What do you do about your products that get ripped and end up in BlackHat forums?

by banx63
29 replies
I realise that is all part of this rather "grey" business sometimes. Does anyone do anything about it?

My latest one just is only a few weeks old and is all over them, makes me wonder whether using wishlist was even worth it....

Just wondering what other folks do?
#blackhat #end #forums #products #ripped
  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Send a DMCA notice to any sites that host your files.

    Many times a lot of the blackhat download links point to the same source: a file share or 'drop box' service.

    Send a DMCA to the file share service and have the file removed. All the blackhat links pointing at the file will then be broken.

    There are services that will do this stuff for you.
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    • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
      Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

      Send a DMCA notice to any sites that host your files.

      Many times a lot of the blackhat download links point to the same source: a file share or 'drop box' service.

      Send a DMCA to the file share service and have the file removed. All the blackhat links pointing at the file will then be broken.

      There are services that will do this stuff for you.
      This is your best option. Unfortunately you'll have to keep a close eye on them because they'll keep getting re-uploaded.

      You'll never 100% win the fight though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Klemen Znidar
    You will never be able to 100% stop it, but your best bet to "fight" it is to send DMCA like mentioned before.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dayne Dylan
    Banned
    DMCA or just make your products physical versions and increase the price on them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mohammad Afaq
      Originally Posted by Dayne Dylan View Post

      DMCA or just make your products physical versions and increase the price on them.
      But that's a hassle and still doesn't stop people from buying the "physical product" (probably a DVD) and uploading the content to a file sharing site.

      You need to make sure that in your privacy prevention tactics, you don't make it difficult for the legit customers to buy your product.

      EDIT: To the OP, I haven't sold any digital products that were shared in a long while (being outside the IM market is probably a big reason) but I know there are softwares that will automate the DMCA filing process for you.

      I bought one but I can't remember the name but search in the WSO section and you should find the thread.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dayne Dylan
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Mohammad Afaq View Post

        But that's a hassle and still doesn't stop people from buying the "physical product" (probably a DVD) and uploading the content to a file sharing site.

        You need to make sure that in your privacy prevention tactics, you don't make it difficult for the legit to buy your product.
        Not a hassle if you know what you are doing. And of course, there is no single solution to stop thieves, but if you make a printed manual or physical course, etc. vs. an ebook it will most likely not be shared as much. I'm speaking from experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author Freelancing10
    Yes report it! It's so easy to pirate items now a days, which is why the music industry got hit so hard. So put a Google Alert to make sure you get any notices when something comes up as your product name. This will keep you alert when someone is selling your product else where, or giving it away.
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  • Profile picture of the author sree94
    I typically don't worry about it too much

    If someone wants to rip off your product, they probably were not going to buy it anyway
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  • Profile picture of the author MindBuzz
    I've seen entire sites that post a lot of WSO's and other products. Really a shame for the people that do a lot of hard work to create something of value.

    It would be nice to find a way to "lock down" content that doesn't require a lot of programming or expensive plugins.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dayne Dylan
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MindBuzz View Post

      It would be nice to find a way to "lock down" content that doesn't require a lot of programming or expensive plugins.
      Trust me, if you can invent this, you'll become a billionaire.
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      • Profile picture of the author JustR
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Dayne Dylan View Post

        Trust me, if you can invent this, you'll become a billionaire.
        Yupp.. Totally Agreed..
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        • Profile picture of the author TheWillisWay
          As far as what to do once your product has been ripped I don't have any other advice other than what has been posted here.

          What I do, is expect for my work to be ripped off so structure it in a way that I can't be completely "weeded out" without the thief putting in a ton of work.

          Methods:
          1.) Have back end sales that lead to other products of yours, or affiliate commissions that lead back to you. This way as others give your work away you are still paid on the back end. If it leads back to you on the back end then the thief may end up putting more money in your pocket for you.

          2.) Take some of the KEY points of your work and have them in videos instead of just text. In the video state you domain name, and your personal contact information, and have it displayed on the screen. Make it to where the thief has to remake the entire video or do hell of a lotta work editing to get your info off.

