How much should we "rewrite" articles to avoid copyright infringement?

You should not simply "rewrite" someone else's content. It's okay to use the magazines to get ideas for your content but changing the wording around a bit does not make it your own.

It is illegal to take someone elses content and publish it .. Research is looking up a topic and reading and learning about that topic. Then sitting down and write in your own words from what you have learned...

James

I think 80% of anything.

I would say 95%. You need to make sure that out of trouble could get your article on top position.

Try to rewrite completely. Take a paragraph, grasp the concept and write the paragraph in your own style and flair. Also change the headings completely. I have done some of them like this and never had someone say that it is similiar to something else.

Here's an idea. Write all of your own original content. Have peace of mind. Have dignity.

Nuf said.




Shawn

You don't rewrite other people's content. Simple.

You research and build up your own mental landscape on a subject and then write your own original content...then you rewrite that to increase the amount of [hopefully valuable] content you have.

When people talk about rewriting articles on this forum, they don't mean other people's content - they mean their own, either written by them, outsourced or plr.

..and whoever said researching a topic and writing what you've learned is copying articles from multiple sources needs to reconsider this completely absurd concept.

*Everything* we know is from another source. We weren't just born with the knowledge to do sums and read and talk and write. We *learned* that from other sources.

And if you don't see that - WOW - we must be plagiarizing so many text books right now.

If its an offline publication that i would copy from, then i will just take the gist of the article make a completely new one or maybe 70 percent of the article.

According to our testing, Google wants to see an average of 60% new content.

Ethically speaking, copying one sentence word for word and then everything else is unique, is still wrong. Take that sentence and put it in your own words. In most cases, it's ok to copy text word for word if you cite the source.

Maybe this is why there are so many versions of the bible.

No one wanted to get sued by the apostles relatives.

Take the information you have read from the magazine and then

rewrite it an your own words...it is nothing wrong with that. Americans

we have been doing that for decades. From elementary to junior high to college and

beyond.

Wow unbelievable. :rolleyes:




Shawn

I dont think you can rewrite other peoples work, unless its plr material

How can anyone possibly take a 1500 word article, read it ,call this research, rewrite it , and feel they have done the world a favor by shedding new light on a subject ?

Billy Bob cried .

Billy Bob wept .

Tears flowed , as if from some mystical river, from Billy Bob's eyes .

Now some on here would say that the first two examples are still copied because there is only a 50% difference .

This same crowd would say, since the later is 80% or more , the third sentence would be an original.

All basically just let you know that Billy Bob is emotional.

Billy Bob cried is the only original because it was written first . The other two , while changing the words , in no way change the meaning or sheds a unique light on the subject .

Now you could probably get by with sentence three. Will it really get someone who has researched Billy Bob to click the buy now button ?

It is unfortunate and discouraging to hear the advises given. grab an article, read it and write it in your own words. Personally, i just change each sentence, run it through copyscape and if it comes up clean, then i am done. Truth be told everyone copies. Nobody knows about everything.

Some on this topic have sites about eyecare and they are not doctors. Some have sites about blood pressure and they never went to medical school. If you do not want to keep spending money on copyscape, then buy CONTENT COMPOSER it has the plaigarism checker function.

Do not let people discourage you, everyone copies ideas for articles and most will simply deny it.

You should use them as a reference and cite the source. If that does not work for you, you can always put what they wrote in your own words, summarize. Personal opinion, always be original.

Come on guys - it's not frickin rocket science.

I you can look at yourself ethically and see some integrity and feel good about yourself and your business, then you shouldn't even have to ask.

If you do have to ask, perhaps you need to re-evaluate the way you produce your content because 9 times out of 10, it'll come right back and bite you in the a$$.

Allen

The purist deep down in all of us knows we should put ideas into our own words. Don't copy, don't cheat blah blah blah

But this is the age of the internet. People write brief articles, maybe 500 words. They take the articles and submit them to article directories. There are, what, 3000 article directories. Maybe 2999 article directories accept the article. The article is part of the vast collection of submissions to the directory. My goodness, each article directory has at least 10,000 articles. 10,000 x 3,000 = a huge reservoir of knowledge in article directories on the net.

Except we all know 98% of the articles in article directories on the net are rubbish. 98% of the articles are copies of copies of copies of spun articles. Just pick one topic: how many original ideas can the human brain have about applying for a loan? Yet I guarantee you that within the 3,000 article directories there are at least 300,000 article about how to apply for a loan. Each one is original, right? Gimme a break!

I think Google is like a politician. It says one thing and does the other. It says it wants original content. It doesn't penalize duplicate content, it just ignores it. But it gives very high page rank and other good marks to article directories like EZA etc which contain nothing but repetitions and repetitions of stolen, spun articles. In other words, Google slaps the little gal or guy who writes ten barely original article, but it supports and gives cred to the swill that slops around in most article directories. Sheesh.

The good thing about threads like this is it helps pinpoint the people that I don't want to do business with. If you'll steal from someone else there's no reason to think you won't steal from me.

I suggest you do your own research and formulate your own articles. Simply rewriting someone's articles does not make it your own. You can get ideas from those magazines, from there, write your own fresh article, and not just reword/ rephrase the article. Get information from other sources also.

Yeah... Why not just write your own articles? It's a valuable skill since you appear to be pursuing, um, article marketing?

Okay, we've had the debate over the ethics of stealing content. Again.

(Can you tell where I stand? )

Coming back to your original question, here's a method you can use to utilize those offline magazines in an ethical way. I adapted it from a post Clayton Makepeace wrote on copywriting.

Basically, you grab a stack of magazines, which you'll be going through three times.

With notebook ready to take notes, go through each magazine and look at the topics. Note what areas of your subject are important and look for trends on what gets covered repeatedly. Write down your findings as you go. Also note any article titles which catch your attention - write them down. That's our first pass.

Second pass - we're looking for bits of content we can use. Facts, figures, ideas, resources, etc. Write them down for later use. Extract the main points in your own words. This pass will take the longest, as it requires the most reading.

Last pass - we're looking for bits of copy. Words, phrases, jargon with definitions. Expressions that catch our eye. Does a writer have a unique way of expressing a point? Copy it in your notebook word for word, along with the writer's name and where you found it. You can use this as appropriate, with proper attribution.

Follow this with a stack of magazines, fill in the blank spots with a combination of online research and real books, and you should have fodder for whole bunches of original, unique articles.