“No, you can’t steal my fake news” says fake news purveyor

When you pen an article online, you automatically have the copyright over your work. That means other Internet users can’t just copy and paste your article onto their own website without your permission.

And yes, that even extends to fake news articles. In a rather amusing development, the author of a popular network of fake news websites (err… sorry, “satirical” websites) had apparently taken issue with other fake news/clickbait websites stealing his wares.

Christopher Blair, alternatively known as “Busta Troll”, operates a number of websites notorious for publishing online nonsense. Such sites include ReaganWasRight.com, NoFakeNews.Online, AsAmericanAsApplePie.org, LadiesOfLiberty.net, and the now defunct TheLastLineOfDefense.org (now thelastlineofdefense.online). Blair makes no secret that his websites deliberately target those with political leanings to the right, with many of his articles designed to trick conservative readers.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Blair insists his articles are satirical, with many of his websites featuring a definition of satire in the footer. However the business model of the site seems to be tricking readers into believing fake stories are genuine, and as such the satirical element of the stories is somewhat lacking, especially compared to more popular satirical websites such as The Onion. The sites operated by Blair do feature a disclaimer, but unless you’re in the habit of checking a website’s footer after reading an article, you’ll probably going to miss it.

So while Blair has no problem describing his work as satire, we have no problem calling it fake news.

Blair, to an extent, has become the victim of his own success. His stories, often shared through his 138K strong Facebook page, go so viral that they’re picked up and copied by a number of other websites. Those websites can range from clickbait/fake news websites with little concern as to what they post, to right wing political blogs that didn’t do their fact checking.

And Blair has taken action, issuing various DMCA requests to the webhosts of the offending websites that have been copying his work. Posting from his Facebook page (below) it appears to be working, as GoDaddy confirmed to Blair in an email that ConservativeStamp.com, a site that has been copying Blair’s articles, voluntarily removed the copied material.

Incidentally, that website ConservativeStamp.com, has been blocked on Facebook.

So it appears that even if you’re in the fake news business, you still own the copyright to your articles.