Plagiarism of my site!
Hi, just wanted to share my recent discovery. As Google has apparently "sandboxed" my site at the moment, I've been concentrating on building it out and creating backlinks to keep it growing steadily. I'm doing this while it doesn't actually appear in the SERPs as it did up until a couple of weeks ago.
Occasionally I'll type the domain keyword into the Google search bar and see if it's reappeared yet (still no sign, thanks Google!) however, the other day something grabbed my attention. I noticed my exact keyword and first few lines of content come back verbatim under another website.... I was speechless!
At first I didn't understand why that had happened until I clicked on the link to follow up what I was seeing. Sure enough, it was someone else's site with my exact front page copied (images and all) and shown as a page on their website. I was so angry! They'd even changed my affiliate links to use their own click bank ID... the barefaced cheek!
So, I remembered the name of something I'd heard about when submitting articles to different directories called Copyscape. I'm sure most people have heard of it, but I'd never used it. So I checked out the details and looked at the section for when your content has been stolen/copied and reused on another site. It basically tells you to contact them and send a polite message to get them to remove the content that doesn't belong to them and stop stealing it in future.
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act 1998 (the "DMCA) came in very handy when trying to gently persuade the site owner from removing my content from their site. I'd tracked down an article that they'd also written using my content and found a username, which in turn gave me an email address. (No contact info on their site unfortunately, so had to be a detective for an hour)
Suffice to say I received an email back saying that they would remove it and I'm happy to say they have, as I checked once the email from them came in... no apology of course, but the threat of filing a notice of copyright infringement seemed to do the trick.
Just to let people know that it does happen and it is possible to get stolen/plagiarised material removed or blocked if they decide to ignore your pleas. I've now put up a warning banner at the footer of my blog from copyscape which is free and a good deterrent.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Mike
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Wow, for some reason I keep forgetting how common plagiarism is in this line of work, but it does pose a question. I have seen, and used the Copyright plugin on one of my first sites, and can't help but wonder if having a copyright mark at the end of your content would deter others from stealing your content? I have actually thought of implementing it on my other sites, but haven't as of yet. Just a thought.
Yeah I've now put a copyright mark at the end of my content on each page as well. At least it's there now and if anything happens in future, we know they are in the wrong and I've covered all bases first.
Wow, Mike - sorry to hear of this. It sure is both shocking and maddening when we find this happening.
I have had this happen A LOT. Sadly, I've become pretty good at dealing with it.
You really lucked out that the site owner responded to you AND took your content down. That is rarely the outcome when contacting a webmaster.
Keep in mind that a simple "WhoIs' search for an offending site will reveal their hosting company. You can send a DMCA directly to the hosting company and they WILL take the site offline - and quickly (if it's a reputable hosting provider).
I always try to start with the site owner with a uhhh "gentle" push to remove my content from their site within 24 hours or else I file with their hosting company. If it's a smart webmaster, they remove the offending content ASAP because they don't want trouble with their host.
There is a really awesome resource site for more help with this, forms/emails you need to send, etc at PlagiarismToday.com
Glad it all worked out for you!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Thanks Jennifer, always nice to have another tool in the belt. Did a quick review of your resource and found it to be just what the doctor ordered.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for that. Reassuring to know it's not jut me. Yeah I saw on the copyscape site about going direct to the hosting company and that was my next move (essentially that's what I gently told them would happen and seemed to be enough for them to remove it).
I think staying calm and speaking in a professional tone quoting the DMCA etc. helped (As much as I wanted to to shout and swear, that would have perhaps had less of an effect) I acknowledge your comments about this being rare and I thank my lucky stars it happened so smoothly.
Well now I'm prepared for the future when it happens again. Thanks for your link, very interesting site.
I've reposted this in the Forums under General Discussion.
Thanks again.
Mike
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How shocking this must have been, it's incredible to me that this happens. Being a newbie I had no idea, and it's just so unbelievable that people would do this! Thanks for posting this, looks like I need the Copyright plugin.