Who is writing the newsletter for astrology.com? They are lifting my work... word for word. Someone please put me in contact with whoever I need to speak with to make this stop.

Wow... not only do they need to stop, I think you deserve reparations.

ELSA VERSION:

...this eclipse has love karma written all over it.

I hate to repeat, repeat, repeat myself but the fact is LOVE and PARTNERSHIP is serious business right now. If you have it, how do you keep it? If you don’t have it, how do you get it? How do you deal with the reality your partner is human and even worse, so are you!

The new Moon is always time to set an intention and with Venus right there and ruler of the New Moon, Saturn in Libra, ambition around love and money is the way to go. How can you get in position, secure your position, elevate your position, etc.

PLAGIARIZED VERSION:

This eclipse has love karma written all over it! Love and partnerships are serious business right now! If you have it, how do you keep it? If you don't have it, how do you get it? How do you deal with the reality that both you and your partner are human?

The new Moon is also time to set an intention. Venus is the ruler of the new Moon, while Saturn is in Libra. Mercury turns direct later the same day, but Mars is still retrograde and Mercury is in Capricorn, so expect things to be slow for a while.</font>

Ho. Lee. Shit!

I'm going over there right now.

Omg i just saw that and was thinking that!!!! Cuz i get some email from them (from looking up a chart once)!!!!!

Astrology.com was owned by iVillage last time I checked. I used to read their stuff... they had that picture of the woman who was supposed to be their resident astrologist, never knew if she was real or fabricated.

I just checked them out, then WHOIs'ed to make sure they aren't under new ownership.

The WhoIs information is listed under GoDaddy as...

 
Registrant:
iVillage Inc
1166 Post Street Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94109
US

Domain Name: ASTROLOGY.COM

Administrative Contact:
KnowledgeWeb, Inc. dns-admin@KNOWLEDGEWEB.COM
1166 POST ST # 200
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109-5505
US
415.447.6193 fax: 415.447.6191

Technical Contact:
KnowledgeWeb, Inc. dns-tech@KNOWLEDGEWEB.COM
1166 POST ST # 200
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109-5505
US

However, if you go directly to Astrology.com you'll see that their logo has been changed to a more tacky looking version (in my opinion anyway) and you can find their contact info on this page:

http://www.ivillage.com/about/0,,b0w5,00.html

The address listed is...

iVillage Networks
75 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10011

Unfortunately, they do not include an email address or phone number which indicates some shadiness at least to me. 

I'm going to click on other areas of their site to see if I can find a contact name/address... maybe the press area.

You know, the more I look at this site, the more it appears that whoever used to run it has folded and sold (?) to someone else. The new design is really crappy. It's no surprise that whoever is behind it is now lifting content. Maybe they're paying extremely low amounts for articles these days, and whoever the ghostwriter is for the astrology section is the one who lifted this content from ElsaElsa.com. Or, maybe ivillage is now a one-man show.

Who knows but I hope you're able to get in touch with someone fast.

perhaps this from their TOS will help?

http://www.ivillage.com/about/0,,qr4p,00.html

11. Claims of Copyright Infringement

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA") provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe in good faith that materials hosted by the iVillage Network infringe your copyright, you (or your agent) may send iVillage a notice requesting that the material be removed or access to it blocked. The notice must include the following information (a) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or if multiple copyrighted works located on this website are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works); (c) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to allow iVillage to locate the material on the iVillage Network; (d) the name, address, telephone number and email address (if available) of the complaining party; (e) a statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and (f) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. If you believe in good faith that a notice of copyright infringement has been wrongly filed against you, the DMCA permits you to send iVillage a counter-notice. Notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA; see http://www.loc.gov/copyright for details. Notices and counter-notices with respect to this website should be sent to: Janet R. Abrams, Director of Legal Affairs, iVillage Inc., c/o NBC Universal, Inc., 75 Ninth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10011, DMCANOTICE@mail.ivillage.com. iVillage suggests that you consult your legal advisor before filing a notice or counter-notice. Also, be aware that there can be penalties for false claims under the DMCA.

Such idiots!!! I think they have been doing this for some time now -using several sources -because their astro stuff a while back was mostly bs...,you should contact managment in nbc directly, i am sure they will adress this seriously with whoever it is copying u...so shameless flowting on other peoples hard work. Assholes!!

I do not find this form of plagiarism flattering, I find it insulting.  As if you... or the readers of astrology.com... are not bright enough to catch this.  How big do they think the astro-internet is?  And you're the one responsible for unifying it, at that!

and from the bottom of one of their forecast emails -

If you need help with your account, please call (toll free within the US):1-877-447-6194 ext. 801or International: +1-415-447-6193 ext. 801Email: ydf@astrology.com

Astrology.com, c/o iVillage.com, 904 Sylvan Avenue, 2nd Floor, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, U.S.A.

