Copyright Question - Someone Stole My Content...

I've filed many DMCA complaints over the years because I post articles on free article directories and when I find my article has been republished somewhere online and changed when it's been published, or doesn't have my name as the author or doesn't have my author's resource box attached, then I file a DMCA complaint to the hosting company if the web site owner doesn't remove my article when asked.

I'm no attorny but I do know that "fair use" means only to quote a small amount of your work, like a paragraph or two. But to copy most of it or to alter it in some way so that they can pretend it's theirs is not on.

All hosting companies use that threat of costs being incurred if your lying. But as long as you can prove in your DMCA complaint that you wrote the sales information first (by providing the URL of where it was originally published and, if possible, provide the T&C of the web site where it states that all work on the web site is copyrighted and cannot be publisehd) and that someone has used it without your permission, then you should be OK.

All the other person's hosting company will do is forward your complaint to the web site owner (so don't include any private contact info in it) and then the site owner has to either take your work down or file their own statement stating why they believe they believe you are lying.

I suppose if they do that then the whole thing has to be taken to court, which so far has never happened to me because all the work I have complained about was mine and had already been published online by me long before it was stolen so no one could argue that I was lying.

It's just that a DMCA complaint is a legal document and if you're lying about anything, then it can be said to be perjury (or something like that).

But as long as you're telling the truth and your work has been stolen (and it was alot more than a sentence or two) then I'd say go ahead and make the complaint.

Writing always comes under Intellectual Property Law, which basically means, that if you wrote it first, then you own it. So no one can legally steal your writing any more than they are allowed to steal your car.

Being able to prove that the work is legally copyrighted to you would help but it's not always necessary if you can show that it was yours to start with and the web site you posted it on has a copyright clause in it's terms & conditions page.

In my experience, once I issue a DMCA complaint the matter is resolved, and the writing removed, in 24 to 48 hours.

But good luck with it all anyway.

1. Yes.

2. No. Fair use only applies to non commercial use only.

if you could, I think it best to contact him directly... usually, in my experience, people who copy my content take them down when I request for them to do so.

Unfortunately, even that takes more time than I wish I had to spend, as I'm sure you'd agree.

All-in-all I expect things like this to happen, and ultimately on a far larger scale than I can maintain; however, I wanted to be clear on what legal grounds I had, if any, should I take the extra time to file a DMCA complaint.

Thanks for the advice,
Derek

Your WSO, with your name included is not fair use. File a DMCA. Don't worry about that legal jargon. That applies only if you would be filing one fraudulently in order to get someone delisted or taken down.

geeze....can't people just do the work themselves?

No, this is wrong, I see this posted here all the time.

Commercial use is just one of the things weighed into determining whether you may raise "fair use" as an affirmative defense.

From wiki (Fair use - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

If someone stole your website copy, I can't imagine any situation where that would qualify as fair use- unless perhaps they were creating an educational program about how to write copy and were analyzing sections of the copy or something.

That said, talking to a lawyer about this sort of thing is always the right thing to do. Only they can give definitive legal advice.

If someone stole my sales copy and was using it to sell their stuff, I would use the DMCA...that's what I would do personally if the infringement was blatant.

Again, any doubts- talk to a professional because no matter what we say, the buck stops with you.