One site "stole my content" and spinned / rewritten it

11 years ago

First I'd check it on copyscape or something similar to see exactly what % of duplication there is. Then I'd go to an official copyright office website and read the laws on how much duplication constitutes infringement. If you find that there actually is a case for you, grab a lawyer to send them a bill for the material. They'll still have that material online, but I'm betting they'll stay well away from the next stuff you put up. You don't have to warn someone about copyright fraud - you can just charge them for it.

If you aren't sure at this point even after checking what they have done, just keep an eye on the site and if you see this happening every time you put up new material - then you may have a case anyway.

It all depends on how much time, effort, and $$ you want to put into the theft.

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Sal
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zaco

11 years ago

Thank you HeySal, I know copyscape but I've never used it, so basically if I buy credits on copyscape and make a search then it would show me the sites that have used it? even if it was rewritten? if that is the case then I will go and buy some credits

Thanks
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ClaireFisher 11 years ago

Hey zaco,

I've had that happen a few times. If you want to pursue it, do what HeySal recommends, otherwise ignore them. People who steal content, fail! See if they are tying to rank for your keywords, then burry them.
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HeySal

11 years ago

Originally Posted by zaco

Thank you HeySal, I know copyscape but I've never used it, so basically if I buy credits on copyscape and make a search then it would show me the sites that have used it? even if it was rewritten? if that is the case then I will go and buy some credits

Don't know what happened - I tried to edit that post and it posted again instead. Fixed that.....

Not sure if it will do that or not. It will just tell you the % to which the article you are checking is copied from something else. I'm also not sure at what % you could claim theft either. That's why I suggested that you watch the site for further "coincidences". Even with re-write, if you find that everything you write is ending up on that site in one form or another, you might have a case against them.

Thanks

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Sal
When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
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MoneySavingLisa

11 years ago

I just added the Wordpress plugin WP-CopyProtect which disables the right click on your page so they can't copy and paste content that I spent time to write. It works wonders.

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onSubie

11 years ago

Originally Posted by MoneySavingLisa

I just added the Wordpress plugin WP-CopyProtect which disables the right click on your page so they can't copy and paste content that I spent time to write. It works wonders.

Does that prevent scrapers from taking the content too or does it only inconvenience your customers?

Mahlon

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1 reply

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MoneySavingLisa

11 years ago

Originally Posted by onSubie

Does that prevent scrapers from taking the content too or does it only inconvenience your customers?

Mahlon

LOL customers can't even tell, so it's more of an inconvenience to thieves. You can still click an affiliate link, etc, you just can't try and copy/paste or save an image.

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onSubie

11 years ago

Originally Posted by MoneySavingLisa

LOL customers can't even tell, so it's more of an inconvenience to thieves. You can still click an affiliate link, etc, you just can't try and copy/paste or save an image.

I was just wondering if those content guards protected from scrapers. I think it is more likely the scarpers that are a threat to the wide distribution of your stolen content.

If scrapers are not blocked (I don't know) then I was wondering if the protection outweighed the benefits of having people be able to cut "quotes" from your artiles when emailing a link or writing about you.

Mahlon

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Ryan Martin

11 years ago

[DELETED]

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Cyberkntsean

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Ramo

What if they hit "Ctrl-C" instead of right click to copy?

That plugin will not let you highlight anything on the page for you "Ctrl-C" copy... it's very nice free plugin.

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1 reply

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bitriot

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Cyberkntsean

That plugin will not let you highlight anything on the page for you "Ctrl-C" copy... it's very nice free plugin.

You can however, CTRL-A then CTRL-C without issue. But the issue is moot because most people who copy content do so via the RSS feed and not by manually copy and pasting.

I am sure someone could do other things as well such as copy the article from the source.

I would stay away from plugins that inconvenience other well intended bloggers and my users.

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Cyberkntsean

11 years ago

Originally Posted by bitriot

You can however, CTRL-A then CTRL-C without issue. But the issue is moot because most people who copy content do so via the RSS feed and not by manually copy and pasting.

I am sure someone could do other things as well such as copy the article from the source.

I would stay away from plugins that inconvenience other well intended bloggers and my users.

I tried the CTRL-A to select the text on 2 of my sites that has the copyprotect plugin, still wasn't able to copy but, it could be just me...

You do bring up valid points about inconvenience to others and the RSS feeds..

My thoughts on that are - locks are designed to keep out honest people, the thieves will always find a way in to get the goods...

As far as well intended bloggers... they could ask first....

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MoneySavingLisa 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Ramo

What if they hit "Ctrl-C" instead of right click to copy?

