What to do when your work has been copied in the Internet
72What to do when your work has been copied in the Internet
The onset of Internet technology brings a lot of advantages. Life become easier for all of us. Information sharing and dissemination is very easy, you can almost do anything with the click of a finger so to speak. Communication is made easier too, you can let your fingers do the walking. The list is long actually, but there are disadvantages to it also, the Internet security and Internet plagiarism -- copying of other work are easily done as well. Just use the “copy and paste” mechanism and bingo you can copy other work immediately. Some pretenders even copy the name of the one who posted it. That is what happened to me. It is common sense to know that if it is not your work, don’t copy it, it should be as simple as that but of course people don’t bother with that as well.
I was just browsing the Internet the other week when I found out that three of my articles are posted in different websites. I was curious and I wanted to know what are the things I can do if these things happen. I will share to you what I have learned so far and what we can do if somebody stole our content without permission from us, the author.
 | Amazon Price: $18.49 List Price: $30.00 |
 | Amazon Price: $58.04 List Price: $89.95 |
 | Amazon Price: $189.99 List Price: $119.95 |
 | Amazon Price: $79.99 List Price: $99.95 |
What to do:
- If they didn’t ask your permission for an article to be posted to another site, this is clearly stealing others content. Even if you allow them to post it and they ask your permission you need to tell them to link it to your article or site. Decide if this will suffice for you, if not then ask them to remove your article soonest.
- You can buy a software which will detect if your work is plagiarized
- It is safe if you put “copyright” below your article . For example © Copyright 2009 ________________(your name) with all rights reserved, it will serve as a warning to those who will copy them. It may serve as precautions too so that they will think about it first before copying your content.
- There is what we call the THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1998, and you can find all relevant explanation to copyrights in the website US Copyright Office. This was signed in 1998 by then President Clinton to protect the rights of people to their works. You can read the site and your basic questions will be answered pertaining copyrights or infringement etc.
- If your work has been copied, you have the option to communicate with the person or the site which copied your work. Usually you can communicate with them through the webmaster at the bottom most part of the page site. If all else failed and after waiting for sometime you may want to take action and file the DMCA Online Form For Google
- Online DMCA Form for Blogger-- this form is very easy to accomplish, all you need is an email address (gmail account) and you are going to supply them with information where the article is copied and where it is posted, you need the specific URLs of course. Just be patient because it takes more than a month to get a response.
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In sending DMCA notifications to different search engines you may want to read this.
Related relevant sites which you can check:
- Yahoo.com Copyright
- Bing Webmaster Center Help
- DMCA-Google
I find this site very useful too. I hope this article helps you in a way.
CommentsLoading...
This is one of my fears whenever I post any of my hubs. I just unnerves me when I hear about this going on as it's the shadiest part of online publishing. Thanks for sharing this, Maita. I'm sure that many of us will find this hub extremely useful.
nicely done pdh! Very useful, direct and to the point. Just like dohn said above this is one of my fears but I don't let it weigh on me. It's good to know that you can report it to google, I always figured I'd just try communicating with the copier first, as you suggested.
thanks
Ben
Very helpful tips Maita, this will be a good reminder to us to take precautions.Thank you.
This is definitely problematic;
-- creativity is hard enough without having to write other's people stuff, too.
Great post, Maita!
Good well organized, useful information hub. I bookmarked the DMCA link to have it handy should I need it in the future.
Thank you pretty and holiday blessings to you and your family!
Hi Patti Ann, It is good that you were able to alert and let them removed your article which was copied. thanks for reading this hub and you have a good day always!Maita
Hi Dohn, yes it is our worst fear, but then it is a fact also, thanks for the read and have a good day!Maita
Hi Ben, I am glad you like this hub and I agree with you, I will try to communicate with them at first,
have a good day always and thank you, Maita
Hi Truth, yes this is a good reminder for all of us,
thank you always for reading my hub, Maita
Hi Chris, thanks for dropping by again, Maita
Hi RevLady, I am happy this hub is helpful to you, and to all of us writers too,
Thank you and bless, Maita
Nice!
thanks Micky for the read, how are you today? Maita
pray god.. that it should not happen.. easy way..
hi hubber, good for you to read my hub, yes it should not happen, scary, but it is a fact, Maita
Hi Maita, how are you? Very good hub, and useful info I will use it if I ever need too. Thanks for sharing. K.
thanks Kerry! I am glad you find this useful, I am good today, I wish you the same too, Maita
helpful hub.great info
I like it,thank you for sharing.www.6inchboot.com
Hi Efe. am glad you find them helpful, thanks for dropping by, Maita
Good to know this.Online plagiarism is very much rampant now.
yes it is very rampant, thnaks kcnck for the read, Maita
I hear about this going on as it's the shadiest part of online publishing. Thanks for sharing this
thanks studyo for the read and for finding this article helpful, Maita
My Hubs are not copied but Rewritten by some hubbers then what can I do ? .They copy my keywords and titles . Can I Put copyrights to my keywords and titles?
