Stolen content on outreach. Now what?

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TLondon

I thought this might actually fit better in here since this is SEO (outreach) related. Please feel free to delete the thread in the IM forum; probably doesn't really belong there.

I was wondering if anybody has run into this type of case, and maybe has some advice?

In a nutshell, I've been doing email outreach. I've reached out to an established website, provided a guest post with a backlink. They took my material, reworded it and kept the credit for themselves without any backlinks or mention of the original author.

Article was written from scratch and not published anywhere else. I worked hard on the idea, information and writing of that stuff. All they did is reworded certain parts so that it wouldn't look completely scrapped.

No response to my emails so far.

Is there anything I can do about it, or should I just move on? Kind of hurts though.

Move on. This is the internet. You can try submitting a DMCA to Google, but chances are, they won't care. Your only other option is to take them to court, in their country of residence - which is most likely Iraq or Kurdistan; neither of which I'd ever want to step foot in. Not to mention, you'd probably spend thousands of $ getting them there.

Move on and take a hit. It's all part of the game.

Thanks

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MikeFriedman

10 years ago

I would not send the DMCA to Google. I would send it to their webhost. If the host decides to threaten action for it, they might take the content down rather than lose their hosting account.

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Icematikx

10 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

I would not send the DMCA to Google. I would send it to their webhost. If the host decides to threaten action for it, they might take the content down rather than lose their hosting account.

Problem with DMCA's is counter-notifications. If the host receives a counter-notification, then chances are, they'll ignore the request and leave it to both parties to sort out.

It's too much effort for a single piece of content. People get far too attached to stuff like this. I've had articles stolen. It gives me an opportunity to rewrite it and make a better piece of content.

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MikeFriedman

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Icematikx

Problem with DMCA's is counter-notifications. If the host receives a counter-notification, then chances are, they'll ignore the request and leave it to both parties to sort out.

It's too much effort for a single piece of content. People get far too attached to stuff like this. I've had articles stolen. It gives me an opportunity to rewrite it and make a better piece of content.

Oh yeah, the success rate will be pretty close to zero. I just meant if you want an option other than doing nothing, that's about it.

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yukon

Banned 10 years ago

Next time do better research on the webmaster, multiple emails, smaller content samples, review their site, etc...

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yukon

Banned 10 years ago

No DMCA is going to do anything, OP has no way of proving he created the content. It's done, move on & use it as a learning experience.

Believe it or not, everyone in this world isn't nice...

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AffEngineer

10 years ago

Most definitely contact the webhost. If they're with a reputable one and you have a clear case, they should take action.

Good luck

~ Mateen

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yukon

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by AffEngineer

Most definitely contact the webhost. If they're with a reputable one and you have a clear case, they should take action.

Good luck

~ Mateen

How do you expect OP to prove he wrote the content?

Besides, OP sent the content to the other email/webmaster, it wasn't scraped.

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TLondon

10 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

How do you expect OP to prove he wrote the content?

Besides, OP sent the content to the other email/webmaster, it wasn't scraped.

I have email correspondence where I mention an offer with an article, then get a response from the webmaster (with signature to her site, email address, full name, etc.) that the content will be published tomorrow. It was published that day, except without any credits.

Anyway, I see the only way is court here, and it's definitely not worth it. It's also an American-run site, I even found the webmaster on LinkedIn.

Whatever, I calmed down a little. I guess I'll take the advice to move on. Really sad to see this kind of stuff though. Thieves everywhere.

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AdrianSeo

10 years ago

Originally Posted by TLondon

I have email correspondence where I mention an offer with an article, then get a response from the webmaster (with signature to her site, email address, full name, etc.) that the content will be published tomorrow. It was published that day, except without any credits.

Anyway, I see the only way is court here, and it's definitely not worth it. It's also an American-run site, I even found the webmaster on LinkedIn.

Whatever, I calmed down a little. I guess I'll take the advice to move on. Really sad to see this kind of stuff though. Thieves everywhere.

Very bad thing but it happens. I give you one suggestion. Maybe will not help you but sure will help others when they make the research about that website.
Post here the website name and email, to keep others on alert. Maybe this will help others to avoid same thing happen to them.
That is what i think will be fair. They have steal from you, and now you can pay it back.

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elusian

10 years ago

Let it go. I know that it sucks.

I once had an entire site hacked and the domain transferred by someone I had hired. He left the site looking the same so I would not notice and then redirected my traffic. The site had hundreds of articles that I had written on it and he ended up turning it into an adult site.

The cost of litigating, since he was from another country, was cost prohibitive. It took a bit to get over but it was a learning experience.

Learn from this and move on.

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Dennis Ray

10 years ago

My best advice would be to move on. Use it as a learning experience.

It's not right they used your hard work, but it happens to the best of us.

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TLondon

10 years ago

Yeah. They're hosted on HostGator, so I sent them a quick email just in case, but meh... whatever. It's just stupid practice on their side. They chose to scam rather than build a good relationship and have a stream of free quality content in the future.

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tech84

10 years ago

Next time, when sending your first email, don't send the article along with it.

I receive tons of emails like that everyday and I don't even bother reading the articles much less responding to them.

Most likely you are sending them an unsolicited email, with a request to publish a premade article, with a link to your site, in which they did not request you to do so, which most will just consider as spam.

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1 reply

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TLondon

10 years ago

Originally Posted by tech84

Next time, when sending your first email, don't send the article along with it.

I receive tons of emails like that everyday and I don't even bother reading the articles much less responding to them.

Most likely you are sending them an unsolicited email, with a request to publish a premade article, with a link to your site, in which they did not request you to do so, which most will just consider as spam.

Just to clarify, I did ask them beforehand. I never send out material straight-up. What you say makes absolute sense, and others should be aware of this too.

Thanks

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TLondon

10 years ago

Just to update in case others will run into similar issues.

I reached out to hosting provider, mentioning illegal practice and that I have proof. I also mentioned that I will be reaching out to NY Times for help in legal matters since some of the material used was theirs (and I used it with permission, credits, links, while the new "author" didn't credit anybody).

After that, I posted the article myself on my own site, expanded it with about 50% more content to increase value, added more study references, some quotes and advice from the field professionals with links back to them, more photos with credits and links (to raise awareness), and launched a small campaign to promote it on a few sites and social media. Got some nice traffic, retweets, shares, etc.

Magically, I see the credit and link appeared just now on that site to which I have submitted the guest article. Not sure what exactly made an impact but something had to.

So that's that. Thanks for all the help guys!

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Stolen content on outreach. Now what?

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