You can't highlight anything with the plugin to even copy it, so CTRL-C is worthless.
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nellterry

11 years ago

Originally Posted by MoneySavingLisa

I just added the Wordpress plugin WP-CopyProtect which disables the right click on your page so they can't copy and paste content that I spent time to write. It works wonders.

Thank you!! That's the best piece of advice I've heard in awhile!! I'm going to implement the plugin asap on my WP site.

Thanks
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MoneySavingLisa 11 years ago

Originally Posted by nellterry

Thank you!! That's the best piece of advice I've heard in awhile!! I'm going to implement the plugin asap on my WP site.

Anytime! I was trying to find something that would disable copy/paste. I kept reading on this forum about content being stolen and I write my own content.. I didn't want some lazy a** to take what I took the time to write.
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KingOfContentMarketing

11 years ago

Originally Posted by MoneySavingLisa

I just added the Wordpress plugin WP-CopyProtect which disables the right click on your page so they can't copy and paste content that I spent time to write. It works wonders.

Just plugged it in. Works great. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks

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princecapri

11 years ago

Originally Posted by MoneySavingLisa

I just added the Wordpress plugin WP-CopyProtect which disables the right click on your page so they can't copy and paste content that I spent time to write. It works wonders.

Unfortunately, there are ways around it. Page Source comes to mind, but it certainly makes its more difficult to copy content. What about RSS, I heard they are often used to nefariously copy content, no?

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zaco

11 years ago

Thank you Lisa, I am using Joomla

as I am not a big wordpress fan, I guess this is one of the disadvantages of using Joomla , I compared the articles and I believe that everything has been rewritten in another way..I don't want to send a DMCA since it is not word by word or even 50% , its well rewritten..they did a good job.

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alistair

11 years ago

If you give me the link to your posts or the other sites posts I'll run it through copyscape if you like and see what it says.

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agc

11 years ago

Rewriting, even if every word is changed, is still copyright infringement, as every idea remains intact, word for word. The sentence structures are all the same? The sentence sequence is the same? The paragraph sequence is the same? It's a either a copy or a derivative work, and either way, it's a no no.

I'd send the DMCA notice.

Most hosting companies are far too spineless to quibble in ANY grey area (such as fair use). While this fact roils my stomach as a publisher, you may as well use it to your advantage.

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hamzidosh

11 years ago

2 different sites did d same thing to me! The owner stole my 1000+ article that took me hours to write and their site sits on page 1 and my site is no where to be found!

Very very very painful...

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Don Schenk

11 years ago

Hi Zaco, a while back someone used a spinner on one of my articles and stuck the new one on his/her/it's Website without posting my resource box. Thank heavens, because the spun article was soooo awful I would not want to be associated with it.

My favorite attorney (wife) tells me, "You can't copyright an idea." However it sounds like that clown actually copied most of your article.

Apparently copyright law is a specialty all unto itself, and, as I recall hearing, your ability to collect any damages depends upon registration of the copyright before filing suit, and a few other considerations like whether the word "copyright,' or the circle-c, and the year, AND the name of the copyright holder appears on the version the copyright owner put out to the public.

I am not a lawyer and "officially" must say, "This is not legal advice."

Do a search in this forum for DCMA. There are some good, informative threads about what to do.

:-Don

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zaco

11 years ago

alistair,

opssssssssss I just purchased credits and used it

I wish I read your post before I did lol thanks alot tho

Thanks alot guys..I will send a DMCA letter to their host and see what happens and btw.. copyscape didn't find anything wrong just few generic words, I think since they
changed everything so it wouldn't be able to detect..

Thanks

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dsouravs

11 years ago

Instead of puting ur energy and time on what who else is copy cat-ing ur site put force on maintaining and SEO-SEM-ing ur site....If u r using WP then goog indexes ur post immediately after publication....so why worry?

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cherylwright

11 years ago

Originally Posted by dsouravs

Instead of puting ur energy and time on what who else is copy cat-ing ur site put force on maintaining and SEO-SEM-ing ur site....If u r using WP then goog indexes ur post immediately after publication....so why worry?

Not really the point. The work is being stolen. How would you like it if someone stole your property?

Cheryl

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HeySal

11 years ago

Originally Posted by dsouravs

Instead of puting ur energy and time on what who else is copy cat-ing ur site put force on maintaining and SEO-SEM-ing ur site....If u r using WP then goog indexes ur post immediately after publication....so why worry?

Exactly the attitude that plagiarists thrive on. If people would have done the right thing instead of adapting this attitude in the first place, there'd be much less copyright fraud online. The real waste of time and energy is to carefully research and write good information then just turn your head and allow someone else to steal it from you with no consequences. Do you like working for free? Do you find it a worthwhile expenditure of your time and effort?

