What are your views on programs like SiteSucker?

[WPHS-Matt]

I wrote a post at WHT located here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1552931 that outlines an issue we had with a program called SiteSucker. Various people threw their 2 cents in and said we were being "overly aggressive" to take considerable action and ban the use of these SiteSucker programs on all sites/VPS machines we host. We feel that is it not anyones right to copy a site that does not belong to them and without permission from the site owner to use such program and store it on their local machine.

What are your thoughts on it?

 

[ughosting]

You are quite within your rights to block this tool if it is not being used in a sensible/responsible way.

We find that some of the russian bots are quite agressive, and so we block them.
I believe customers prefer to have their sites running super responsive for google, bing & baidu, than slow and unresponsive because of other overly aggressive bots, which probably won't give you any traffic anyway.

In this case if someone was downloading the site it might have been quite short-lived had you waited it out.
But I believe you did the correct thing. You don't know how long it might have been going for.
Also if the site has dynamic calendar pages etc and the crawler is written badly, it may have never ended.

 

[radwebhosting]

If the client agrees to your TOS and then proceeds to violate it, then it is ultimately your decision on how to handle the issue.

 

[cheapdedicated]

TOS are not only meant to be agreed on signing up they should be respected as well. When one doesn't take the necessary measures to protect other users of the resource.

 

[vladimir]

I have to agree with you Matt. Anyone who uses a website to steal content should be terminated, as stealing content is illegal. If you put it in your TOS, that programs like sitesuckers, are not allowed, then you should have the right to terminate them.

 

[DBH Web]

I also agree and after all your clients security comes first.

How anybody can justify this type of behavior is beyond me theft is theft full stop, there is no such thing as an understood form of theft lol.

 

[MechanicWeb-sho]

I think it's up to the provider what they will allow on their servers. So, there is nothing wrong if you do not allow certain apps on your hosting.

 

[Paulius777]

If you've ever needed to work offline with content that you've seen on the Web, or if you've ever wanted to easily back up a complete website, then SiteSucker is for you. SiteSucker is a legal application. As long as you don't get complains for that specific VPS user, that should be fine with your business legal policy. But that's only my 2 cents..

 

[cheapdedicated]

If you've ever needed to work offline with content that you've seen on the Web, or if you've ever wanted to easily back up a complete website, then SiteSucker is for you. SiteSucker is a legal application. As long as you don't get complains for that specific VPS user, that should be fine with your business legal policy. But that's only my 2 cents..

I dont think its really legal. I am not a lawyer but I think copyright is infringed upon with that app.

 

[DBH Web]

SiteSucker is a legal application. As long as you don't get complains for that specific VPS user, that should be fine with your business legal policy. But that's only my 2 cents..

OMG I would love to use that in a court of law:

Defendant > "It's like this Judge we didn't get any complaints so it's perfectly legal"

Judge > " OK you're free to go then" :smash:

 

[cheapdedicated]

OMG I would love to use that in a court of law:

Defendant > "It's like this Judge we didn't get any complaints so it's perfectly legal"

Judge > " OK you're free to go then" :smash:

Hahahaha Only if you fed the judge on an illegal substance before court hehehehe

 

[easyhostmedia]

SiteSucker is a legal application. As long as you don't get complains for that specific VPS user, that should be fine with your business legal policy. But that's only my 2 cents..

so is E107 but we wont allow that installed on any of our servers due to it being very insecure and unstable.

because it is a legal app does not mean you have to allow it on your servers.

with Sitesucker it is not if its a legal or illegal app it is more to do with the process of copying someone else's website/intellectual property is a breach of copyright (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.)

 

[dedisolutions]

We only have one simplified rule, what is not legal should be stopped and if Sitesucker is doing this, please handle this matter appropriately as this will also affect other clients.

 

[NotHere]

I also agree and after all your clients security comes first.

How anybody can justify this type of behavior is beyond me theft is theft full stop, there is no such thing as an understood form of theft lol.

I agree with this. It doesn't make sense to let an app with issues loose on your server that could compromise the rest of the server. The shared environment is very fragile and I think you were well within your terms to stop it.

 

[doublespaces]

OMG I would love to use that in a court of law:

Defendant > "It's like this Judge we didn't get any complaints so it's perfectly legal"

Judge > " OK you're free to go then" :smash:

Which judge and how much?