Comments on: How to Deal with People who are Stealing your Content http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/ Making Money Online Blogging by Milking the Internet! Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:07:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: using other peoples articles on my site http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24951 using other peoples articles on my site Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:33:12 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24951 <!--%kramer-ref-pre%-->[...] Google can punish you for using duplicate content, yes. The general policy is that you have to provide a link to the author's site if they are allowing you to use a specific piece of content. People stealing other's content is a huge problem. Read this article about dealing with people who steal content: http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-w...-your-content/ [...]<!--%kramer-ref-post%--> [...] Google can punish you for using duplicate content, yes. The general policy is that you have to provide a link to the author’s site if they are allowing you to use a specific piece of content. People stealing other’s content is a huge problem. Read this article about dealing with people who steal content: http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-w…-your-content/ [...]

]]> By: Internet Marketing Exposed - Plagiarism Check - What To Do with a Content Thief http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24424 Internet Marketing Exposed - Plagiarism Check - What To Do with a Content Thief Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:50:20 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24424 [...] If you want to know what to do after your Plagiarism check has caught someone stealing your content, have a look at John Cow’s article on How to Deal with People who are Stealing your Content. [...] [...] If you want to know what to do after your Plagiarism check has caught someone stealing your content, have a look at John Cow’s article on How to Deal with People who are Stealing your Content. [...]

]]> By: Spreading Love - September 08 Week 01 | Mr. Javo dot Com http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24163 Spreading Love - September 08 Week 01 | Mr. Javo dot Com Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:31:33 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24163 [...] How to Deal with People who are Stealing your Content by John of JohnCow. [...] [...] How to Deal with People who are Stealing your Content by John of JohnCow. [...]

]]> By: Chilli Flakes http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24149 Chilli Flakes Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:07:41 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24149 Thanks for information. Its real to deal with such people and ball gets dropped due to intracacies involved. The system should be more robust and foolproof. Chilli Flakess last blog post..<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ChilliFlakes/~3/384839091/national-phone-registry-must-for-your.html" rel="nofollow">National Phone Registry- A must for your Information needs</a> Thanks for information. Its real to deal with such people and ball gets dropped due to intracacies involved. The system should be more robust and foolproof.

Chilli Flakess last blog post..National Phone Registry- A must for your Information needs

]]> By: Nicki D. Harper http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24146 Nicki D. Harper Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:05:30 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24146 Freelance writers typically use a work-for-hire agreement, which should state that all rights go to the buyer, once the price is paid. In the United States, a person who writes anything automatically has a copyright to it--no one else may use it without permission. This is not true in all countries. As far as I know, you can simply state your name, the copyright symbol and the year on the page to assert copyright. To prove originality, many people send themselves a copy of what they've written via registered mail and don't open the letter. Just file it with a plain old printed copy and you have proof of the date on which (or before which) you wrote the piece. You can also formally register your copyright for a fee. As a freelance writer working through Elance, I can testify to the amount of scraping going on. It's very hard to stop. Worse, there are article "spinning" programs that change the content of an article just enough to fool plagiarism checkers such as Copyscape. IMHO, this is illegal, unless the person who holds the copyright on the paper gives permission to use it in this way. Freelance writers typically use a work-for-hire agreement, which should state that all rights go to the buyer, once the price is paid.

In the United States, a person who writes anything automatically has a copyright to it–no one else may use it without permission. This is not true in all countries.

As far as I know, you can simply state your name, the copyright symbol and the year on the page to assert copyright. To prove originality, many people send themselves a copy of what they’ve written via registered mail and don’t open the letter. Just file it with a plain old printed copy and you have proof of the date on which (or before which) you wrote the piece. You can also formally register your copyright for a fee.

As a freelance writer working through Elance, I can testify to the amount of scraping going on. It’s very hard to stop. Worse, there are article “spinning” programs that change the content of an article just enough to fool plagiarism checkers such as Copyscape. IMHO, this is illegal, unless the person who holds the copyright on the paper gives permission to use it in this way.

]]> By: Mark http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24113 Mark Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:30:52 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24113 Forget that list. Just file a DMCA notification immediately with the ISP (Google isn't necessary). Problem solved. If the ISP is non-U.S., they still usually will get rid of the content because it violates their TOS. Just make sure you own your content, i.e., you are the copyright owner. If you commission content from freelancers, they own it, not you, even if you've paid them (you just have an implicit license to use it). You cannot file the DMCA notification unless you own it or have a limited power of attorney or agency appointment for copyright matters from the owner. The easiest thing is to just own it. So always have a written contract transferring copyright in exchange for valuable consideration (the payment). Forget that list. Just file a DMCA notification immediately with the ISP (Google isn’t necessary). Problem solved. If the ISP is non-U.S., they still usually will get rid of the content because it violates their TOS.

