Someone Stole and Altered My Content

[gotabiz]

I just found that someone stole an article that I had written and published on my website. The altered version was posted on July 4, 2009. MY article was published on October 28, 2008. I also submitted my article to article directories, and Google does have it indexed on my site. How do I know that someone stole and altered my content? Not only is the title the same, but the byline which includes my name and link to my website are still there. Offensive alterations of the content include a link to "celebrity upskirt", "Hotel Jamaica Not Resort Vacation Villa", "Infant Girl Holiday Dress", "Armbands Ipod Nano Sport" and others. My article was discussing the relationship between sleep deprivation and weight gain.

How can I get the false article removed from the internet? The false article is found under blogspot, and the "writer's name is sinlawuzxj". I don't want it to go to Blogger discussion but go directly to Blogger and Google security. Odds are this is a link to a hacker/malware site. This disgusts me.

Since this is a security forum, does anyone who posts here also work with Blogger and Google that I might be able to get a message directly to them? I don't like it that this garbage is online and appears to have been written by me.

Thanks

[williamc]

Send a DMCA takedown notice to google, yahoo, msn/bing, and the offenders web hosting provider.

More info can be found here: Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sample DMCA notices:

StopPiracy: Sample of Correctly Written DMCA Notice
Example DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement - FutureQuest, Inc.
DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement - Sample Template - Digital Inspiration

Information on how to send DMCA notices to search engines:

How do you send Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notifications to AOL, Google, Yahoo!, and the other major search engines? - Search Engine Marketing FAQ - SEO Logic

[wige]

To send the DMCA directly to Google for an account hosted on blogspot.com, check the instructions from Google here: Digital Millennium Copyright Act These instructions cover blogs on blogger.com and blogspot.com.

[williamc]

Thanks wige, I know I have seen that before, but had not added it to my dmca info macro.

[gotabiz]

I thank both of you for providing me with contact information for reporting copyright infringement to Google. I submitted my DMCA report today, I will await their response. I sincerely hope they remove the offending material. My guess is that the offender pilfered it from one of the article directories to who I submit some of my work, however I do not know from which of those directories they obtained the article. I sent Google the url of my ORIGINAL work as it appears on my site, this should be sufficient for them to act on the complaint.

[Currawong]

Thanks for this very useful info.

I've experienced the same thing with articles published for me by EzineArticles and only tried emailing, requesting politely that the publishers take the article off their site or republish the correct, unadulterated version. Often nothing has been done by them.

This will help me to clean out unscrupulous publishers.

[cw1865]

Originally Posted by gotabiz

How do I know that someone stole and altered my content? Not only is the title the same, but the byline which includes my name and link to my website are still there.

I'm just curious, do you think that this link is hurting you?

If so, why? If not, why bother?

[Hsekhar]

Originally Posted by gotabiz

I thank both of you for providing me with contact information for reporting copyright infringement to Google. I submitted my DMCA report today, I will await their response. I sincerely hope they remove the offending material. My guess is that the offender pilfered it from one of the article directories to who I submit some of my work, however I do not know from which of those directories they obtained the article. I sent Google the url of my ORIGINAL work as it appears on my site, this should be sufficient for them to act on the complaint.

When you said "altered" did you mean it was rewritten and used on his blog? or did he use it "as is"?

Also, since you said you submitted to some article sites; Some articles sites out there let users republish the articles submitted to their database, In that case you can't do much about it.

[MrGamm]

They are called article spinners in the web marketers world to my knowledge.

Typically most people will just tell you that if you put it up on the web then it's fair game right?

You are probably interested in filing a complaint against the DMCA.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Just remember... The GooglePlex is certainly no unionized Automotive plant. It's incredibly low on staff in comparison apparently. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Google Customer service.

Sometimes a lawyer can be very effective when writing semi-threatening but entirely civil letters to the offender.

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by cw1865

I'm just curious, do you think that this link is hurting you?

