I often search Google for stories similar to ones I’ve written to see who else is talking about them. Recently, local reporters have been talking about whether or not the city is planning on closing any of its mental health centers.
The Chicago Tribune has written a number of stories, several of which took place at town hall meetings with Mayor Daley.
I expected to see them on ChicagoTrib
une.com. I did not expect to see those mental health stories – indeed, all of the Chicago Tribune’s stories – on ChicagoTribunal.com.
Chicago Tribunal? It looks a lot like the Trib’s pre-redesign site, and the logo uses the same old(e) English font as the Trib. But it’s not the Tribune. It’s merely a regurgitation of Trib stories on a copycat site.
So who’s behind it? Tough question.
I typed in www.chicagotribunal.com into the form at the powerful domain search engine WhoIs.net.
I didn’t tell me who the operator was, as it does with many sites. Instead it gave me an address and a phone number.
And when I typed the phone number into the White Pages’ reverse directory, it came up one Adriano Galliani, who shared the same address as the WhoIs listing. It also listed a business, AC Milan Online Shop. Galliani, Google tells me, owns AC Milan, the stories Italian soccer club.
But why would a rich Italian sportsman own a copycat Web site? It makes no sense.
Turns out the address, 8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Westchester, Calif, is occupied by WhoIs, and it allows Web site domain owners to hide their real addresses.
WhoIs tells readers to check out ChicagoTrbunal.com’s listing on AboutUs.Org, which tells us it is a Chicago news site, with related sites including ChicagoTribune.com and ChicagoBreakingNews.com, both Trib properties. Its Alexa rankings don’t even register.
A Free Republic article from 2004 shows these elusive domains are quite common, and some of them are hidden by their Web hosts. There is some concern that these sites might be run by terrorist cells. In fact, the Free Republic story notes that one Web host, HostingAnime, lists the Sepulveda address as its home base. But building managers said it is not actually located there.
Should the Trib be worried about this copycat? Probably not. Unlike some aggregators, it has a miniscule audience and next to no outreach, meaning its only readers are probably like me, coming across it unwittingly.
But I wonder if the site will last after TribCo finds out about it. It seems like there would be a case for misrepresentation and unfair use of content. But I’m no lawyer.
By the way, AboutUs recommends a number of URLs which have yet to be purchased. Maybe I’ll gobble up ChicagoTribunet.com or ChicagoTribunen.com. I may just be the next shady dot com media mogul
Does anyone know how or why these sites operate? Chicago Tribunal has no advertising, so what’s the point? Color me intrigued.