Thank you for providing this information. It's good to keep up with current copyright laws. I didn't know there was ANY recourse against copied work, and thought it was just the writer's bad luck if it happened. Glad there are folks who think original copyrighted work should be kept as such.
I used to hear of the "poor man's copyright" wherein an author would send himself or herself a song or written work through the U.S. Mail and then not open it, the postmark providing documented evidence of when the work existed (which must needs be prior to any other copies). Supposedly this evidence was admissible in court if you registered a work with the copyright office and then followed up with a lawsuit for plagiarism.
I am happy to have found this hub. This is constantly on the minds of writers. I know I have found some of Rebecca_E.'s writing copied and used as their own work on a different site. I copied the link and advised her. I hope she has read this Hub, maybe she will find it helpful!
thanks again. Well done!
Hi SEO, I dont think you can complaint for that thing, once they have rewritten, it served as a source for them, Did they copy it and just rewritten it all over? Then you can contact thme and tell them so, then make the necessary steps after, hope you found my advise useful, thanks, Maita
Hi Silver Poet, yes you can do that, if you have registered a work at copyright office, If you read the DMCA in my article above, you can follow the step to register your work,and yes putting C at the end of your article may somewaht bluff then into not copying your work,s we hope so, but the thing is others doesnt care at all, and you can only take action to remove them form the search engines I provided, thanks Silver and I hope your weekend is good, Maita
Hi Duchess, thanks for dropping by and reading this hub, I am happy that it helps you in a way, hope you have a good weekend, I wish Ms rebecca E will read this one too, Maita
Great article. I'd like to add that even though there's software you can buy to detect plagarism, there's a good, free online tool at www.copyscape.com that searches the web for you to find others who have copied the whole, or portions of your article content. Hope that helps.
The easiest way to find out when you've been copied is to set up a Google alert on your byline. I've set up alerts for my name as well as my corporate name. In the past week, I caught one illegal use of an article and was able to contact the site owner, who was gracious and quick to remove it. I also caught a legal use of an article but when it was copied onto the site, it was just chock full of grammar mistakes and typos; odd, but that site owner was also willing to fix it. Google Alerts!
Great idea! Jeanne
hi 360 inspire, thanks for that information, copyscape.com, I really appreciate that, and for reading this hub too, I hope you are enjoying the holidays, Maita
Hi Jeanne, thanks for the added information, I didnt know that, I should have known that before, thnak you for reading this one also, Happy holidays, Maita
Hi Duchess, thanks for dropping by again, Happy holidays, Maita
Great informative post, what a nightmare it must have been to come across your own work on another site! - James
Hi James, thanks for dropping by and reading this one, have a happy holidays, Maita
Thanks for the informative hub...........
hi gramsmith, thanks for reading this hub and you find it useful too, Happy New Year too, maita
Thank you for these tips Maita. Some of my materials (in my own language)has been copied but most of by my own countrymen. Sometime I feel ashamed of how some of my local bloggers just copying your works without permission and not feel any guilt, but my site used my local language and don't have adsense on it, so I won't bother much. I've already bookmarked this hub, have a great day!
FEBRIE, THNAKS FOR READING THIS ONE, oh, they just copy it? oh my good ness hehe, thnaks for dropping by, Maita
I haven't encountered any incident of this nature but I'm grateful to you for this very helpful hub. Been away too long, just stopping by to check out. Thanks!
Hi Lita, I am so glad your back, miss you as well, kumusta and take care, maita
valuable and informative advice, especially for those of us who post thousands of works on the web, it does make it harder to find them...but having the date on your poem thatshows when you posted it, is a big help, because anything after that dat would obviously be a copy...lol
thanks for the tips~~~MFB III
yes google will know that too, thank you MFB III, Maita
Great information, it is annoying when you spend hours writing and researching and then someone has to go and copy it just laziness on their part, thinking they will make money quicker I suppose. pain in the butt. Good helpful article.
Thank you Mam Eileen, Maita
This was helpful! Thanks a lot.
Thank you Anamika!
Informative hub! I liked it.
thanks for this
Good Hub,
But... It doesn't matter really. Anyone can copy your work from the internet put it on their blog or website. Does it mean they'll earn from it yes and no. It's all a matter of prospective. Search Engine hate duplicate entries of content. So the early bird gets the worm. The copied content will just be flagged really.
A lot of software actually exists out there for copying content from one site and posting to another or multiple sites. I've seen a lot of hubs including my own copied on other blogs and websites. Do I care? No you have to understand that when you write and put your content out there for the world to see it's the chance you take.
And THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1998 is just a warning really. Does the US Government or other Law Agencies reinforce this act no. The only way this becomes relevant to you and I benefit from this is if that person ends up making a lot of Money or becomes very popular with your content then and only then will this help you. Otherwise it's all "not worth the effort"
Again thank you for posting this hub and relaying the information. The internet should never have rules but common courtesy for everyone and their content.
-DD
Patti Ann 2 years ago
I also found a few of my articles that didn't include my author credit links posted on sites. I emailed the owner of the web site and told them to either add my credit or delete the article - they deleted the article. The other site was an article site and I emailed them and sent them the link to my original article and they also deleted the thiefs article on their site.