If so, why? If not, why bother?

They are NOT mere "links", they are words that have OVERWRITTEN my original content including part of my site NAME. This means that my article has been ALTERED without my permission. Why would I allow someone to insert nonsensical words into the body of my article? For that matter why would I allow ANY alteration of my work? You ask how this hurts me. If someone came into YOUR house, rearranged all of your furniture, replaced it with junk then left saying that it is still YOUR house, how would you feel?

Furthermore, my GIVEN NAME is attached to the article, that means that whoever reads is and clicks on the links (and it could be porn, attack, etc.) they may get the wrong idea thinking that **I** am the one responsible for it. So I will protect my good name and the name of my site. I have a respected site and no one is going to tarnish my reputation.

For those who says that submission to article bases allow people to alter content that is absolutely UNTRUE. The reputable article directories to whom I submit content and from which I also obtain content do NOT allow article alteration. DO NOT allow it. And they also suggest the publisher contact the author about use of his/her article on their site. I always notify authors when I'm using their work. You must be ignorant about plagarism and copyright infringement. When you publish something it belongs to YOU and any alteration of that content WITHOUT the author's express permission is copyright INFRINGEMENT. Claiming someone else's work as your own is plagarism, both are forbidden by the SEs.

[crankydave]

gotabiz... The questions asked by cw1865 were/are not illogical nor absurd.

You published an article on a site that allows publishers to use it. At a glance, they used the article in its entirety and left the bio in place and links to you. They added content to it you don't like.

When you give up the rights to your content you better be sure who is using it. You publish an article on a site that is not yours, and allowed them to tell their users they could publish it so you took control out of your hands.

Dave

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by MrGamm

They are called article spinners in the web marketers world to my knowledge.

Typically most people will just tell you that if you put it up on the web then it's fair game right?

You are probably interested in filing a complaint against the DMCA.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Just remember... The GooglePlex is certainly no unionized Automotive plant. It's incredibly low on staff in comparison apparently. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Google Customer service.

Sometimes a lawyer can be very effective when writing semi-threatening but entirely civil letters to the offender.

Thank you. Two other posters provided some useful advice about how to report the offender. I've already sent a report to Google about the matter.

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by crankydave

gotabiz... The questions asked by cw1865 were/are not illogical nor absurd.

You published an article on a site that allows publishers to use it. At a glance, they used the article in its entirety and left the bio in place and links to you. They added content to it you don't like.

When you give up the rights to your content you better be sure who is using it. You publish an article on a site that is not yours, and allowed them to tell their users they could publish it so you took control out of your hands.

Dave

They did NOT use it in its "entirety". How can they be using the "entire" article if certain words - ELEVEN of them in fact- have been substituted for different words? This includes substituting part of my site NAME for a link to something that the offender put in there? Now how is that an intact and "entire" article? I'm not the only one to whom this has happened. Why do you think there are copyright laws? Why do you think software such as copyscape exist. Even I was once contacted by an individual who accused me of publishing content without permission even threatening legal action. Of course the accuser did not do her homework. I had already contacted the author of the article at the time I published the work on my site providing my name, the name of my site and the date and time of publication. When I provided this information to the accuser (who claimed to work for the same company as the author of the article), she did a 180 degree turn. But the bottom line is that even though she was wrong about me, copyright infringement and plagarism do EXIST.

[crankydave]

gatabiz... Directing your anger ant other members of the forum isn't really going to accomplish much.

Now, if you reread my post you'll see i said "at a glance". Noone is going to detect 11 whole words in a 649 word article.

It's not the only place where the article is used and other words/links added and or changed. May be the only one you take issue with or have found.

That is part of the danger of using article sites. You give them the right to allow the article to be republished according to their rules, not yours. If they don't enforce them it's going to create problems.

Now, filing a DMCA is certainly not going to hurt. If the article was only on your site and not free distribution sites I suspect the complaint would carry more weight.

