14 DAY TRIAL // In case you weren’t aware of this, Ashton Kutcher has a website called A+ (aplus.com), which is more or less a viral content farm. Well, his site has now been accused of stealing content by a bunch of other publications.
Not only have concepts been taken from other sites, or topics picked up and treated with the source linked, but full out content copying from sites such as Buzzfeed, The Daily Dot, and even Huffington Post.
A+ claims to be a platform that will leverage viral social storytelling to create “positive change in the world” by highlighting social issues in the world, motivating actions of positive change, enabling people to “think, dream, learn, and imagine.”
The site has picked up quite a bit of traffic after Kutcher started sharing articles via his social media accounts, including Facebook, where he has over 18 million likes, which has also drawn people’s attention to the content that it was publishing.
Much of it, unfortunately, seems to be picked up from other sites, with the copies being word-for-word, without any alterations whatsoever, without the author’s knowledge or an agreement to do this. Otherwise, the likes of Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post wouldn’t be pointing any fingers towards A+.
The biggest changes were made to the titles, but not even there can you find anything noteworthy. For instance, “50 Incredible Tattoos Inspired by Books from Childhood” was turned into “50 Awesome Tattoos Inspired By Books You Grew Up With As a Kid,” which isn’t much of a change either.
The Daily Dot has discovered that some of the articles that were copied word for word have already vanished from the site, although stories created since July remain active.
The fact that the site has no listed staff is a worrisome issue since no one knows who exactly is to blame for these editorial decisions. One member of the staff working for A+ was discovered on LinkedIn, but even his account was soon deleted to make the whole thing untraceable.
Aplus.com has grown a lot in popularity in the past four months. According to Alexa.com, the site ranks 2,816 on a global level and 1,186 in the United States, where most of its traffic comes from.
“We take these allegations seriously and are looking into them. The content that was removed was taken down as a precautionary measure. Respecting the intellectual property of others is extremely important to us,” a spokesperson for A+ told The Guardian.