Good call on the TOS, Goddess... and I agree that you should go directly to NBC and skip all this bullshit protocol. You were fucking plagiarized, you shouldn't have to sign anything proving so.

On their About page there's a link to the NBC site they're owned by, but I don't see any contact info there either. GRRR.

http://www.nbcuni.com/

(That's the link)

Found the name of their legal contact on the TOS page of the NBC site: (just to make things more confusing)

http://www.nbcuni.com/Terms_of_Service/

Gillian M. Lusins
NBC Law Department
30 Rockefeller Plaza, RM. 1081E
New York, NY 10009
Email: dmca.agent@nbcuni.com 

On the ivillage feedback page which is here http://www.ivillage.com/about/0,,qqzh,00.html, there is this contact info:

12. Contact information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or anything else about iVillage, you can contact us at the following email address: feedback@mail.ivillage.com

Seems like a cease and desist letter to the NBC legal contact is a good idea.  Do we have any lawyers or paralegals amongst us?

I love how your supporters all jumped on this.  (Bananas, I posted similar info over on Facebook!  Great minds and such) 

I thought it sounded familiar!! what a lot of piss ants!

antipiracy@nbcuni.com

http://www.astrology.com/feedback

Ironically, nbc universal has a huge anti-piracy dept.  They remove videos uploaded from YouTube.

Do they have a blog or forum?  Would be satisfying to alert their members they have a fraud advising them!

They are going to publish an apology and attribute credit - exactly what I wanted, so thanks, astrology.com! :)

HAHAHAHA!!!! Go Team!!

 Yeah astrology.com was sold awhile ago, however the astrologer is back in business. KT is what she goes by now, you can find her here... http://www.theastrologer.com/

 I know it has nothing to do with Elsa being copied, but you guys brought up the fact you didn't known where the astrologer went.

iVillage has been messing up for a while now.  Six or seven years ago, they changed their message boards to "pay for play" with no advance notice.  I was on a very active board, and there was a mass exodus.

I find the site too cutesy and geared towards "those" types of moms...the perfect ones with the perfect kids, perfect house, etc.

I never liked astro.com.   Most of the advice is about dealing with your boyfriend or husband, and celebrity profiles (nowhere near the quality level of what Annalisa writes).  It trivializes astrology.  Not good at all.

I'm glad this got resolved, and I hope it never happens again, to you or anyone else!

Do people really think they can get away with such blatant plagiarism in this age? Ridiculous...but I'm glad you got it all sorted out and very quickly too!

Oh that's good.. I was just going to bring out a can of whoop ass!

What a crappy thing to do.. and stupid considering that their potential clients come here, ie read other astrology sources on the web.

I have some experience filing a DMCA notice to protect my copyrighted works, it can be very effective, and you don't need a lawyer, just find a form letter and fill it in. If they don't comply, you can have their ISP pull the plug on their whole website. However, it sounds like this was an email newsletter and thus isn't subject to the DMCA. Once the email is sent, the damage is done.

There may be a more effective technique, with better deterrent effect. Photographers often use this tactic. You send them a bill for the use of your work, a very high bill since it was unauthorized use (usually 2x to 5x the highest customary rate). Then you accompany it with a stern letter saying that they better pay this bill, no matter how high it is, because it's going to cost a lot more once you get your lawyer to file a copyright infringement lawsuit. And then with the settling of the bill, they agree in writing to no further use of any of your work without prior written authorization. That adds malfeasance to any further infringements, which would rack up high punitive damages in any later legal actions.

I am not a lawyer, but I write professionally on copyright legalities. Elsa, if you want to contact me privately, you can use my email address in my user data. 

Edit: I see upthread I missed where you got them to agree to apologize and attribute. You settled for too little! I hope you didn't give them future authorization to republish! That would essentially give them carte blanche.

Yuck Elsa, I understand what its like to have your work stolen, very nerve racking!

To top it off, the plagiarised version doesn't even have the impact of the original- the 'writer' edited all of the panache out of it. I also feel bad for the astrology.com users who got the slightly edited, yet less effective version. Even if they were to come here and read your version, the moment for experiencing the epiphany has passed :(

hayleyt, thank you. I cop to having this satisfaction: My newsletter is way better than theirs. I think it's because there is a person with a heart and a soul and a mind writing it.  There is an actual effort behind it that is palpable.