Dave

[cw1865]

Originally Posted by gotabiz

They are NOT mere "links", they are words that have OVERWRITTEN my original content including part of my site NAME. This means that my article has been ALTERED without my permission. Why would I allow someone to insert nonsensical words into the body of my article? For that matter why would I allow ANY alteration of my work? You ask how this hurts me. If someone came into YOUR house, rearranged all of your furniture, replaced it with junk then left saying that it is still YOUR house, how would you feel?

OK, so you are looking at the article as something more than a source of links, which is fine. I tend to look at articles as a method of obtaining links.

Originally Posted by gotabiz

Furthermore, my GIVEN NAME is attached to the article, that means that whoever reads is and clicks on the links (and it could be porn, attack, etc.) they may get the wrong idea thinking that **I** am the one responsible for it. So I will protect my good name and the name of my site. I have a respected site and no one is going to tarnish my reputation.

The association with porn would upset me as well.

Originally Posted by gotabiz

For those who says that submission to article bases allow people to alter content that is absolutely UNTRUE. The reputable article directories to whom I submit content and from which I also obtain content do NOT allow article alteration. DO NOT allow it. And they also suggest the publisher contact the author about use of his/her article on their site. I always notify authors when I'm using their work. You must be ignorant about plagarism and copyright infringement. When you publish something it belongs to YOU and any alteration of that content WITHOUT the author's express permission is copyright INFRINGEMENT. Claiming someone else's work as your own is plagarism, both are forbidden by the SEs.

Well, its a little trickier than that. Without seeing the alteration, the question is whether the alterations are significant enough that the alteration itself is considered either an 'original' or a 'derivative work' as contemplated by the copyright act. Without seeing the actual verbiage there is no real way for us to know one way or the other.

I am just curious, when reviewing your logs, how many hits to you see coming in from the link associated with this article. I ask, because, notwithstanding the fact that you're upset, make sure that your response remains proportionate. In other words, don't get all worked up over something very few people are reading.

[NJ]

Originally Posted by Hsekhar

When you said "altered" did you mean it was rewritten and used on his blog? or did he use it "as is"?

Also, since you said you submitted to some article sites; Some articles sites out there let users republish the articles submitted to their database, In that case you can't do much about it.

I have had the same thing happen to an EzineArticle.

FIRST: yes, it is understood that when you submit an article to EzineArticles, it is available for other sites to pick up. And, yes, that is considered a good thing. In fact, most of the authors want their articles picked up.

SECOND: However, the articles are not available to be changed by those who pick them up. Here are their published rules:

"Attention Publishers & Webmasters; Our Reprint Policies:
1. If you wish to publish/reprint any article from our site in your ezine, website, blog, forum, RSS feed or print publication, you must:
* Respect the copyrights of the authors by publishing the entire article as it is with no changes.
* Agree to include the FULL Resource box or SIG line at the end of the article.
* Agree not to change the title or content of the article in any way.
* Agree to make all links so that they are Active/Linkable with no syntax changes."
Terms of Service For Publishers Who Wish To Reprint Any Content From EzineArticles.com

I had at least one article picked up and changed - mostly the type of nonsense added that was mentioned in the original post. I'm guessing that they are trying to take the content but get credit for original content?

Any other ideas?

[NJ]

Originally Posted by crankydave

That is part of the danger of using article sites. You give them the right to allow the article to be republished according to their rules, not yours. If they don't enforce them it's going to create problems.

Now, filing a DMCA is certainly not going to hurt. If the article was only on your site and not free distribution sites I suspect the complaint would carry more weight.

Dave

That is right, Dave. They don't enforce the rules. When I asked EzineArticles about the changed story, they only said that it was my job to chase it down with suggestions on how to do it! I don't want to chase it down, but the whole deal was a real eye-opener!

