I've Been Plagarised!

by 45 replies
55
Oh my goodness, I've heard of it happening but I haven't had it happen to me until now.

I submitted an article to about 6 article directories including EzineArticles. I just got an email from Ezines saying my article is rejected because they believe it is the property of someone else and they gave me the link to it.

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The top link is the link they gave me - published on the 4th May, the second link is the link to my article published 29th April

He didn't even change any of it, he just copied it exact word for word and submitted it to exactly the same article directory and they were stupid enough to publish it. I thought article directories approved articles before publishing them.

I just can't believe people just copy word for word, thats incredible.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #plagarised
  • It seems that whenever you upload something to the Internet, it does not belong to you anymore. Someone copied my website word-for-word. Her excuse: "I needed to make money".
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    • Best excuse ever, lol. Don't we all.


      But yeah, its gonna happen to you at one point or another, in fact, I look at it this way, if no one has ripped you off in any way yet, you're probably not making that much of an impact. I see it as a compliment. I mean, not happy about it, but I don't sweat it too much. Just move on.
    • So do thieves, but they go to jail for it. It's shocking that people can copy peoples sites and content word for word. Pure laziness!
    • wow - i can't believe it

  • I really, really dont understand people submitting articles to directories like EZA and then being surprised to find those articles elsewhere.
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    • I know it happens so I guess I'm not that surprised, but what surprises me the most is that this same article directory published the exact same article twice. That just shouldn't be allowed.

      I know there are a lot of dishonest, lazy people out there that steal other people's work, this is just the first time I have had it happen - or at least that I know off
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  • Yes his text is a bit 'awkward' isn't it. I guess it would be hard for them to write in English when it isn't their native tongue but he could at least try and change the article a bit without just copying word for word.

    I have contact Articlesbase and given them links to both articles so hopefully they will take it down.
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    • Banned
      Everything in life gets Swiped:
      • Ezines
      • Websites
      • Products
      • Ideas
      • Names
      • Processes
      • Whitepapers
      • Mind Maps
      • IRS swipes your money
      • Some other guy swipes your wife
      • etc..........................................
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  • Sheryl,
    that sucks - but as folks have said not surprising. I would go ahead and start a DMCA notice to get the content taken down - and then use copyscape or even just google to see if this clown has posted it elsewhere. You can get a free form to do this at:
    DMCA Notice to Host|Get Free Legal Forms
    Good luck!
    best,
    --Jack
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  • Sorry to hear that... I had this happen to me on some content I wrote once. It does not feel good.
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  • Thanks Jack, that is a very useful site to know off. I will give them a little bit of time for them to take it down, but if they don't then I will use that DMCA notice.
  • i was visiting one of my autoblogs today, and low and behold..i saw an article by Angela Edwards, about backlinks <---

    This is how autoblogs work, they get articles from article directories because they are "basically" public. You should know that a site-owner usually doesn't have control over this and its also far from any ill intent.
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    • I realise that and if I search a paragraph of that article it appears on a few different blogs that are autoblog type blogs.

      That I don't mind, they have kept the resource box intact and they have kept the link pointing back to my website, so that is gaining me more backlinks.

      It is just the blatant copying that I don't like - not to mention that there is no credit to who wrote the original article in my situation.
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  • I assume you mean 'plagiarised'.

    In fact, if he's copied it word for word, that's copyright theft, and you can sue his *ss.

    Send a DMCA to his host pronto.
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    • [2] replies
    • Yes I mean plagiarised, I didn't thinc I had itt spalt rite
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    • Unless the miscreant has the content hosted on their servers, DMCA to the host won't do anything.

      The DMCA notice must be sent in this case to the article directory. If they refuse, then you contact the hosting company for the article directory, not the miscreants hosting.

      Good luck Sheryl.
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    • Luckily I haven't been confronted with this problem before, however in my opinion its not even worth doing anything about it.

      Think about the ways you could be building your business in the time it takes to track these people down.

      I know some people find it hard to leave it and move on, but its inevitably going to happen at some point, so unless its directly affecting your business, I wouldn't worry.

      Just my $0.02
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  • One of my articles on the directories was downloaded over 1200 times and I had well under 100 backlinks from that same article. For me though, like one other poster here said, it just is not worth the time to track them all down. If it is in one of my niches, I will be having enough new content coming out on a regular basis to own the keywords in the SERP anyhow so I just move on.

    I feel like I am doing a frigging promotional tour of this product here today but I did get referred to this program and it was made exactly for this purpose.

    It is free and this is not an affiliate link ... but I have not had time to thoroughly check it out yet.

    Still, it does seem to be worth a look. You would be surprised how many hundred and sometimes thousands of sites are posting your content with absolutely no credit given to you at all ... especially if you are a writer.

    Tynt Tracer: What's being copied from your site?

