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Article Plagiarism: What Can You Do?

by JDSalinger
13 replies
I submitted an article to Ezine Articles. A few days later I noticed a site had basically copied my article while changing only a few words. This would not bother me if it had the article resource box included but of course it did not. What is worse is the site is actually ranked ahead of the Ezine article. My question is what can I do to address this issue? So far, I have tried to contact the website owner but of course they did not have any contact information on their site and only has their name in whois domain information. I did track down what appear to be the names of what could be his hosting company and have sent them an email about the issue. If I do not hear back from the hosting company in a couple of days, I plan to contact Google to see if I can at least get the page deindexed?

My question is what else could I be doing and for others who have had similar experiences, what can I expect to come of this? Has anyone had any experience with Google on this type of issue?
#article #plagiarism
  • Profile picture of the author powerspike
    Well if People aren't listening, You could send a C&D or DCMA takedown notice.

    DCMA's thingy are nasty, but usually acted on instantly.
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  • Profile picture of the author mahal788
    Hey, this just crossed my mind yesterday.
    I'm doing article marketing myself and written a few articles which I really worked hard on. It's very easy to just copy and paste text, so I thought maybe websites should have a feature that disables copy? Like a "Read Only" option.
    But then again, I guess they can still retype the whole thing or something.
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    • Profile picture of the author powerspike
      Originally Posted by mahal788 View Post

      Hey, this just crossed my mind yesterday.
      I'm doing article marketing myself and written a few articles which I really worked hard on. It's very easy to just copy and paste text, so I thought maybe websites should have a feature that disables copy? Like a "Read Only" option.
      But then again, I guess they can still retype the whole thing or something.
      Disabling copy is impossible to do, people have tried it, but in the end there are so many ways to get around what people have tried.

      I'm quite sure if there was a way, everybody would be using it =)
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by mahal788 View Post

      Hey, this just crossed my mind yesterday.
      I'm doing article marketing myself and written a few articles which I really worked hard on. It's very easy to just copy and paste text, so I thought maybe websites should have a feature that disables copy? Like a "Read Only" option.
      But then again, I guess they can still retype the whole thing or something.
      Well, Ezine Articles will let you copy the article very easily off their site and this is fine when they are adding in the Article Resource Box like they are supposed to. Unfortunately, a lot of poeple do not do this which is stealing the content without giving credit to the author. The problem is that Ezine does not own the content that is placed on someone else's site and can't keep them from posting it. About the only thing I think they could do is bar that person's ip address from pulling additional content but then the person could just get a different ip address to circumvent that.

      The group that has the biggest control as far as I see it is the hosting company or the search engines. Unfortunately, despite Google being very hardline on their advertisers in what they require, they appear to not normally do squat in helping get this content removed and try to pass the buck. This of course, is a big league cop out on their part which forces you to deal with the hosting company and hoping they are in the same country as you are. It is actually pretty ridiculous how easy it is to steal content.

      I am curious what others have done to address these issues. Ideally, there would be a place where you could report these sites and have them deindexed in the search engines. That would be quick, efficient, and not taxing on the content creators. Think about how much work has to go into trying to get this content removed compared to how little effort the thief had to do to commit the crime.
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  • Profile picture of the author Taruru
    while they say that there`s nothing new under the sun, i guess it may really be hard to write a completely new article without consulting or looking at other similar articles. It is however completely wrong to take the whole article and pose it as yours...i feel that the best placed option is to ask google to deindex it, if one has proof..
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  • Profile picture of the author VegasGreg
    I would recommend suing them. You could make a lot more money from winning a lawsuit than making a few sales from the article.

    Of course, that is an extreme option but becoming more and more popular.
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  • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
    Originally Posted by JDSalinger View Post

    I submitted an article to Ezine Articles. A few days later I noticed a site had basically copied my article while changing only a few words. This would not bother me if it had the article resource box included but of course it did not. What is worse is the site is actually ranked ahead of the Ezine article. My question is what can I do to address this issue? So far, I have tried to contact the website owner but of course they did not have any contact information on their site and only has their name in whois domain information. I did track down what appear to be the names of what could be his hosting company and have sent them an email about the issue. If I do not hear back from the hosting company in a couple of days, I plan to contact Google to see if I can at least get the page deindexed?