[williamc]

Originally Posted by NJ

I had at least one article picked up and changed - mostly the type of nonsense added that was mentioned in the original post. I'm guessing that they are trying to take the content but get credit for original content?

Any other ideas?

I would be willing to wager that they read an old article about duplicate content, and made a few minor changes (swapping words) to make sure they did not get dinged based on what they read. If they are still linking to your site, then you have gotten value from it. You posted the article for people to use as long as they kept your link, which they did. I would not even bother wasting a minute of my time knowing all that.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by NJ

That is right, Dave. They don't enforce the rules. When I asked EzineArticles about the changed story, they only said that it was my job to chase it down with suggestions on how to do it! I don't want to chase it down, but the whole deal was a real eye-opener!

I'm not saying publishing through places like ezinearticles is a "bad" thing. Just be aware of the pitfalls when/if you do.

You put articles on a site for free distribution. A site where you cannot control who uses them and basically can never know whom. There's an inherent danger/problems when doing that.

IMO... put an article on your own site... link it well so that it ranks... then perhaps consider publishing it elsewhere if you like.

Dave

[mjbentley]

Unfortunately, most sites that publish articles can not be bothered to chase down and prosecute people for stealing the work. There are definitely several sites that rely on this and fluff up their sites by stealing work from others. Depending on why you wrote the article and how much it was changed, I can totally understand that this could cost you money (not getting page hits) and reputation.

The sad truth is that it is rarely worth taking them to court even though in most cases you definitely still have the rights to your article. Remember, contrary to some people's popular belief, you don't give up your rights just because you published an article. Although a reasonable amount of quotation is usually allowed, taking the whole article is not.

In the past, I have found several things work (depending on the response and amount of work stolen):
1) just ask them to take it down. Most sites will quitely remove the article if you ask them to as it is not worth the hassles for them either. This works most times.
2) If that fails, escilate it. Look for other people to contact to get their attention. In the past, I have done a WhoIs and sent copies of my requests to the ISP. Most reputable service providers don't want to be associated with plagerism and will act to shut them down. Copying the ISP can sometimes get their attention or get them shut down.
3) Depending on the site, you may be able to contact the sys-admin and get them to remove content. For example, we had someone open an account in my wife's name and start reposting her account on Associated Content. Once we complained to them, they shut down the account.
4) In the end, these people only do this because it makes them money. So, go after the money. Most reputable advertisers do not want to be associated with article theft and will drop the site if you file a complaint. For example, Google AdSense wants a nice legal letter outlining your position and just what was stolen. If you give it to them, they will shut the account down (and not pay them) within a few days.
5) look at the site and the other articles. Are they stolen too? I had one site steal dozens of my articles and repost some up to a dozen times. When I looked closer, I realized that they had also stolen work from several others that I knew. If you tell people that their work was stolen, then they can also bug the website to stop doing it.

In the end, it can be a pain, but most of the time you can get things taken down one way or another.

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by mjbentley

Unfortunately, most sites that publish articles can not be bothered to chase down and prosecute people for stealing the work. There are definitely several sites that rely on this and fluff up their sites by stealing work from others. Depending on why you wrote the article and how much it was changed, I can totally understand that this could cost you money (not getting page hits) and reputation.

The sad truth is that it is rarely worth taking them to court even though in most cases you definitely still have the rights to your article. Remember, contrary to some people's popular belief, you don't give up your rights just because you published an article. Although a reasonable amount of quotation is usually allowed, taking the whole article is not.

