Website copyright infringement

by LegitSeo

Posted: 8 years ago 17 replies

I am attempting to learn SEO as I'm a writer. Because as they say, you can have a great quality piece of written material, but if no one can find it, it's never read.

I know enough to be okay, but I've recently discovered via an article I posted...sometimes I like to check the keyword phrase that I use by Googling it.

I did this and I see my article headline plain as day, same thumbnail picture, too, but when I go to the article...I see that it's been copied and pasted to a site other than my own, and it's on a completely different domain and showing as the 2nd listing on the first page of the Google searches.

It's as if it completely replaced my written article. Might as well be copyright infringement, yes?

Any clue as to what's going on? Is there any action that can be taken?

#copyright #infringement #website

TechNik

8 years ago

If I understand correctly and someone used your original artcle on their website without your permission, you can contact the site owners with a DMCA cease & dessist letter.

Thanks
1 reply

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LegitSeo

8 years ago

I did a WHOIS search on them, but I'm not seeing a name, address, or contact info. There is no "contact" link on their site either. Just a menu of topic categories.

The site doesn't look so well put together.

Thanks
1 reply

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MikeFriedman

8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

Send the notice to their webhost.

Thanks
1 reply

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LegitSeo

8 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Send the notice to their webhost.

Already did that...still hadn't gotten a response.

Turns out, I spoke with some experts in the field and they referred to this as something called content scraping. Ever heard of it?

Thanks
1 reply

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MikeFriedman

8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

Already did that...still hadn't gotten a response.

Turns out, I spoke with some experts in the field and they referred to this as something called content scraping. Ever heard of it?

Yes.

Happens all the time.

What do you think Google is?

Thanks
1 reply

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LegitSeo

8 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Yes.

Happens all the time.

What do you think Google is?

It's a search engine, hopefully this isn't a recurring thing with me.

Thanks
2 replies

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MikeFriedman

8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

It's a search engine, hopefully this isn't a recurring thing with me.

Yeah, and they are a massive content scraper.

Thanks
1 reply

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LegitSeo

8 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Yes.

Happens all the time.

What do you think Google is?

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Yeah, and they are a massive content scraper.

No they aren't. They are a search engine. The example I gave is content scraping/plagiarism/copyright infringement.

Thanks
2 replies

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paulgl

8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

No they aren't. They are a search engine. The example I gave is content scraping/plagiarism/copyright infringement.

Google is NOT a police force or a government agency.

They don't give a rat's behind about stolen, copied, scammed,
rewrote, rehashed content. They love wikileaks for cryin' out loud.
They don't ban anything unless forced. They HATE censoring their
results.

Youtube is full of copied content. Google itself is full of scraped crapola.

The borders of the US is where US laws stop.

You are mistaking three terms:
scraping
plagiarism
copyright infringement

They are different. Google could care less about all 3,
unless it's copyright. And only when a government agency tells
them to do something. Which is rare, actually. They
take some things down due to pressure.

Other countries censor the web. Google does not like doing that.

However, people err when they think that one that uses anything
without your permission is doing copyright infringement. NOTHING
could be further from the truth. The United States has made it very,
very, very easy to use content that is someone else's.

There are numerous thresholds you have to cross to get to
any penalty from a court. Yes, from a court. One of the biggest
hurdles, is that you have to show that
a) it makes money for the person stealing.
b) it takes loads of cash from you.

The average joe blow that gets some lame dishwasher review
site stolen is hardly in any position to sue.

And yes, you must sue. Google is not a court.

The might take something down, but most junk gets
deindexed on its own. NO help needed.

And seriously, if people are searching and getting
your junk on other sites FIRST, you have a lame site.

So what is google? They are a business. Period.
They have no way of enforcing laws, taking sites down,
awarding damages, arresting people, or any other such rot.

Plagiarism is not something the police get involved with.
It's a civil matter, not criminal.

Google wants the web to be open and (for the most part) free.
The US sure would like them to deindex wikileaks and whatever
snowden has published. Sony et. al. would sure like them to
get rid of pirate bay. Sorry. Those 2 examples alone show
how lame it us to say google hates stolen content, and that
will just "take it down."

Paul

[ 1 ] Thanks
2 replies

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LegitSeo

8 years ago

Originally Posted by paulgl

Not sure all this mean, but I'm pretty much black and white these kinds of things. No matter what you say, it's stealing MY content.

But it's me that dislikes stolen content, because...you know...I'm the originator and subject matter expert of said content and for a website to pass my content off as their own is something that deserves action against.

Thanks
3 replies

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MikeFriedman

8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

Yes. So file the DMCA and move on.

Thanks

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fastreplies 8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

... it's stealing MY content.

They call it: helping you to share your brainstormings with Joe Public

fastreplies
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AlphaWarrior

8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

But it's me that dislikes stolen content, because...you know...I'm the originator and subject matter expert of said content and for a website to pass my content off as their own is something that deserves action against.

We all agree that it is wrong for people to steal and use your content.

Unfortunately, your only recourse has been stated above: (1) write a cease & desist letter, (2) try to get G to penalize the AdSense user if there is AdSense on the website, (3) maybe complain to G if you can prove that it is your content (but really do not expect results), or (4) pay your money to a lawyer and enforce your copyright claim.

NOTE that the government DOES NOT ENFORCE COPYRIGHT CLAIMS FOR YOU. You, yourself, have to enforce and defend your copyright claim. And to do that it will cost big bucks because you have to hire a lawyer and file suit. Not necessarily fair, but that is in fact the way it is.

Thanks

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nettiapina 8 years ago

Originally Posted by paulgl

The borders of the US is where US laws stop.

Well, US lobbies very heavily to extend their version of copyrights to Europe at least. I'm not quite sure where we stand, but I'm in the impression that they're going to be successful. I'd guess US has some deals with other countries too.

But you'd have to be a something like a profit-making mp3 download site, or a pirate ring leader for anyone to bother suing you.
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MikeFriedman 8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

No they aren't. They are a search engine. The example I gave is content scraping/plagiarism/copyright infringement.

And what do you think a search engine does? They are also taking other people's content and publishing on their own site.

The difference is that (almost) nobody complains when Google does it because they are hoping to get traffic in return from Google.
- Thanks
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yukon Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by LegitSeo

It's a search engine, hopefully this isn't a recurring thing with me.

Welcome to the internet.
- Thanks
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yukon Banned 8 years ago

If the site has Adsense on it try & report it that way. There used to be a Google page for Adsense violations. Stolen content is against Adsense policies but you need to prove you created the content.

Odds are it's a scraper site so all their content is probably scraped from the web, other domains besides the OP domain which can make an easier case when reporting to Adsense.

If I remember correctly, Adsense ads have a small link at the corner of each Adsense ad to report problems. Use the scraper site to report one of their ads, see what happens.

Hit them were it hurts (the pocket), assuming they're running Adsense.
- Thanks
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