When everyone is willing to just say, "oh well, my affiliate link is in there" that gives thieves the idea that what they are doing is just fine. I spend a lot of time and effort to produce my work. Nobody is entitled to take it free of charge unless I give it as a gift myself. If you think my online reaction is harsh - try stealing something out of my house.

Some people are actually just too stupid to actually be in business, too - truth might hurt, but if you didn't know that lifting other people's work is actually a crime, you aren't ready to be in business. Get an education. To avoid honest but stupid webmasters - put a copyright symbol and date after each piece you write. Believe it or not, even that little bit does help.

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Sal
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lifeisfun

11 years ago

I was just reading about fatpings 2 days ago and maybe that's something to keep in mind...

The idea is simple. When you publish an article you ping a trusted source to confirm that you site is the original location of that article. It does not really matter if you do it 10 seconds before the scraper does the same or one hour, it is only important that you do it before the scraper does. This obviously has consequences for original content creators who do not make use of Fat Pings, as it is quite possible that scraper sites may make use of Fat Pings for an extra advantage.

Can't hyperlink, so do the necessary editing to get the link

w w w DOT ghacks DOT net/2011/11/17/fat-pings-what-are-they-why-you-need-them-as-a-webmaster/

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1 reply

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the_viking

11 years ago

@lifeisfun

Is Fat Pings really neccessary for people that have a self-hosted wordpress site? Doesn't wordpress ping google and other search engines when you post a new article?

Thanks
1 reply

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lifeisfun

11 years ago

Originally Posted by the_viking

@lifeisfun

Is Fat Pings really neccessary for people that have a self-hosted wordpress site? Doesn't wordpress ping google and other search engines when you post a new article?

Like i said, just came a cross this recently; but from the article it says:

If your blog is hosted on WordPress.com or Blogger, then you do not need to do anything. Fat Pings are automatically sent out.

If you are running a self hosted WordPress blog, you can install the free PubSubHubbub extension to inform search engines when they blog has been updated.

Thus, if you're self hosted, you need to install the free plugin, which I did. If you're on wordpress.com or blogger, then you don't need it.

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cherylwright

11 years ago

Originally Posted by zaco

Hey Warriors,

I have spent so much time writing few aritcles and put them on my site, I am not the best writer and it takes me a while to write an article...today I noticed a site coming to page 1 ( I am on page one too but a higher rank) so I decided to check it out, I noticed 2 articles are exactly the same as my article, I came up with the idea and I am pretty sure its my article but spinned.. even their release date for the article was after few weeks from mine.

I checked them word by word, they are the same but everything is almost changed, if I use number 1 in my article then they go and use B and their have done a decent job changing the words and content positions...can I file a DMCA against them or is there a way where I can report them to Google ( I am not sure if Google would take that as stolen content)

Thanks

As a professional writer, I can tell you that this is plagiarism. They cannot legally take your article and rewrite parts of it to call it their own.

They can take the idea and the information and write their own article using your information, but they cannot take your article and just change a few words.

I have been plagiarised several times and have demanded the people and/or site in question take the work down, pay for usage (adding a resource box), or face legal action.

In every case my articles have been removed immediately.

I have friends who have written to the site concerned and demanded removal or payment - usually some exhorbitant fee like $300 per article. They quickly remove the plagiarised articles.

It's a sad fact, but many people believe that anything on the internet is fair game. It's not.

Cheryl

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timpears

11 years ago

Rewriting stuff seems to be common practice and suggested by many. I do it as I can't write for the life of me. I don't think there is much you can do if they have done a decent job of rewriting.

I am not a lawyer, so don't know for sure. Seems to me that the best way to see if you are doing something right is if someone copies you.

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edd666666

11 years ago

I just googled "defeat copyprotect plugin" and got 26,500,00 results.

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Viramara

11 years ago

WP Copyprotect sounds like a great plugin! But if you want your posts to be truly protected from copying, you can try Copysentry. It's a paid service from Copyscape, free for the first month and then $5 a month.

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Mary Wilhite

11 years ago

Stealing content is a war all marketers should stand up and fight.

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lucidsuccess

11 years ago

They will simply fail period!

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renukoot

11 years ago

Hi,

It seems many are aware of the DMCA thing. But are you aware that they also provide a Free Badge Services.

For Free account you can get a Free Badge for your website & also entitles you 1 Free Professional Infringement Takedowns per year.

You can see the details here :- Is DMCA Protection really free? - DMCA.com

For More protection Level & Takedowns they will Charge the fees.

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One site "stole my content" and spinned / rewritten it

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