Just make sure you own your content, i.e., you are the copyright owner. If you commission content from freelancers, they own it, not you, even if you’ve paid them (you just have an implicit license to use it). You cannot file the DMCA notification unless you own it or have a limited power of attorney or agency appointment for copyright matters from the owner. The easiest thing is to just own it. So always have a written contract transferring copyright in exchange for valuable consideration (the payment).

]]> By: xyberk the biz bum http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24103 xyberk the biz bum Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:22:38 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24103 I totally agree with Bryan Bliss. Write boring and unoriginal crap er stuff and so you'd go untouched. Wish I learned that when I was just starting. :cry: xyberk the biz bums last blog post..<a href="http://www.oolahmoolah.com/2008/09/hot-making-money-web-sites.html" rel="nofollow">Oolah Hot Making Money Web Sites</a> I totally agree with Bryan Bliss. Write boring and unoriginal crap er stuff and so you’d go untouched. Wish I learned that when I was just starting. :cry:

xyberk the biz bums last blog post..Oolah Hot Making Money Web Sites

]]> By: eBook Pro http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24098 eBook Pro Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:11:40 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24098 Tim Knox posted a blog for this same topic this week, but his focused more on info products, like ebooks. To discourage plagurism of his info products, he recommends using eBook Pro as well as copyright all pages. You can find his blog post at: www.timknox.com -Kevin Tim Knox posted a blog for this same topic this week, but his focused more on info products, like ebooks. To discourage plagurism of his info products, he recommends using eBook Pro as well as copyright all pages.

You can find his blog post at: http://www.timknox.com

-Kevin

]]> By: Jeff http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24096 Jeff Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:29:43 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24096 I find this a little trickier in my genre (gadgets). The discovery of the gadget and reporting on it first is most important. Often I'll find a new gadget, write it up with a link to the manufacturer or a retailer's page and then find another blog has 'scooped' the gadget without listing my site as a source when it's pretty obvious they took the idea from me. Even a tiny "via" or "source" at the bottom linking to me is fine but many sites don't do this. I find a lot of the content scrapers actually link back to me, which is not ideal but acceptable. As long as they link, Google should hopefully (or eventually) get it right. Jeffs last blog post..<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CraziestGadgets/~3/381741179/" rel="nofollow">Candlestick Flashlight Combines Two Great Weapons</a> I find this a little trickier in my genre (gadgets). The discovery of the gadget and reporting on it first is most important. Often I’ll find a new gadget, write it up with a link to the manufacturer or a retailer’s page and then find another blog has ’scooped’ the gadget without listing my site as a source when it’s pretty obvious they took the idea from me. Even a tiny “via” or “source” at the bottom linking to me is fine but many sites don’t do this.

I find a lot of the content scrapers actually link back to me, which is not ideal but acceptable. As long as they link, Google should hopefully (or eventually) get it right.

Jeffs last blog post..Candlestick Flashlight Combines Two Great Weapons

]]> By: Deepak http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24080 Deepak Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:37:22 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24080 That was a great chunk of information. I was looking forward to gain knowledge about content issues and got right on time :grin: That was a great chunk of information. I was looking forward to gain knowledge about content issues and got right on time :grin:

]]> By: Owen http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24061 Owen Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:45:33 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24061 I have a content thief that is taking my posts, and removing all references to my site. Since my content is under a creative commons license, I do not mind them using it for non-commercial use with attribution, but they do not attribute it. I contacted the Google spam team since they are just replicating my posts. I'm hoping that I can find the IP of the webhost & give them a different RSS feed with some fabricated content in it. Owens last blog post..<a href="http://www.thelinuxblog.com/ssh-escape/" rel="nofollow">SSH Escape</a> I have a content thief that is taking my posts, and removing all references to my site. Since my content is under a creative commons license, I do not mind them using it for non-commercial use with attribution, but they do not attribute it. I contacted the Google spam team since they are just replicating my posts. I’m hoping that I can find the IP of the webhost & give them a different RSS feed with some fabricated content in it.