In the past, I have found several things work (depending on the response and amount of work stolen):
1) just ask them to take it down. Most sites will quitely remove the article if you ask them to as it is not worth the hassles for them either. This works most times.
2) If that fails, escilate it. Look for other people to contact to get their attention. In the past, I have done a WhoIs and sent copies of my requests to the ISP. Most reputable service providers don't want to be associated with plagerism and will act to shut them down. Copying the ISP can sometimes get their attention or get them shut down.
3) Depending on the site, you may be able to contact the sys-admin and get them to remove content. For example, we had someone open an account in my wife's name and start reposting her account on Associated Content. Once we complained to them, they shut down the account.
4) In the end, these people only do this because it makes them money. So, go after the money. Most reputable advertisers do not want to be associated with article theft and will drop the site if you file a complaint. For example, Google AdSense wants a nice legal letter outlining your position and just what was stolen. If you give it to them, they will shut the account down (and not pay them) within a few days.
5) look at the site and the other articles. Are they stolen too? I had one site steal dozens of my articles and repost some up to a dozen times. When I looked closer, I realized that they had also stolen work from several others that I knew. If you tell people that their work was stolen, then they can also bug the website to stop doing it.

In the end, it can be a pain, but most of the time you can get things taken down one way or another.

You've provided a lot of good suggestions in this post. I know you're posting for the general audience so I will only comment on my situation. I don't want to check the links the offender posted up, they are live links but I do not know where they go. The same goes for any other articles they have in their archive. I'm wary of clicking on something which could hack my account, infect my PC, etc. But I have a hunch that the links are intended to make money for the person(s) who operate that blog. They also have Adsense on their site which means they are operating for money. The thing is there are better ways to make money, legal ways (if not at least ethical) rather than pilfering content from other sites. Part of the problem is greed and the other part is laziness. People who think that the internet is a fast way to make money have no idea about how much work is involved to operate a site and get traffic. I had no idea about how much work was required to operate a site until I started one. I'm glad to have this site and I will see to it that it grows in popularity. I do this because I like what I'm doing and my site provides useful information that the public may use for its own benefit.

The people who want money but don't like the long hours that one must devote to this business look for the easy convenient way to make fast cash. Most of them are unsuccessful because what you put into something is what you get out of it. So what happens is they give up, find the time to do what needs to be done to make it work, or they cheat. It's the cheating which affects the quality of the internet.

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by cw1865

OK, so you are looking at the article as something more than a source of links, which is fine. I tend to look at articles as a method of obtaining links.



The association with porn would upset me as well.



Well, its a little trickier than that. Without seeing the alteration, the question is whether the alterations are significant enough that the alteration itself is considered either an 'original' or a 'derivative work' as contemplated by the copyright act. Without seeing the actual verbiage there is no real way for us to know one way or the other.

I am just curious, when reviewing your logs, how many hits to you see coming in from the link associated with this article. I ask, because, notwithstanding the fact that you're upset, make sure that your response remains proportionate. In other words, don't get all worked up over something very few people are reading.

I don't think I'm getting hits from the offender's site but any such traffic would not be good traffic. But the fact that something was stolen from me is cause for concern. Again, if someone stole something from you, would you not want the offender punished? If someone altered your house, would you just say that it's okay- even if you have few visitors coming to your house- or would you want the offender punished?

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by crankydave

gatabiz... Directing your anger ant other members of the forum isn't really going to accomplish much.

Now, if you reread my post you'll see i said "at a glance". Noone is going to detect 11 whole words in a 649 word article.

It's not the only place where the article is used and other words/links added and or changed. May be the only one you take issue with or have found.

That is part of the danger of using article sites. You give them the right to allow the article to be republished according to their rules, not yours. If they don't enforce them it's going to create problems.

Now, filing a DMCA is certainly not going to hurt. If the article was only on your site and not free distribution sites I suspect the complaint would carry more weight.

Dave

You never get ahead without taking risks and placing articles on article directories does involve risk, I agree. What I take offense at is the dishonesty. I'm not naive thinking that people should do as I do i.e. publish good content and act with common decency, sadly many webmasters operate just the opposite to this. I'm also aware that others could be using my articles without providing ANY credit whatsoever but will that stop me from publishing content? No. Will it make me more cautious in the future? Most certainly. But when I find people using my work without permission I will act on it. We all know that business rely to great degree on reputation, so when someone does something that insults your business's reputation you act.