          Also instead of having links form your ebook straight to a video have the link go from the ebook to your website where you have your video embedded into the site. There are video hosting sites (not youtube) where you can have your account set up to where you get to choose what sites are allowed to embed your video to. This way the thief can't just take your video and embedd it on to their own site.

          Make 3-5 key points videos and the thief will likely now want to put in the work.
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      • Profile picture of the author bwh1
        Originally Posted by Dayne Dylan View Post

        Trust me, if you can invent this, you'll become a billionaire.
        Maybe not but did someone tried this here

        PDF passwords, protected PDF, file permissions | Adobe Acrobat XI

        You can also protect it herewith http://www.pdfprotect.net/ and give out the password to your buyer list, but that needs one buyer which shares it with the other scammers and you are at point 0

        It anyhow can intimidate some of them

        G.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    Nearly all larger offers in the IM niche get ripped or distributed illegally...welcome to the Internet.

    What I do is have my team send out regular DMCAs and then followup. It's a cat and mouse game that never stops but I wouldn't let it stress you out in the least.

    To help prevent it, I generally structure my offers so people who refund right away don't get nearly the entire product...such as delivering bonuses every week for 12 weeks or something.

    I also brand the crap out of my stuff so the people who get it for free, still see my URL and branding all over the place..both of which have inherent value.
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  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    I wouldn't worry about it. They are not your target market anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    Create a quality product and sell lots of them, make a nice piece of change and don't worry. Include some upsells and downsells in the product that are less likely to get distribution.
    You could even include some affiliate links and make even more on the back end.
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    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    bzzzt. the CORRECT answer is, and I've done this, is if they take paypal payments for illegal membership/download access of my content; and I see any of my products, I

    a) send a DMCA takedown. If it's not responded to, I then (and this is good)

    b) find out their paypal account and file a motion with paypal to terminate their account, with pdf screencap of original non-responded to DMCA and their listing of my info product, and the paypal address they use for payments (put through a sample order as though you were going to order, then cancel right before payment, that way you can see their paypal email; screencap that as well, and attach when filing paypal infringement report, so there's proof). I play hardball.

    https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mp...gementrpt-full


    I protect my IP rights vigorously.

    I killed a pirate dvd site like this that was pirating my dvds. then you can file that w/law enforcement for criminal prosecution for illegal DMCA content piracy in their home country. Tip: that's a challenge in places like indonesia/china since english not first language; have to schedule translator when talking w/law enforcement/police in some of those countries.

    The pirate blackhat forum webmasters do not want you to see this. So spread it virally.

    disclaimer: this is not advice of any kind, its just what I personally do when I see pirates trying to spread my content illegally. Piracy is a crime and I Do report to law enforcement/merchant accounting to stomp them. I also send C&Ds/DMCAs to hosting companies and DNS registrars of pirate sites, for takedown actions.

    P.S. When you get a reputation like I have for killing piracy, they don't put your stuff online as much, since they know you'll come after 'em hard, like I do. Like we all should do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leonid88
    dont worry about that , they will make you famous (if your wso's are bullshit of course)))
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    I also brand the crap out of my stuff so the people who get it for free, still see my URL and branding all over the place..both of which have inherent value.
    Yep, I set them up to be ripped off. As mentioned above, there would be a lot of work involved in removing me completely. People who pirate files are allergic to work.

    Steal my stuff and pass it around...thanks for the free distribution! (;
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    • Profile picture of the author tjbarnes
      Originally Posted by Brent Stangel View Post


