from Utilizing AI-[adjective]-[top-topic-on-Techdirt]-Threatening letter-Really-Just-[top-topic-on-Techdirt] Department
This heading is like the Mad Libs version of the Techdirt title.
We have been covering the issue of copyright trolls for many years. and, more recently, the deceptive uses of generative AI tools. And we've absolutely covered quite a few SEO scam stories where people try to influence search results using some kind of scam.
But here's a story that includes all three.
It starts with a Fediverse thread by Ernie Smith on the website Tedium (which is worth following, by the way). He received his DMCA email claiming that the image on Tedium infringed someone's copyright.
However, as Ernie was quick to point out, this image actually comes from Unsplash, the stock photography website where the image is stored. free to use Based on the site's license. There are several other oddities about the threatening letter. First, just the fact that it comes from “.”trademark “Lawyer” seems strange. Copyright problem. But what's even weirder is that they don't ask for the images to be removed or even for payment. Or rather, all they want is a link to a random site?
Ernie looked at a web page for “Commonwealth Legal Services,” which appears to be a “law firm,” but it's stupidly uncommon.
However, the part featuring the lawyer clearly looks like it was created using artificial intelligence.
Ernie also looked up the address of the law firm, which appears to be quite different from the image on the website.
Therefore, it quickly becomes clear that this is just an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings through deceptive means. It's just an SEO scam. They are trying to trick bloggers into adding links to random websites by threatening copyright infringement claims.
False claims like this come in all the time. I used to get it semi-regularly, but it's been a while since I last saw it.
Four years ago, we witnessed a similar situation in which SEO scammers used secret Wikipedia changes to claim copyright on Wikimedia Commons images and request links to spam websites. But this one is a little different, adding a fake AI lawyer to the mix.
404 Media's Jason Koebler confirmed that the “Lawyer” on the federal page was generated by AI. He also acknowledged that the supposed federal phone number has been disconnected and is not in use. Additionally, I actually spoke with the owner of the website that requested the link in the fake threat, and it appears that he has tried spammy SEO techniques in the past, but he is not involved in this matter. he claimed.
Barczak said he had previously purchased backlinks to his website for SEO purposes, but said he didn't know who was doing it or why. “I don't know; it certainly has nothing to do with me,” he said. “But lately, someone has been building spam links to my site that I work with.”
“I’ve mastered on-page SEO, but unfortunately I don’t have the time to buy links,” he added. “The link builder used to suck. I wonder if he's mad at me for letting him go…The web is huge and it's hard to say anyone can link whenever they want.” link building is an SEO strategy designed to get external websites to link to your website.
He added: “Bad links can be damaging.” [the site’s] This is your profile in the eyes of Google. ” In this case, however, the “lawyer” was blackmailing a well-established technology blogger, and a link from Tedium would likely be treated as a positive in the eyes of search algorithms.
Meanwhile, Ars Technica's Kevin Purdy pointed out that Commonwealth's website was only registered on March 1 of this year.
Articles like this one are one of the reasons why we think copyright trolling is so insidious and problematic.Copyright remains intact One It is a legal tool that most people use to intimidate site owners into removing content from their websites. Copyright threats (real and imagined) have become so common that almost everyone understands the threats associated with them.
Add to this the eye-watering sums that most people have heard about in copyright-related court awards and settlements. Many unsophisticated people pay attention when they receive a threat. So the scam has changed a bit here and is using the broken copyright system as a wedge to get something completely different: spam SEO backlinks.
And when combined with an AI-generated fake lawyer, it can at least lend legitimacy to uninformed recipients. This story is in the news because Ernie knew full well that this was all bullshit and was able to do some initial research and post about it online.
Filed Under: AI, Copyright, Copyright Trolling, Generated AI, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO Scam, Spam