Reporting Copyright Theft to Google

It proved to be remarkably simple to report my concerns to Google in fact.

If you go into this page herehttps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en then a form opens up this gives you a list of options to follow, if you click on copyright and legal issues than you will come to a list of options.

Click on Web search (about three quarters of the page down). Another box opens, and you click on

'I have a legal issue that is not mentioned above'

then 'I have found content that may violate my copyright'

and 'Yes, I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed'

with more options opening up you finally get to a link 'use form here' (at the bottom of the page)

and you will get to here.https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-notice?pli=1& (you could just go straight there to save time). This is a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) form

There are personal details you have to fill in, but the meat of the form is where you fill in what the complaint is about

I gave a brief description plus title of my article, pointing out the discrepancy in publication of the site and the date it was created. You will need to fill in the URL of your article plus that of the copy in the correct boxes.

Fill in the legal stuff at the bottom and submit. It actually does not take very long.

You may have to be logged into your Google account to complete the process

You might expect the giant to be a slow mover, but just 4 days later I received an E-mail telling me that my complaint had been accepted and that the offending page would be removed.

A victory for the small guy!

I do know that to many of you it is not a great concern but if this sort of thing winds you up then at least you can do something constructive - or is that destructive? - about it.