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by NJ

I have had the same thing happen to an EzineArticle.

FIRST: yes, it is understood that when you submit an article to EzineArticles, it is available for other sites to pick up. And, yes, that is considered a good thing. In fact, most of the authors want their articles picked up.

SECOND: However, the articles are not available to be changed by those who pick them up. Here are their published rules:

"Attention Publishers & Webmasters; Our Reprint Policies:
1. If you wish to publish/reprint any article from our site in your ezine, website, blog, forum, RSS feed or print publication, you must:
* Respect the copyrights of the authors by publishing the entire article as it is with no changes.
* Agree to include the FULL Resource box or SIG line at the end of the article.
* Agree not to change the title or content of the article in any way.
* Agree to make all links so that they are Active/Linkable with no syntax changes."
Terms of Service For Publishers Who Wish To Reprint Any Content From EzineArticles.com

I had at least one article picked up and changed - mostly the type of nonsense added that was mentioned in the original post. I'm guessing that they are trying to take the content but get credit for original content?

Any other ideas?

Were you able to resolve the matter to your satisfaction?

[NJ]

gotabiz: Actually, I didn't pursue the matter because of the time it would take.

My motive for posting the articles was somewhat different than most. I will be teaching a class on Social Networking for Business starting in September; so, I have been experimenting with everything. There are so many people out there advocating social networking (mostly asking you to hire them to do it for you), who don't give any hard data or examples, that I thought I would show get some real experiences to demonstrate. The situation of someone goofing with my article will be one topic of discussion!

I suppose, though, one of my students will want me to chase these folks down to see what happens!

By the way, I certainly wouldn't mind it if anyone has favorite material sources or topic suggestions for my course: Social Networking for Business Syllabus for Dickinson Lifelong Learning Center with The Computer Gal - Nora McDougall-Collins. This thread has already given me some good ideas. I really like the fact that I get to build my own course, but it also leaves me wondering what I've left out! The students are not technical folks - mostly small business owners.

[crankydave]

gotabiz... Selective enforcement/complaints is not going to help you any. It's one of the reaons I pointed out what I did.

Filing a complaint on one and not all.

Dave

[NJ]

Ha, ha! I don't know how long this link will last, but they took the first paragraph from one of my articles and linked all the keywords to their services!

Wrong and Right Ways to Gather Photos For Your Website

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, what will they do next? I hate to send these folks traffic, but you've got to see this.

[NJ]

Another one stealing the first paragraph!

Your Web Host - Friend Or Foe?

I am taking screenshots of these for my students.

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by NJ

Another one stealing the first paragraph!

Your Web Host - Friend Or Foe?

I am taking screenshots of these for my students.

Why not report them? If nothing else it would be a learning experience for your class.

[FoundByDesign]

gotabiz,

Having read your posts and the replies (most of them anyway), I wanted to share a thought or two. I have been there too and have had my content ripped off and altered. Usually at Spam websites that are simply looking to get the occasional Adword click.

1. One thing to remember when you post an article is that this WILL happen. Forget the "rules" and "what should be." It will happen, especially for better written keyword rich content. Beyond NOT posting articles online, there is not much you can do about STOPPING it.

2. Reporting it may not fix the problem. Keep in mind that the ones doing this don't really care about your content, especially since they are simply cramming unscrupulous text sporadically throughout the content. Even if after you report it, they can simply change domains and do it again... with the exact same content!

3. Very few people will actually see it. More importantly, I doubt anyone will really associate your name with the altered work. The webmaster is hoping that Google will index the page and they will scrape some traffic from it and get Adwords clicks from ads they place all over the site. Most people will simply leave the site.

