How do I report a Youtube Video Tutorial on Scraping Zazzle Stores

[CrazyMermaid]

I remember that we've been asked not to post the links in the Forum, but I don't remember what to do next. This guy used free software to scrape products and images from Zazzle stores - hundreds of products at once. That was bad enough, then the commenters reminded him to go after Silver and above sellers. 

At the end, the scraper tutor said they should just be inspired by the scraped material......

[KeegansCreation]

The nerve! 😡

[Sara_H]

@CrazyMermaid You can report the video on youtube by pressing the three dots on the video

1. Select "Harmful or dangerous content' and "Copyright infringement."
2. Enter a brief description of why you are reporting the video.
3. Click on "Submit."

but probably Zazzle themselves should do that as they are the company being harmed so to speak. Wouldn't hurt reporting it as well though by saying you were being infringed upon too.  At least the youtube creator will get a ding on his channel

I think that other thread was removed. Just done a search and nothing came up

[CrazyMermaid]

Thank you. I also notified the poor Zazzler whose store was scraped in the video. She is going to report it as well. I think it would have more punch coming from Zazzle as well. 

[Cat]

I just went and watched it. I'll be curious to hear if YouTube takes any action. I mean technically he's just showing people how to download a list of products and links - no info on how to steal artwork etc. It's still good and scummy, but I'm not sure it would qualify as a copyright infringement. It actually doesn't really sound like a winning strategy to me in terms of how to make money on Zazzle... still pisses me off though. I guess we'll see...

[CrazyMermaid]

No you have to go look to the side and then watch the video on using AI to find Zazzle keywords and the programs to scrape tags. It is all there. He covers himself by saying don't use this video to steal, just be inspired. If someone scraped your 500 most popular products took your titles and images. That is a lot of research they don't have to do. I am sorry, I have a cut on my thumb and I can't make products on the computer, so I spent the morning watching videos on how people could steal my ideas and was trying to figure out how to protect myself. I am feeling preyed upon! Hopefully Zazzle knows a lot more about this than I do!

[Cat]

Well, I gave him a thumbs down and a comment telling him that I thought he was scum. I hope YouTube does something about it - I just don't feel all that optimistic.

And I'm sorry about your thumb... ouch! I'm sitting here waiting for the vet to call - my cat's in surgery... so I fear I haven't been terribly productive today either - and I'm not sure this sort of time-killing activity is good for my mental health! 😁

I totally understand feeling preyed upon, but I try not to worry too much about this sort of thing. I mean there's SOOOO much more that goes into being successful than just having the right design ideas, or the right artwork. We all know that Zazzle isn't a get rich quick scheme, and there aren't a lot of shortcuts to success - you have to put the work in. But people don't want to hear that, thus they listen to the sort of crap this dude is peddling - and he makes a few bucks off of his stupid YouTube channel. So while it makes me good and mad, I don't really see it as that much of a threat.

[CrazyMermaid]

Sorry about your cat! I hope it all went well. I think it is good to know what is going on. The get rich quick YouTube bros used to ignore Zazzle, but in the last six months they have fallen in love with the platform. That's not good. 

I do think that it takes so much to be successful here which is why they have largely ignored us. However, they are catching on fast and learning shortcuts. 

[Cat]

Thanks, kitty is FINALLY out of surgery (3.5 hours) and recovering at home - doesn't want to leave the basement though so I may be sleeping on the floor tonight!

And I agree that it's always good to know what those hoping to cash in on our hard work are up to, so thanks for the heads up!

[CrazyMermaid]

Did you give them a thumbs down?

[SimplyDesigned]

For future references a thumbs down does nothing except tell YouTube that regardless of anything the video got engagement. As a YouTuber myself that isn't Zazzle related at all.

[J32Design]

So I went to Youtube and I believe I found it. The video shows someone scraping product data like links and titles to get design ideas. He is not scraping the actual designs. He actually deleted the column of image urls from his spreadsheet because he didn't need it.

What would be the infringement to report here?

[CrazyMermaid]

Fine. So he deleted the images. That is no guarantee that his watchers are going to delete it. I guess he's innocent by technicality - and there's nothing for me to worry about. 

[J32Design]

So you want the video reported because the tool could possibly be used by someone with ill intend?

Look, I would be all with you if he would actually promote the stealing of designs, or reselling the images etc. and I get that you are worried. But to be fair, this tool could actually be very useful for affiliates and Zazzle designers to add products to their own website, like Wordpress, by adding all the product data into a file and then importing this data to their websites.

That said, anyone can easily get all the data from Zazzle's RSS feeds. There are several tools out there that do just that. Any of these tools can be repurposed by someone with bad intentions.

[LeAvrylFleur]

Dude.