Internet Content Theft
Many of the bloggers have, at one point or another, experienced some kind of content theft. And that is a very annoying issue after you have spent long to create original content for your website. It feels completely wrong to have somebody else benefit from your hard work and creativity. Unfortunately, this can happen to anyone and you better prepare with some means to combat the internet theft and protect your genuine content. In order to do that, you'll need to understand the copyright laws and posses the tools that can notify you when your content has been stolen. Then you need to know how to make the thief to remove the content stolen and how to prevent that to happen again.
First, you have to find out whether your content has been stolen and determine if that violates the fair use copyright clause. Tracking down stolen content isn't an easy task, with so many websites around the world and their ever expanding number. For that purpose, there are some tools that come to your help. For example, you can use Copyscape and enter your page's URL into the search box in order to search if your content is duplicated elsewhere online. You can see the top 10 results of the search with the free version of Copyscape. If you need a more robust report, then you can subscribe to the premium paid version.
Referral Traffic is another useful tool that provides you with marketing analytics and allows you to track the websites that are sending you traffic. In case that you find a traffic spike from a source you don't recognize then you can check if your content is duplicated there.
With Pingbacks you can get notified any time when a website links back to a post. If someone is using your content you can easily find out using Pingbacks.
Topsy, Google Alerts, and HubSpot Social Index are other tools that allow you to set up alerts when someone uses your content. To keep good track of your content across the web it is recommended to use a combination of several tools. Google Alerts works best to monitor websites and blogs, HubSpot Social Inbox to monitor Twitter, and Topsy to monitor Twitter and Google+.
Of course, you also have the option to search manually for your content. You can find your content quickly if you search for a long tail phrase or an excerpt from the body text. You can also use Google's image search for your visual content. Manual searches are a time intensive task but it is also the most effective method to protect your content.
Once you implement these methods to find out if your content is duplicated online without your consent, you need a strategy to deal with the eventual content thief in case that you find one. You need to make sure that you fully evaluate the situation and you are certain that the copyrights legislation was not respected. There are situations when people can use portions of your online content in a legal way.
A blog or website featuring your content is not always a copyright infringement. The copyrights law protects your online content as soon you post it online, without the need to use the copyright symbol. This means that, without your explicit permission, others cannot republish your content, unless they abide by the rules under the fair use clause. This clause permits limited rights to use original content if the use is considered fair. That means use for commentary or criticism, quotation of short passages, use in a parody, in a reproduction by a teacher or student for educational purposes, summary of an article with brief quotations, etc.
The definition of fair use is a bit confusing and it is difficult to draw a clear line between infringement and fair use. The only clear infringement is when you find full text copies of your content duplicated on other websites without your explicit permission. So, before reaching out to potential content thieves and making copyrights infringement complains or reports to Google, you need to consult your lawyer in order to make sure that is infringement and not falls under the fair use clause.
Once you found out that somebody is stealing your content and it is a clear infringement, you need to evaluate if it's really worth the fight to have the content removed. One of the possible scenarios when a fight is not worth is the situation when the one who stolen your content is a more popular company or website than yours. In this case you are getting a boost of traffic and have more brand exposure from their site and it might not be worthy to insist that they remove the duplicate content, as long as they at least attribute the content to you and link back to your website.
In case that you have decided that you want to pressure the internet content thief to remove your content, then there are certain specific steps you need to take. First, you need proofs. Take a screenshot of the full web page where you found your content duplicated. Note down the site URL as well. For screenshots you can use Print Screen on Windows or browser based tools such as Fireshot for Firefox, or Awesome Screenshot for Chrome.
Once you have the proofs, get in touch with the offender by sending an email before reporting to Google. If you can find the offender's email address on the website then you can try a domain search. If the info is private you can use a tool named Rapportive that comes as a plug in for Google Chrome. Once you find the email address of the offender, send an email that is polite but firm. Attach the screenshot proofs and the link to the stolen content. Mention what steps you will take in case that the person not complies. If your efforts to solve the issue in an amiable manner fail then report the offender to the hosting providers and the search engines and submit a DMCA takedown request.