My suggestion is this... review, report and relax. Always review the web for your content to see if your content is being scraped. (makes it easier if you always use a specific term or phrase in your works) Set Google alerts for the terms and you will know faster! Report the infringement properly and eventually this may be taken down. As Google gets better and better, these will be indexed less frequently and those that are will come out. And now... simply relax. Most logical human beings will understand that you did not write it that way and your name will remain in tact.

I do not write this to minimize your frustration. Like I said, I have been a victim too. But there are few things you can do to prevent this. So getting upset each time will end up leaving you angry while the ones doing this will not even think twice about it.

Review... Report... Relax.

Best of luck to you.
Ed

[FoundByDesign]

One more quick thought, especially with Article Submission directories...

If you are posting something to an Article Directory, make sure the content is NOT the same as you have posted to YOUR website. If you want to use a great article you have posted on your website, make sure you re-write it to be different so that the *hopefully* hundreds of copies with links back to your website will not be counted a "duplicate" content on your own website! Let the lazy marketers (the ones that can't take the time to create their own content) get the dup content penalty... not you!


Ed

[NJ]

Originally Posted by gotabiz

Why not report them? If nothing else it would be a learning experience for your class.

OK, I'll give it a try starting with the advertisers! Hostgator is an ad on the last one I mentioned. I sent them a message about it.

Immediate result: I see that this is the second web hosting company I've run into that requires that you acknowledge your message by clicking a link in your email before they will read your message. Can you imagine calling your favorite business and having them tell you that they will have to call you back to see that the phone number is real before they answer your question!

[NJ]

That's good advice, Ed! Welcome to WebProWorld!

[FoundByDesign]

Originally Posted by NJ

That's good advice, Ed! Welcome to WebProWorld!

Hey, thank you for the welcome!

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by FoundByDesign

One more quick thought, especially with Article Submission directories...

If you are posting something to an Article Directory, make sure the content is NOT the same as you have posted to YOUR website. If you want to use a great article you have posted on your website, make sure you re-write it to be different so that the *hopefully* hundreds of copies with links back to your website will not be counted a "duplicate" content on your own website! Let the lazy marketers (the ones that can't take the time to create their own content) get the dup content penalty... not you!


Ed

Thank you for your advice, I've received a lot of it from the members here. What I'm after is more honesty on the net, and with each responsible webmaster I believe this can be accomplished. As for submitting original content to article directories, I naively did this when I first began doing this a couple of years ago. But then I read on another discussion forum that it is better to submit content that is slightly different than the original work or abbreviated from the original article and I've been doing it that way ever since.

Thanks again for your advice and understanding.

[NJ]

OK, a final follow-up from Hostgator - a main advertiser on one of the scrapper sites:

"We take copyright claim very seriously. Here is a guide to creating a copyright infringement claim Sample Copyright Complaint Steps I apologize about the inconvenience this might cause. Feel free to contact us if you have any further request/question. Thank you for contacting HostGator.com"

In reality, to do anything about it, I have to put everything in writing as if it were a legal claim. It's not like they are going, "Oh, no, we have our ads on an illegitimate site. We need to follow up on this!" Just that tells you something about the type of company Hostgator is!

[gotabiz]

Originally Posted by NJ

OK, a final follow-up from Hostgator - a main advertiser on one of the scrapper sites:

"We take copyright claim very seriously. Here is a guide to creating a copyright infringement claim Sample Copyright Complaint Steps I apologize about the inconvenience this might cause. Feel free to contact us if you have any further request/question. Thank you for contacting HostGator.com"

In reality, to do anything about it, I have to put everything in writing as if it were a legal claim. It's not like they are going, "Oh, no, we have our ads on an illegitimate site. We need to follow up on this!" Just that tells you something about the type of company Hostgator is!

Unscrupulous business practices are on the rise but it has nothing to do with the economy. I attribute it to people acting solely out of self interest with an blatant disregard to the consequences. Such unethical and unscrupulous people don't think themselves accountable for what they do, they often justify themselves by saying "everyone else is doing it so why can't I?"

