As we’ve seen, catching a plagiarist is not overly difficult. The tough part can come from knowing what to do next. Once you’ve found your blog post or article copied on someone else’s site, how should you handle it?
Email or Leave a Comment for the Content Thief First
Sometimes a blog or website owner is ignorant of copyright laws. There seems to be a misguided belief out there that goes something like “If it’s online, it’s free”. Which of course is not at all true but some people don’t quite understand that. So I tend to start with a firm but polite email that goes something like this:
“Hello! I noticed you enjoyed my article on lavender essential oils however this article is copyright protected and cannot be republished elsewhere. I am available to write an original article for you for $75 per post if you are interested. Either way, this article needs to be removed within 48 hours. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Blessings, Angela <><“
Things to Include When Contacting Content Thieves
I always include a link to my original post to prove copyright ownership. If it’s a post that I’m willing to allow to be reprinted I’ll add a sentence after the second sentence that says, “The reprint fee for this article is $150 if you’d like to keep this article on your site. I’m also available to write an original article for you…..”
Be sure that your request for them to remove the article is NOT a negotiable statement or question. “Would you mind taking it down?” is not a request, it’s a question. Which the content thief could answer with a “yes I mind taking it down” and they’ve answered your question. So be sure you’ve actually said, “I need you to take my article down” or else you’ve never actually requested your article to be removed.
What Happens if They Don’t Take Your Article Down?
If the person who stole your article or website post doesn’t take your post down within the alloted time frame you need to move on to a DMCA complaint. This is a serious thing and should result in the plagiarist being de-indexed from Google as though that post doesn’t even exist – protecting your hard work and blogging efforts. You can file a DMCA with Google here.
I also will contact the advertising networks, hosting companies and domain registrars if there is no response. And I track down an email address (WHOIS is a good resource) and send invoices via Paypal. Usually what happens is I get ignored and then they get the invoice from me and take down the article.
Do Content Thieves Ever Actually Pay?
Yes. Usually 3 out of 10 people will apologize and take the post down, pleading ignorance of the laws. An additional 2 out of 10 will take down the post after first contact but never say anything to me. 3 out of 10 will wait until I send an invoice and THEN take it down without comment. 1 out of 10 requires a formal DMCA before taking action and about 1 out of 10 will either pay the reprint fee or hire me to write a replacement article for them.
Wondering how this applies to someone who copies and pastes an entire article on their site AND gives credit for it? I’ve recently had this happen twice where I’m named as the author, but it’s my entire article.
Thoughts?
It works exactly the same! Just because they left your name on it doesn’t mean it’s not still theft. If I steal a UPS truck they aren’t going to grateful I left the name on the side and “gave them exposure” – they are going to have me (rightfully) arrested for theft.
If it’s a high traffic or reputable site and you want to let them keep the mention you could ask that they include an introductory paragraph and link back to the original article. But, without your express consent, using the full work is still a copyright violation.
Thanks Angela! Very helpful…I’ve been wondering how to handle it graciously for some time now.
You are free to cut and paste my letter-to-content-thieves if you want. (laughing) No invoicing I promise. 😉
Same thing happend to Brooke happend to me yesterday.
There is no way to contact the website that copy, pasted and gave no credit to me at all other than Twitter. After several angry Tweets and no replies, I Googled and found your article.
I think Google DCMA complaint should take care of it. Great advise- thank you!
UPS truck ha!
This same thing happened to me too! I’m working on e-mailing the author but it looks like ALL of the articles are stolen!
Thank you, Angela.
Great example about the UPS truck. 😉
Excellent information! I have enjoyed this series of posts. There are so many people out there who have the wrong idea of online content and that it’s free for the taking. Thank you for bringing light to this topic!
And this is why you rock, I hope that I never have this happen, but do you happen to have a post on how to screen your work and make sure it’s not being copied? I know there’s Google Alerts but any others? PS I promise I won’t copy it and put it on my own site *LOL*
The most effective way is to take a unique sentence from your blog post and search it in quotation marked. So maybe for this post I’d search from the top-middle of the article “Be sure that your request for them to remove the article is NOT a negotiable statement or question. ” (You HAVE to use the “‘s or it won’t work right). Copyscape is a good option when you notice a particular post suddenly plummeting in page views…good chance it’s been stolen. I’ve found my articles used on college websites, other bloggers, the average scraper website, ebay product listings, customer newsletters, etc. Saddening.
There was a scraper site stealing content from one of my blogs last year. Once I contacted the hosting company (Be sure to follow any specific guidelines they provide on filing copyright claims), the site was shut down. I’ve seen my writing on eBay listings as well.
Before jumping to filing a DMCA notice, I highly recommend sending a ‘formal’ email outlining the infringement and putting forth the Cease and Desist. I run into this issue every week and find it gets results 2 out of 10 times – which will save you time in filing two more DMCAs.
I also reco reading this post on how to copyright your website http://bit.ly/854Bwb
That is a nice “second step” between a polite first-contact and going straight to DMCA. I’ve used it also when I thought it appropriate. For obvious scrapper sites I’ve found that the tendency is to remove the content only when they HAVE to and replace it with other stolen content from someone else. Grrr…
Great post. This has actually happened to me on several of my posts. Thank God they took them down right away!
I am assuming the same hold true for images. I have contacted a publisher who used my images without permission and mentioned me without a link. I still don’t want the image on the site unless the writer pays me for the image or removes it.
It’s nice to have some clear cut ideas about how to proceed if she doesn’t remove the image.
Angela – this is fantastic information! Thank you so much for covering it as it’s starting to happen more and more often.,
Angela,
Thanks again for this dynamite post. Truly informative. I appreciate all you do in your contribution to the “Blogosphere”!
Dave
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
I had my content posted on another site and after taking your advice it finally took sending them a paypal notice and I promptly received an email apologizing and the content was taken down.. 🙂
See? Send them an invoice and they suddenly take you a lot more seriously? I’ve had three or four emails completely ignored – they get the invoice and POOF….stolen content gone. It’s magic.
Thanks for the great post. I found this happening and then did a google search and came up with your article. It’s been a great help!
Thanks Angela. I’ll be implementing this later in the week. I discovered a local government tourism site lifted one of my articles and posted it on their website AND in a visitor’s guide brochure. I’ll also be talking to an attorney friend about our options tomorrow.
In a printed visitor’s brochure!? WOW. I’m really surprised THEIR lawyers didn’t catch that. Keep me posted – I’m interested in what happens.
Beverly,
I’m also interested in how this panned out. I realize it was a number of years ago but to know it was in a government brochure and everything is very alarming.
Good post, Angela. For me, the worst kind of plagiarism is when they steal your content, use spinner software to rewrite it into gobbledy-goop, yet still use the original writer’s name as the writer. I have a couple out there like that from S101 pieces, and I just can’t get rid of them. It really makes my blood boil.
Thank you so much for this. I have recently started growing my site, but because I have been plagiarized in the past, this was one of my big fears and something that has held me back in my willingness to expand my blog’s readership. Reading this made me feel so much better because it gave me clear directions on what to do when this happens to me again. Thank you for your willingness to share!!!
Thanks for the other steps. I have not had to use them. Emailing them and being polite about it has helped.
Angela great post! I am definitely keeping your statement on file it’s perfect and thanks for being so generous to share it with everyone!
Thank you for this article and for alerting me about my article. This is something everyone needs to read and I will share the link with others should I find others in need of this advice.
Have a great day!
Sheri Ann