abluegrape

Looks like this company has been scanning websites (in an aggresive manner) to see if there is any copyright material etc on the site.

A few more details can be found here

Never heard of them myself but its seems interesting that the RIAA etc start to step down from the fight on piracy etc and this company starts to come to the front!!

Apologies if this isn't in the right section - didn't really know where to stick it, but thought people running hosting businesses might want to be aware

Not sure whether this is a good thing or not - they appear to be hitting sites hard and fast and under a disguise of a normal browser.

Maybe its the new year whisky making me thing too much!!

Happy new year

M8INTERNET

He could be a bounty hunter
If he finds copyright content, that is on his list, then he can report the website and claim the booty

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m8internet.com

pipeten

I haven't see this bot in particular, but it's not really uncommon. GettyImages and others who are in the business of protecting and profiting from their IP have been doing this since ... people started to rip them off so much.

As you say in the post, if it's problematic enough, block it.

abluegrape

Does Getty etc use a normal useragent when they are checking a site or do they actually identify themselves as a bot?

Never seen Getty bot on my sites so wondered if they are stealth scanning pretending to be a user or are they saying its their bot.

I can see why the scanning may be as a normal browser as there are a few SEO people who cloak their blogs and so on but thats still no excuse to hammer the site.