How did they do this ...

**Ross Macintosh** · 28 November 2002, 05:43 PM

I was looking at my site statistics and found an interesting point of entry to my site. The url is below. On first look it appears to open on page from my site and not a copy of it. I'm wondering how they did it.

Looking at their source it appears the html is a direct copy of mine except they include the url of my page under a <head> tag with my url described as a base href. All the links are mine and the images continue to be served by my server. I assume the html isn't.

I hope someone can help me understand this. (By-the-way I sometimes get applicants for the "job" - they don't seem to realize it is a joke!)

The copier's url is http://www.flipdog.com/jobs/20021104...741a7b0cb8.htm.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

**Ross Macintosh** · 28 November 2002, 05:43 PM

I was looking at my site statistics and found an interesting point of entry to my site. The url is below. On first look it appears to open on page from my site and not a copy of it. I'm wondering how they did it.

Looking at their source it appears the html is a direct copy of mine except they include the url of my page under a <head> tag with my url described as a base href. All the links are mine and the images continue to be served by my server. I assume the html isn't.

I hope someone can help me understand this. (By-the-way I sometimes get applicants for the "job" - they don't seem to realize it is a joke!)

The copier's url is http://www.flipdog.com/jobs/20021104...741a7b0cb8.htm.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

**Renaud** · 28 November 2002, 11:30 PM

Ross, you saw it : everything come from the BASE tag. You load the graphics with relatives URL, wich, by default, are relative to the page URL. The BASE tag tell the browser to use a different place to start from for relatives URL. That's it !

So the page is a direct copy of your HTML source, either as a static page or served by a database query , but YOUR source page is sent, with just the BASE tag added.

Anybody can to the same : www.essentiel.net/StolenAlcove.htm

**Ross Macintosh** · 29 November 2002, 04:37 AM

for the explanation and your example. I'm at a loss for how I should feel about such things. Flipdog.com is under the corporate umbrella of Monster.com. I don't understand why they feel it is necessary to do things this way vs. providing just links to other sites like other search engines. At least the page isn't displaying inside a frame as is often done to make it seem like the content is their own.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

**Renaud** · 29 November 2002, 07:57 AM

I understand... it's near to be a steal ;-)

The only thing i can do to help you is to suggest to use a bit of javascript. It's simple to check the URL of the document, and if it's not what it should be then redirect it ;-)

**Renaud** · 29 November 2002, 08:59 AM

Oh ! I made the script for you :

<script language="javascript">
ref=document.location.href;
if (ref!='http://www.designstop.com') {
pieces=ref.split('/');
alert('THIS PAGE WAS STOLEN BY ' + pieces[2] +'\nREDIRECTING YOU TO THE REAL SITE');
document.location.href='http://www.designstop.com';
}
</script>

You can test it at this page

**Ross Macintosh** · 29 November 2002, 10:58 AM

That's pretty cool Renaud.
Do I Understand this correctly - if I put that coding in my html, if any site tries to do what monster.com's flipdog.com's system did - it will be redirected in that manner? And the code addition will have no effect otherwise?? I suppose any addition of coding to my pages is a bit late for any pages already hijacked - it might still be worthwhile regarding the future hijackers.

Thanks for your kind help Renaud. It's appreciated.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

**Renaud** · 29 November 2002, 11:52 AM

The previous code was buggy, here is the good one :

<script language="javascript">
ref=document.location.href;
pieces=ref.split('/');
ref=pieces[2];
if (ref!='www.designstop.com') {
alert('THIS PAGE WAS STOLEN BY ' + ref +'\nREDIRECTING YOU TO THE REAL SITE');
document.location.href='http://www.designstop.com';
}
</script>

Yes, Ross, if nobody remove the code from the page it should work ;-) And yes nothing should happen if the page is seen on your domain.

You can give it a try in few of your pages displayed from your server and then moved on a friend's server, just to be sure ;-)

The code does the folowing :
*** ref=document.location.href;
Get the URL of the displyed page (self URL)

** pieces=ref.split('/');
** ref=pieces[2];
Split the url by '/', then get the third part (third : 0, 1, 2), wich is the domain.

*** if (ref!='www.designstop.com') {
if this is not you domain, does the folowing, else nothing

*** alert('THIS PAGE WAS STOLEN BY ' + ref +'\nREDIRECTING YOU TO THE REAL SITE');
Display the message box

*** document.location.href='http://www.designstop.com';
Redirect to your homepage

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