The Hernando Today is taking full articles from local news web sites. This was brought to our attention by friends of Chris Bernhardt who noticed that his article written for the Hernando Sun was appearing on hernandotoday.com as their article. They knew that he had written the article for the Hernando Sun.
The Tampa Tribune was not initially sure of who was responsible for this site. The hernandotoday.com site has historical Hernando Today articles and a Tampa Tribune logo. After an investigation the Tampa Tribune determined that they had sold the web site. The web site did not have permission to use either the Tampa Tribune Logo or their archived articles.
Reviewing the whois information attached to the website domain leads to a Vietnamese Company. It is interesting that a company out of Vietnam is bringing local news to Hernando County. It would be nice if they would purchase their content rather than appropriating it.
Domain Name: HERNANDOTODAY.COM
Registry Domain ID: 668416_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2015-04-07T12:02:33Z
Creation Date: 1997-03-06T05:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-03-07T05:00:00Z
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: thai son
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: hai phong
Registrant City: hai phong
Registrant State/Province: hai an
Registrant Postal Code: 35000
Registrant Country: vn
Registrant Phone: +84.973452878
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: traihp250990@gmail.com
Registry Admin ID:
UPDATE: They have removed our article from their site. They are still using content and logo from Tampa Tribune and content from Bay News 9.
UPDATE: Hernando Sun contacted the new owner of the Hernando Today domain via email. He purchased the site on http://expireddomains.net a clearing house for domains that are no longer wanted. He stated he plans to earn income by showing ads to visitors to the Hernando Today website.