Owens last blog post..SSH Escape

]]> By: Robert C - The Wholesale Products Guy http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24058 Robert C - The Wholesale Products Guy Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:07:20 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24058 I had the advertising copy from my website copied about five times. I could see taking it from someone who is a legend in copywriting, but, from me, not much going on in terms of legend, or copywriting genius for that matter! (LOL!). Luckily, I have Copyrights on both my advertising and my ebook. Most of the people that copied it - just did a simple copy and paste and made no attempt to even rewrite it. They even included the testimonials. Most of time, they were using the copy to resell my ebook (which they don't have the resale or affiliate rights to) on Ebay and IOffer.com. Ebay has been great about taking the auctions down and don't allow digital product sales anymore. IOffer.com has been speedy with my complaints as well. But, recently, I had it copied again. I could not get a hold of the owner. His/Her e-mail was undeliverable which is not a surprise. I found out who the host was and lodged my first DMCA complaint. I sent it by regular mail, which, mysteriously, never got delivered. Strike one. I then tried faxing my complaint, and the matter was resolved within a day. I guess the point of this post is this. While you can't copyright every post, or prevent scraping entirely, you can make sure that advertising or ebooks that you sell are throughly protected. Yes, I know that some of you assume that you can get a Google cache on your work, and that your Domain registration can help you create a timeline as to when your site was established. Anything that you create for your site or blog is assumed to be copyrighted automatically. But, for concrete proof, you would be best served by using the TX Short Form from the copyright office <a href="http://www.copyright.gov/" rel="nofollow">Copyright Office.</a> I spent the 33 dollars for both my advertising and my ebook, for a grand total of 66 dollars. The copyright office is like clockwork. Within six months almost to the day, they sent me my certificate. Probably one of the most effiicent government agencies I have dealt with! For the future, and with more research, I am going to look into disabling the cut & paste feature with some Javascript. However, I am not sure if that will inhibit the ability of spiders from crawling my front page as well. Personal anecdotes aside, if you can afford to do it, get Uncle Sam's protection on anything that is a constant "workhorse" for your site, i.e., advertising, printed, or digital publications.. Thats my rant.. Robert The Wholesale Products Guy I had the advertising copy from my website copied about five times. I could see taking it from someone who is a legend in copywriting, but, from me, not much going on in terms of legend, or copywriting genius for that matter! (LOL!).

Luckily, I have Copyrights on both my advertising and my ebook. Most of the people that copied it – just did a simple copy and paste and made no attempt to even rewrite it.

They even included the testimonials. Most of time, they were using the copy to resell my ebook (which they don’t have the resale or affiliate rights to) on Ebay and IOffer.com.

Ebay has been great about taking the auctions down and don’t allow digital product sales anymore. IOffer.com has been speedy with my complaints as well.

But, recently, I had it copied again. I could not get a hold of the owner. His/Her e-mail was undeliverable which is not a surprise. I found out who the host was and lodged my first DMCA complaint.

I sent it by regular mail, which, mysteriously, never got delivered. Strike one. I then tried faxing my complaint, and the matter was resolved within a day.

I guess the point of this post is this. While you can’t copyright every post, or prevent scraping entirely, you can make sure that advertising or ebooks that you sell are throughly protected.

Yes, I know that some of you assume that you can get a Google cache on your work, and that your Domain registration can help you create a timeline as to when your site was established.

Anything that you create for your site or blog is assumed to be copyrighted automatically. But, for concrete proof, you would be best served by using the TX Short Form from the copyright office

Copyright Office.

I spent the 33 dollars for both my advertising and my ebook, for a grand total of 66 dollars. The copyright office is like clockwork. Within six months almost to the day, they sent me my certificate. Probably one of the most effiicent government agencies I have dealt with!

For the future, and with more research, I am going to look into disabling the cut & paste feature with some Javascript. However, I am not sure if that will inhibit the ability of spiders from crawling my front page as well.

Personal anecdotes aside, if you can afford to do it, get Uncle Sam’s protection on anything that is a constant “workhorse” for your site, i.e., advertising, printed, or digital publications..

Thats my rant..

Robert The Wholesale Products Guy

]]> By: Victor Teixeira http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24054 Victor Teixeira Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:22:36 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24054 Actually you can find the webhost of a specific site just by going to whoishostingthis.com. Actually you can find the webhost of a specific site just by going to whoishostingthis.com.

