Scioto Post, which is a self-proclaimed news website, has had their website taken offline recently by their hosting company after a series of copyright infringement complaints. As of Sunday afternoon, the site was back up, for now.
A newspaper in Hillsboro on Saturday had an article and picture that was stolen word-for-word from their publication, which the Scioto Post passed the materiel off as their own.
The article in question was about a murder-suicide just east of Hillsboro. The Scioto Post lifted the entire 11-paragraph story in a copy-and-paste fashion from the newspaper’s website, including a photo that was taken of the crime scene.
A couple of weeks prior, the Scioto Post’s website was taken offline by their hosting provider after the Guardian filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against them. In the complaint, the Guardian’s editor, Derek Myers accused Scioto Post’s writer, Jeremy Newman of stealing a 9-1-1 recording from the Guardian’s website and passing it off as his own work. The call centered around a shooting that took place in Ross County.
The Guardian made a public records request to the Ross County Sheriff’s office; it was revealed that no one from Newman’s organization had independently requested the audio file for themselves and that it was, indeed, stolen.
After the complaint was filed with the Scioto Post’s hosting provider, the website was taken offline by the server company for nearly 12 hours. The Scioto Post lied to their social media following and posted online that they were making server upgrades, but in reality, the site was taken offline until the Scioto Post complied with the law.
As of Sunday afternoon, the site was back up, for now.
The newspaper in Hillsboro and the Guardian are not the only two who have experienced theft by the Scioto Post. They have a history of stealing news articles and pictures from other websites, according to broadcast groups.
Last week, the Scioto Post published a story about a meteor shower. The majority of the content in the article matched that of a wire story published by CBS Newspath, but Scioto Post gave no attribution to CBS. CBS’ public relations department told the Guardian that the Scioto Post was not a member of Newspath and had no reproduction rights to the content.
In November, Jeff Morris, the digital director for WCHS-TV in Charleston, West Virginia, a Sinclair Broadcast television station, was made aware of an article where the Scioto Post lifted the content from the television station and pasted it on their website as their own work. That article was about a baby that was found dead in a well in Scioto County.
The Guardian has documented and found at least 15 other articles in 30 days on Scioto Post that have matched original content from other websites.
While plagiarism — the act of stealing someone’s written work — is not a crime that is publishable by jail in Ohio, it is a civil crime that can result in a lawsuit, said attorney Brad Smith.
“These people who are stealing content are opening themselves up to a lot of liability, especially since a clear pattern of theft is being shown,” said Smith. “The owners of this website are in jeopardy of losing their website. They could lose any personal business interests they have in other companies, and possibly even their cars and homes. Bank attachments could be placed on their personal checking accounts where they are emptied out in order to satisfy a judgement. It can get real messy. Copyright law is not something you want to mess around with. It is costly to fight, and even if a victim does not win, the person who stole can go bankrupt just in legal fees fighting the litigation, especially going up against broadcast groups who have unlimited deep pockets.”
The Scioto Post is a website that bills themselves as a “local news website” and was launched in 2017. The website is owned by local businessmen brothers Ben Schlichter and Brandon Schlichter, and a former union negotiator, Jeremy Newman.