    Just my two cents
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  • it happens. it sucks big time, but it happens.
  • I must admit it happens all the time but i havent noticed it happening to me but i am sure it has at some point. Lets face it we all write a lot of articles and with some outsourcing i get over 120 out a week and i have no time to keep checking up on them.

    So like yourself the only way i would know is if i had an article refused personally.
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    • Where did I get that article - I wrote it myself, I wrote it off the top of my head so I don't think that you saw the article belonging to someone else a few weeks ago!!!
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  • Had the same fight a few months ago and it's not worth the
    time and stress to fight this. At the suggestion of another
    warrior I blogged about it and contacted a few people, but
    in the end the level of effort is not a good investment.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • But that's still plagiarizing.

      I think you have to choose your battles and trying to communicate about this with someone in Singapore who clearly isn't good at English is a lost cause. I'd send notice to the directory (and any other directories he submits it to) but otherwise let it go.

      kay
  • take it as a compliment
  • that sucks it happen to me also but the point was a guy completely stripped off my article a the EZA and removed my credit links as well... those people are insane...
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    • Pro SEO, those are definitely some great links! Yes it takes some time to track down offenders, but it might be worth one pass at it. It appears the situation is one where a person deliberately and illegally copied original work -- and that needs to be stopped where possible.

      I've been "scraped" and "flogged" and for those I just figure they won't be successful in the long run, because they are so obvious. I mean, what would you do if you got to a page that just had ONE post on it with 40 google adwords links (and nothing else)??? Not much, I bet.

      Thanks for everyone who offered links for how to pursue offenders; I know I will probably need them sooner or later. I think anyone who's doing their own writing needs to watch out for this kind of thing, especially if you're any good at it :-)

      Yes it stinks, but I still believe the honest folks are winning. Hope we always do, too!
  • It happens to everybody , i had a bad luck , and i even paid for plagarised content.. on DigitalPoint to some guy who was making unique content websites.. lol.. it wasn t unique at all.. i ve been contacted then , by the owner of the contant , and i ve shut down the site... so maybe this is what you should also do.. try to contact the owner...
  • I would definitely contact the directory, and if not resolved quickly then go the DMCA route. This puts the ball in their court and lets you continue using your valuable time on income generating tasks.
  • I know how it feels.Believe me, the "scum" won't go anywhere in future.He or she will either go to hell or stay broke for a long time to come..
  • Pretty much impossible to avoid in this day and age. I've had dozens of articles auto-scraped or manually copied and pasted. Whenever I write a blog post now I embed at least one deep link to my website, so at least I will benefit a little bit from the backlink. What is really frustrating is when you see these copied articles show up in the SERPs and they are ranked above your original!
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    • To add to it, I had once found EZA to have published an article written by me, and within 3 hours or so of approval Google had indexed a copy made by someone else and my article was not even indexed at that point. I never checked back whether the article was ever indexed, I got so frustrated and disgusted with it (and I had hardly imagined some twinny-winny site could beat EZA so smartly and in such a short span of time). Not going to forget this experience ever.
  • Happened to me too at EZA, of all places. The person copied my article verbatim and removed the resource box. I asked him to take it down. I didn't follow through. It's useless anyway.

    I still submit to EZA but I've cut down the number of articles I submit.
  • Update:

    I just received an email from Articlebase - they have apologised and they have removed not only the copied article but they have removed all of that authors articles and have banned him from their directory.

    So a happy ending on this one
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    • That's great news Sheryl! I understand what people mean when they say you've got more productive things to do than fight it in terms of building your business. On the other hand, if honest people won't slap down scammers, they'll just continue stealing profitably with no consequences. I'm a firm believer in consequences, as long as they are appropriate for the offense.

      So I'm glad you followed up and did us all a favor by putting the hurt on the theiving *sshole!

      Speaking of which, anyone know how I can track down Keith Wellman?
  • It's a good thing they were able to resolve it. Bloggers are sure the culprits- note I didn't say all of them.

    As for the autoblogs, at least you got backlinks and exposure from them, a good plus if you ask me.
  • Welcome to the internet!

    Seriously, do whatever is within your power to do. Screw those cheap *******s...and expect them to keep doing it from time to time.

    It sucks each and every time that they do it--but it's also part of the cost of doing business. Don't get mad, just get even--as long as it doesn't eat up too much of your time.

    And yes, definitely: TAKE IT AS A COMPLIMENT! When people steal, they usually steal GOOD stuff.
  • Why can't I open the first link? It just says article not found. I can only open the second one which is from your published article on April 29th.
    • [2] replies
    • The first link doesn't work now because the article directory have removed his article
    • I think it has been removed, Sheryl said the matter had been resolved.
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    I've Been Plagarised!

    Oh my goodness, I've heard of it happening but I haven't had it happen to me until now. I submitted an article to about 6 article directories including EzineArticles. I just got an email from Ezines saying my article is rejected because they believe it is the property of someone else and they gave me the link to it.