]]> By: Kill The Scrapers! http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24046 Kill The Scrapers! Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:26:50 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24046 :shock: I've had content stolen from various sites of mine, including photos from a website dedicated to stupid cat pictures, and back when I ran my daily Jigsaw Puzzles via JavaScript (to rotate a new one in everyday) I actually had two sites (that I know of) hijack the scripts so the puzzles were shown on their websites, but using my bandwidth for people to download them. Contacting the website owners was nearly useless, so I embedded a watermark in the photos with the site name, and added some text to my Javascript (with the font color set to be invisible on my site, but show up great on his) saying this content on his site was stolen. Within a few days they both quit using them. Sometimes you just have to use a bigger stick! Kill The Scrapers!s last blog post..<a href="http://jigsawaday.com/wednesdays-jigsaw-puzzle-jardines/2008/09/03/" rel="nofollow">Wednesday’s Jigsaw Puzzle - Jardines</a> :shock: I’ve had content stolen from various sites of mine, including photos from a website dedicated to stupid cat pictures, and back when I ran my daily Jigsaw Puzzles via JavaScript (to rotate a new one in everyday) I actually had two sites (that I know of) hijack the scripts so the puzzles were shown on their websites, but using my bandwidth for people to download them. Contacting the website owners was nearly useless, so I embedded a watermark in the photos with the site name, and added some text to my Javascript (with the font color set to be invisible on my site, but show up great on his) saying this content on his site was stolen. Within a few days they both quit using them.

Sometimes you just have to use a bigger stick!

Kill The Scrapers!s last blog post..Wednesday’s Jigsaw Puzzle – Jardines

]]> By: sean http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24045 sean Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:22:18 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24045 Informative post, what is the general concensus on rewrites ie 6o/40 new content Informative post, what is the general concensus on rewrites ie 6o/40 new content

]]> By: John Cow http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24043 John Cow Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:59:44 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24043 hmmm great strategy lol hmmm great strategy lol

]]> By: pinoyconsole http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24041 pinoyconsole Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:34:33 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24041 This is very interesting topic and give me idea how to deal it properly, I think this is the case of my site being penalized by Google after seeing most of my post pinging back to me from other site, some with my name and some have not. I was so lazy to deal with them and let them go, so what happen was even I got a lot of hits, lots of legal linkbacks and twice PR update I still don't get any PR score now. How about next post is how to regain back your lost PR due to content stealer? :wink: This is very interesting topic and give me idea how to deal it properly, I think this is the case of my site being penalized by Google after seeing most of my post pinging back to me from other site, some with my name and some have not. I was so lazy to deal with them and let them go, so what happen was even I got a lot of hits, lots of legal linkbacks and twice PR update I still don’t get any PR score now. How about next post is how to regain back your lost PR due to content stealer? :wink:

]]> By: Bryan Bliss http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24040 Bryan Bliss Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:19:20 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24040 maybe these are better than My strategy for dealing with stolen content. I simply wrote stuff so boring and unoriginal that noone would ever want to steal it, unfortunately my article " the letter w typed 23,48 times" never really went viral like I hoped, so my traffic still sucks thanks and take care bryan maybe these are better than My strategy for dealing with stolen content.

I simply wrote stuff so boring and unoriginal that noone would ever want to steal it,

unfortunately my article ” the letter w typed 23,48 times” never really went viral like I hoped,

so my traffic still sucks

thanks and take care

bryan

]]> By: K-IntheHouse http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24039 K-IntheHouse Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:15:20 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24039 You couldn't have timed this better. My content is being scraped along with other popular iPhone blogs and I have resorted to the same tactics you mention. Politely asking them to remove my feed or use an excerpt. If not, I will be filing a DMCA report. Then contact their host. As like most instances, there is no contact info in the site. But, they were kind enough send me a dozen pings in one day to alert me! :evil: You couldn’t have timed this better. My content is being scraped along with other popular iPhone blogs and I have resorted to the same tactics you mention. Politely asking them to remove my feed or use an excerpt. If not, I will be filing a DMCA report. Then contact their host. As like most instances, there is no contact info in the site. But, they were kind enough send me a dozen pings in one day to alert me! :evil:

]]> By: Noobpreneur http://www.johncow.com/how-to-deal-with-people-who-are-stealing-your-content/#comment-24038 Noobpreneur Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:14:48 +0000 http://www.johncow.com/?p=1817#comment-24038 Hi, I thought about it as a 'free promotional method' - but since you put it that way, I start to feel uneasy about it! Great tips and will put it into practice if scraping happened! Thanks :) Noobpreneurs last blog post..<a href="http://www.noobpreneur.com/2008/09/03/web-directories-as-web-investment-well-worth-the-trouble/" rel="nofollow">Web Directories as Web Investment - Well Worth the Trouble?</a> Hi,

I thought about it as a ‘free promotional method’ – but since you put it that way, I start to feel uneasy about it!

Great tips and will put it into practice if scraping happened!

Thanks :)

Noobpreneurs last blog post..Web Directories as Web Investment – Well Worth the Trouble?

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