    My question is what else could I be doing and for others who have had similar experiences, what can I expect to come of this? Has anyone had any experience with Google on this type of issue?
    Last time I caught someone doing just that to me, I shamed them right here on the Warrior Forum (or course, I had obvious proof of ownership)....they fixed the issue within hours.

    Don't know if that is legal to do that here anymore, but there are other marketing forums were you can do that if you're so inclined....just saying.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Marker
    if you can find the email address of the thief send them an invoice for the article. Make it a big number like $465 and include a license for up to 50 domain names. $465 X 50. Include a space for the thief to fill in all domain names he plans to use the content on. Tell him to print out the invoice and then post it to the following address: then just give the physical address of a firm of lawyers near you. Give him 30 days to pay.

    Every time I have done something similar, the offending article disappears very quickly. Legal threats may or may not be true and then there is no monetary figure in the thief's mind. Put a figure on it, make it believable, and the guy will baulk.

    Oh and since he's never going to print out the invoice and post it, there'll be no unexplained mail arriving at the lawyers offices.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kev Stevenson
    This page explains what to do...
    --------------------------
    How to Issue a DMCA Take-Down Notice If Someone Steals Your Content
    --------------------------

    Regards,
    K
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  • Profile picture of the author manidip
    I second to Frank Marker. You just ask the webmaster to give you that money or take that web page off. Let the webmaster choose what option he/she would go.
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Good news. In this case, I was able to track down the web owner's hosting account with help from his domain registration company. They had a chat with him and the material was taken down. I think some of the other things you guys have mentioned are interesting. I think the goal is to use a solution that can be quickly employed and get fast action without much action on your part.

      The idea about having them pay you for the article to get them to take it down is a good one except that it doesn't discourage them from doing it again. It may solve your problem but it doesn't do anything to keep them from doing it again to someone else. By going to the hosting company, you are creating a record to where if they get called on it again, they seriously risk getting their hosting account shut down. I just wish there was a watch list like for sexual predators where plagiarist could be identified and listed and then treated more harshly and given reduced rights on the Internet.
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  • Profile picture of the author peter gibson
    Just to add some useful info for those who have trouble locating the perpetrator using whois... find out the service provider of that domain and contact their customer support - and lodge a complaint.

    Long time ago I had someone repeatedly steal my content, and after one phone call with evidence and a compelling argument he had a total of 10 sites taken of their servers. Take that sucka!

    To find out the service provider open a command prompt in your computer by selecting start/run/ then type open command prompt (On Vista and Windows 7, open start and type "command prompt" in the search bar).

    In command prompt simply type ping and then enter the offending site address (don't enter http://, just www.scumbagthieving*******site.com)

    The info that comes back will look something like this:

    Reply from xx.xxx.xx.xxx: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=51
    Reply from xx.xxx.xx.xxx: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=51
    Reply from xx.xxx.xx.xxx: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=51

    Ping statistics for xx.xxx.xx.xxx:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 24ms, Maximum = 25ms, Average = 24ms
    Obviously the x's will be numbers, and that repeated number is the IP of the offenders website. Take that number and go back to whois and that should show you who is hosting - and may even have an abuse contact form.
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    • Profile picture of the author JDSalinger
      Originally Posted by peter gibson View Post

      Just to add some useful info for those who have trouble locating the perpetrator using whois... find out the service provider of that domain and contact their customer support - and lodge a complaint.

      Long time ago I had someone repeatedly steal my content, and after one phone call with evidence and a compelling argument he had a total of 10 sites taken of their servers. Take that sucka!

      To find out the service provider open a command prompt in your computer by selecting start/run/ then type open command prompt (On Vista and Windows 7, open start and type "command prompt" in the search bar).

      In command prompt simply type ping and then enter the offending site address (don't enter http://, just www.scumbagthieving*******site.com)

      The info that comes back will look something like this:

      Obviously the x's will be numbers, and that repeated number is the IP of the offenders website. Take that number and go back to whois and that should show you who is hosting - and may even have an abuse contact form.
      This is good practical information. As I know it is sometimes hard to track down their details because these people often try to hide this stuff on purpose. Thank you for sharing this. I will try this out in the future.
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