is coming up where my pictures used to be?
This is going to really tick this crook off! It will make my day if it does.
If there are any other good ways to get back at him that are legal I'd sure love to know them.



coreybryant -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 19:20:15)

quote:

ORIGINAL: RRR

Any suggestions for a web editor to use in it's place?
Expression Web. It is a MS product. The code is a lot better and if you understand HTML some, it is very easy to use. A lot of Frontpage users don't like it because the components are no longer there.


quote:

ORIGINAL: RRR

If there are any other good ways to get back at him that are legal I'd sure love to know them.
Judy Judy :)

As far as the pictures, well the forum keeps asking me to log in and I would rather not join it



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 19:22:27)

Thanks.

Don't log in to that forum. It's not worth it. The owner claims thousands of active members and no sense adding to his list.
Almost all of his members are spoofs anyway.



coreybryant -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 19:34:12)

I did 'hotlink' an image from your site to mine so you can test it. It still seems to be allowing hotlinking



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/15/2007 19:43:20)

Oh, I just set it to only redirect ones from that particular forum.

Here is the code I uploaded and named .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(.+\.)?warr****ifles\.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /images/stolen.jpg [L]



I hope I did that right. If I put it in the right directory it should be working. I was unsure about that. There is one directory called "root"
There is another one that has my username. All my files and stuff are under that so that's where I put it. I hope that was right.
I am not even allowed to click on the root one.
What do you think?

I changed the domain name as you can see so this doesn't come up in one of his vanity searches.




coreybryant -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/16/2007 7:27:53)

The image is still showing up on my website - something is not all that correct. I don't work on *NIX servers but maybe when people start to get up in the AM - they will be able to give some advice.



jaybee -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/16/2007 7:32:56)

quote:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(.+\.)?warr****ifles\.com/ [NC]
It's only blocking that forum Corey so you will still be able to see them.

RRR the guys on there are not worth bothering about. Seems the only proof that they are men is the size of the gun they're waving about.



coreybryant -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/16/2007 7:37:56)

Ah gotcha - shows how much I know about *NIX :)

But by the way, is it my imagination or are the forums gone about the OP?



caz -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/16/2007 8:23:16)

Must be your imagination Corey, I just had a shufti and the 'special' section is still there. Bunch of t*****s they are too.



RRR -> RE: I need help blocking certain places from viewing my site (4/16/2007 8:27:15)

I learned something new last night. I can not use this code in the htaccess file while I still have front page server extensions installed.
I emailed Thomas last night about taking them down. I think I only have a couple of forms on there now that will be effected so it shouldn't be a big deal. I just did a fresh backup though in case.

I need to get him to turn on FTP also then I can just use dreamweaver and filezilla I guess. Then I can put that file back and block these people.

I know they aren't worth messing with but I've been dealing with it since October and having to explain to way too many people what his problem is. I'm tired of it and it's time to enforce what I have told him. I told him to stop using my pictures and he hasn't done it. I can't in any way help him make his site look better with my work any more.
If you haven't noticed yet that guy has a god complex. He doesn't think he has to do anything he's told even if it is breaking the law.



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