Even though there's no certified method that is 100 percent effective in preventing your content to be stolen, it is useful to know how to deal with the issue if and when it is happening.
First, you have to find out whether your content has been stolen and determine if that violates the fair use copyright clause. Tracking down stolen content isn't an easy task, with so many websites around the world and their ever expanding number. For that purpose, there are some tools that come to your help. For example, you can use Copyscape and enter your page's URL into the search box in order to search if your content is duplicated elsewhere online. You can see the top 10 results of the search with the free version of Copyscape. If you need a more robust report, then you can subscribe to the premium paid version.
Referral Traffic is another useful tool that provides you with marketing analytics and allows you to track the websites that are sending you traffic. In case that you find a traffic spike from a source you don't recognize then you can check if your content is duplicated there.
With Pingbacks you can get notified any time when a website links back to a post. If someone is using your content you can easily find out using Pingbacks.
Topsy, Google Alerts, and HubSpot Social Index are other tools that allow you to set up alerts when someone uses your content. To keep good track of your content across the web it is recommended to use a combination of several tools. Google Alerts works best to monitor websites and blogs, HubSpot Social Inbox to monitor Twitter, and Topsy to monitor Twitter and Google+.
Of course, you also have the option to search manually for your content. You can find your content quickly if you search for a long tail phrase or an excerpt from the body text. You can also use Google's image search for your visual content. Manual searches are a time intensive task but it is also the most effective method to protect your content.
Once you implement these methods to find out if your content is duplicated online without your consent, you need a strategy to deal with the eventual content thief in case that you find one. You need to make sure that you fully evaluate the situation and you are certain that the copyrights legislation was not respected. There are situations when people can use portions of your online content in a legal way.
A blog or website featuring your content is not always a copyright infringement. The copyrights law protects your online content as soon you post it online, without the need to use the copyright symbol. This means that, without your explicit permission, others cannot republish your content, unless they abide by the rules under the fair use clause. This clause permits limited rights to use original content if the use is considered fair. That means use for commentary or criticism, quotation of short passages, use in a parody, in a reproduction by a teacher or student for educational purposes, summary of an article with brief quotations, etc.
The definition of fair use is a bit confusing and it is difficult to draw a clear line between infringement and fair use. The only clear infringement is when you find full text copies of your content duplicated on other websites without your explicit permission. So, before reaching out to potential content thieves and making copyrights infringement complains or reports to Google, you need to consult your lawyer in order to make sure that is infringement and not falls under the fair use clause.
Once you found out that somebody is stealing your content and it is a clear infringement, you need to evaluate if it's really worth the fight to have the content removed. One of the possible scenarios when a fight is not worth is the situation when the one who stolen your content is a more popular company or website than yours. In this case you are getting a boost of traffic and have more brand exposure from their site and it might not be worthy to insist that they remove the duplicate content, as long as they at least attribute the content to you and link back to your website.
In case that you have decided that you want to pressure the internet content thief to remove your content, then there are certain specific steps you need to take. First, you need proofs. Take a screenshot of the full web page where you found your content duplicated. Note down the site URL as well. For screenshots you can use Print Screen on Windows or browser based tools such as Fireshot for Firefox, or Awesome Screenshot for Chrome.
Once you have the proofs, get in touch with the offender by sending an email before reporting to Google. If you can find the offender's email address on the website then you can try a domain search. If the info is private you can use a tool named Rapportive that comes as a plug in for Google Chrome. Once you find the email address of the offender, send an email that is polite but firm. Attach the screenshot proofs and the link to the stolen content. Mention what steps you will take in case that the person not complies. If your efforts to solve the issue in an amiable manner fail then report the offender to the hosting providers and the search engines and submit a DMCA takedown request.
Even though there's no certified method that is 100 percent effective in preventing your content to be stolen, it is useful to know how to deal with the issue if and when it is happening.
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