      Steal my stuff and pass it around...thanks for the free distribution! (;
      Right! Think like that, but don't only think it; strategize for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author tjbarnes
    Hello Warriors.. When people say that it doesn't really matter if someone steals your product or not, because it doesn't hurt your real sales that much , it isn't true. I have seen campaigns fall significantly short on sales, after having products pirated. The percentages drop drastically. It could mean the difference between 25 sales and 300 sales, or even more. I have also seen campaigns that were destined to be sabotaged and only produce a few sales, which blossomed into hundreds of sales instead, after having implemented strategies to avoid being pirated. Your best bet is to make as much of your product as you can non-downloadable. This way when somebody steals your files, they can only steal a part of the product, leaving the freeby seekers with an incomplete product. The freebie seekers then have to go buy the real product in order to get the rest of it. A good example is a membership site. Pirates can't steal that, and if it comes with the package then anyone who takes their free files will be left desiring the rest of the product. There are ways of avoiding total piracy, and even profiting from it. It just takes applying some logic. When you do these things mentioned above, the pirates become affiliates for you in effect, and their efforts to foil your campaigns end up making you more sales. This will help anyone who try's it.
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  • Profile picture of the author WordpressManiac
    I once had a product stolen and what I did was change the URLs where it was located. I then sent an update to the buyers list so they can still access everything.
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  • Profile picture of the author barbling
    I monetize my PDFs. Lots of affiliate links, lots links to other products, lots of links to my FB groups, lots of links to my content, lots of....

    You get the idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author dougb
    I think that the blackhatters are just collectors more than anything, he with the fullest hard drive wins mentality. Download all you can, look at very little. I like the brand the hell out of the product approach.
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  • Profile picture of the author ashloren
    If you can't beat them, join them.

    I usually just join the forum where my stuff is being shared and join in the conversation by thanking them for noticing it, answering questions and establishing good will with the blackhat crowd.

    They are much more receptive to this than if you are a dick. They will respect you and are more likely to buy your products in the future as a result of this interaction.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedark
    If your software was already ripped, then it means that your software is great.

    Here is a solution that i found. Give the software free, but keep something on your server. There must be something that makes all the software to work. Make that thing available trough API access and only available trough a monthly payment. I think this is also called Software as a service.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick Lotter
    I always set up Google alerts for my stuff so that I can see where my products are being shared, then, as explained above, you can send a DMCA notice to get the links taken down.

    However, having your stuff shared on blackhat sites is not necessarily ALL negative. One of my products was shared on a blackhat site, and to my bitter sweet surprise the users actually had a lot of good things to say about it in the thread and really liked it. So yeah, tons of people downloaded and shared my ebook for free, which sucked, but at least I got some real honest good reviews and critiques from users who weren't just trying to kiss butt, which I can learn from for future launches annd products, and my brand received a lot of exposure with positive comments and reviews.

    Of course the share cost me a lot of sales, subscribers and money. Having your stuff pirated always will. All I'm saying is, don't throw in the towel or get all depressed if your product got shared. Its not the end of the world, and you can do something about it using the advice given in this thread. But take what positives you can from it, learn from it, and prepare for it. Brand that thing, make other offers in it, and make sure its a good quality product, and who knows what kind of good you can milk out of a situation that's not much in your control.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    re piracy must be fought aggressively.

    Look what happened to the adult industry, as a precursor to all info-marketing. It's gotten decimated. tube sites/filesharing has taken a huge toll. Nowadays actresses have to do webcam live work for a livelihood, nonleveraged, in that industry. Because of widespread piracy/unauthorized redistribution of content.

    I protect my content aggressively with DMCA takedowns, law enforcement help, paypal account de-register bans for blackhat forum 'member' sites and pirate dvd sites, registrar actions, google search removals and more. I've sold a Lot online for 15+ years and work hard to protect it.

    Piracy-Related Stories like this are interesting:
    http://www.wired.com/2011/05/eight-domains-seized/
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2460799.html
    http://www.techspot.com/news/50694-m...rn-movies.html
    http://recombu.com/digital/news/inte...ns_M11099.html
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/te...anted=all&_r=0
    http://ctwatchdog.com/finance/downlo...nds-of-dollars
    http://www.iprcenter.gov/news-releas...83fbcbe5e14f62
    http://www.wired.com/2010/04/pornstar-piracy-video/

    the adult industry has always been interesting to study re trends (they had the world's first 'membership sites') and the rest, for lessons learned about digital content distribution -- and as a warning for what happens when you don't go after piracy. Digital theft is a crime.
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