That being said, here are some thoughts on what you said.

The fact that you’ve received only two copyright complaints for 10,000 members isn’t surprising. Though I don’t have any good stats, that would not be out of line with what I hear from other hosts, especially smallers ones, but what makes this different is that your service’s primary function is to help people set up WP sites on their own servers, in those cases, you would not see the DMCA notices, their hosts would.

I would wager, knowing what I do about spammers, that they would not use your servers if they wanted to misuse your server, it’s a highly shared IP range and not ideal for getting Google’s attention. I don’t doubt that it can work, but every spammer I know has their preferred host already.

You say that most of your users create content and that you teach people how to use your service, but there are two problems with that.

First, though I hate to do it, let’s look again at the marketing on the front page of your site. Here are a few quotes from the very top:

“Create SEO-Optimized, Content-Stuffed Websites Instantly With WordPressDirect”

“WordPress Direct scours the internet for topic-specific video, audio and article content and automatically combines it on your site ”

“No More PRESSURE to Update Your Site Daily. . . Simply click a few buttons and WordPress Direct will update your site as often or as rarely as you’d like.”

I didn’t cherry pick those comments, they are the first three things that appear on your .com. Nowhere on the front page that I see do you mention writing your own content but you mention it being “instant” twice and that all you have to do is “sit back and relax” once.

You say that you plan on changing this marketing, but you’ve had over a week to do so and the exact same text remains up. I understand that videos take time, but text can be updated much more quickly.

The problem is that these are the exact same buzzwords and techniques spam blog application writers use. You say that you aren’t creating a spam blog tool, but you have the same features of one, the same marketing as one and largely the same outcome as one.

Finally, in the short time I played with your service, it was pulling content from sources that I didn’t have permission. I tested the Yahoo! Answers tool an I seriously doubt that all of the people who posted material to Yahoo! had given their (knowing) permission for their content to be reposted, without attribution, on my site. I also had access to the RSS poster, which could have done the same thing but to random blog.

You say it does not scrape content from sites that do not allow, but I was able to do exactly that. In fact, if you look at Yahoo’s API usage restrictions, you’ll find that you’re violating their commercial restrictions:

http://info.yahoo.com/guidelines/us/yahoo/ydn/ydn-3955.html

In fact, one could argue that your service violates all three bullet points in that section.

In the end, your rule is correct, if you spam, you will get burned. That is simple enough. But if you speed in a car, you’ll get into a crash eventually, if you snatch purses, you will go to jail and the list goes on. These facts don’t stop people from doing these things and expecting people to not spam on your word as you hand them the tools that they need to do so is foolish at best.

Thank you very much for your time. I greatly appreciate you commenting.

That being said, here are some thoughts on what you said.

The fact that you’ve received only two copyright complaints for 10,000 members isn’t surprising. Though I don’t have any good stats, that would not be out of line with what I hear from other hosts, especially smallers ones, but what makes this different is that your service’s primary function is to help people set up WP sites on their own servers, in those cases, you would not see the DMCA notices, their hosts would.

I would wager, knowing what I do about spammers, that they would not use your servers if they wanted to misuse your server, it’s a highly shared IP range and not ideal for getting Google’s attention. I don’t doubt that it can work, but every spammer I know has their preferred host already.

You say that most of your users create content and that you teach people how to use your service, but there are two problems with that.

First, though I hate to do it, let’s look again at the marketing on the front page of your site. Here are a few quotes from the very top:

“Create SEO-Optimized, Content-Stuffed Websites Instantly With WordPressDirect”

“WordPress Direct scours the internet for topic-specific video, audio and article content and automatically combines it on your site ”

“No More PRESSURE to Update Your Site Daily. . . Simply click a few buttons and WordPress Direct will update your site as often or as rarely as you’d like.”

I didn’t cherry pick those comments, they are the first three things that appear on your .com. Nowhere on the front page that I see do you mention writing your own content but you mention it being “instant” twice and that all you have to do is “sit back and relax” once.

You say that you plan on changing this marketing, but you’ve had over a week to do so and the exact same text remains up. I understand that videos take time, but text can be updated much more quickly.

The problem is that these are the exact same buzzwords and techniques spam blog application writers use. You say that you aren’t creating a spam blog tool, but you have the same features of one, the same marketing as one and largely the same outcome as one.

Finally, in the short time I played with your service, it was pulling content from sources that I didn’t have permission. I tested the Yahoo! Answers tool an I seriously doubt that all of the people who posted material to Yahoo! had given their (knowing) permission for their content to be reposted, without attribution, on my site. I also had access to the RSS poster, which could have done the same thing but to random blog.

You say it does not scrape content from sites that do not allow, but I was able to do exactly that. In fact, if you look at Yahoo’s API usage restrictions, you’ll find that you’re violating their commercial restrictions:

http://info.yahoo.com/guidelines/us/yahoo/ydn/ydn-3955.html

In fact, one could argue that your service violates all three bullet points in that section.

In the end, your rule is correct, if you spam, you will get burned. That is simple enough. But if you speed in a car, you’ll get into a crash eventually, if you snatch purses, you will go to jail and the list goes on. These facts don’t stop people from doing these things and expecting people to not spam on your word as you hand them the tools that they need to do so is foolish at best.

Thank you very much for your time. I greatly appreciate you commenting.

Since our service was launched, we have received 2 copyright violation notices for content, and both were addressed immediately. These were caused by our content software finding articles where eZine directory contributors circulated content in eZine directories for which they didn't have permission. WPD sites were not the only ones affected in this case, but ALL sites that circulated the ezine article. We take copyright very seriously.

Most of our users write their own content. We and our 30 Day challenge partners clearly explain why a blog creator needs to create their own unique content in the 30DC lessons.

The content software included with the paid accounts does not scrape content. It only takes content from sites where people create content for with the INTENT of syndication, such as YouTube and eZine directories.

We teach our users how to use this software correctly (see the example site at http://www.vintageelectricguitarblog.com) to add value to their uniquely written content on their blog. If it is OK to find a YouTube video yourself and embed it in your blog, is it not OK to have a peice of software to make it easier? Hopefully you see my point.

One rule remains true…

If you spam your own blog, using our stuff or anybody else's you are a fool. You will be de-indexed by Google and then nobody will notice your well-written content.