[OroLatina]

Originally Posted by cw1865

OK, so you are looking at the article as something more than a source of links, which is fine. I tend to look at articles as a method of obtaining links.



The association with porn would upset me as well.



Well, its a little trickier than that. Without seeing the alteration, the question is whether the alterations are significant enough that the alteration itself is considered either an 'original' or a 'derivative work' as contemplated by the copyright act. Without seeing the actual verbiage there is no real way for us to know one way or the other.

I am just curious, when reviewing your logs, how many hits to you see coming in from the link associated with this article. I ask, because, notwithstanding the fact that you're upset, make sure that your response remains proportionate. In other words, don't get all worked up over something very few people are reading.

I see both viewpoints here. I can see in one case, altered material is not necessarily impacting or causing harm and therefore not worth pursuing the matter over. Naturally there are cases where the exact opposite is true and could even merit damages.

To cw1865 's point. The content (and related context) would be needed to make a justification to spending the time pursuing this.

IF your site was showing up on the first page of Google lets say...AND that site was (somehow) competing with you in the listings...that is where I would take the same measures you have.

In this case, you are talking about a garbage/spam site. I have been using the Internet extensively since I was an early teen in the 1980s (initially Usenet & various IRC channels, MUDs...back when the closest thing we had to WWW was Gopher :P ), and even with all the niche places I visit under one alias or another today, I rarely ever come across these types of sites and when I do, they are usually obvious (mismatched content and widely divergent subject matter) and quickly ignored.

In reference to FoundByDesign's comments below, I completely agree...Review, Report & Relax (there is a tasty white wine called Relax BTW..its cheap too :P )

Cheers,

[edhan]

Originally Posted by NJ

I have had the same thing happen to an EzineArticle.

FIRST: yes, it is understood that when you submit an article to EzineArticles, it is available for other sites to pick up. And, yes, that is considered a good thing. In fact, most of the authors want their articles picked up.

SECOND: However, the articles are not available to be changed by those who pick them up. Here are their published rules:

"Attention Publishers & Webmasters; Our Reprint Policies:
1. If you wish to publish/reprint any article from our site in your ezine, website, blog, forum, RSS feed or print publication, you must:
* Respect the copyrights of the authors by publishing the entire article as it is with no changes.
* Agree to include the FULL Resource box or SIG line at the end of the article.
* Agree not to change the title or content of the article in any way.
* Agree to make all links so that they are Active/Linkable with no syntax changes."
Terms of Service For Publishers Who Wish To Reprint Any Content From EzineArticles.com

I had at least one article picked up and changed - mostly the type of nonsense added that was mentioned in the original post. I'm guessing that they are trying to take the content but get credit for original content?

Any other ideas?

I had good experience with Ezinearticle as I had first submitted my article in blog and then to Ezinearticle. They did not approve it as they said it has already published in the blog site. I have to go through 3 weeks of communication with them before they acknowledge and publish my article.

So now my articles are first published with ezinearticle before putting into my blogs / sites. I do not know if that is a good move or not.

[OroLatina]

Originally Posted by edhan

I had good experience with Ezinearticle as I had first submitted my article in blog and then to Ezinearticle. They did not approve it as they said it has already published in the blog site. I have to go through 3 weeks of communication with them before they acknowledge and publish my article.

So now my articles are first published with ezinearticle before putting into my blogs / sites. I do not know if that is a good move or not.

Well, I think there are a few things you can do there. First of all, the content is yours correct? If that really is the case and you have cited any sources properly within your content, what I would do is make 2 versions of the same content.

I would either: publish one version in the Ezine article, and I would publish another version (change the words, the tempo, add or subtract (preferably both) some information, change any anchor text and other important links/keywords you would like to focus on etc). Or I would make my blog a hyphenated version of the original and direct the attention to the original source using some anchort text / backlinks to areas on my site(s) I want the users to visit.

In both cases you get distinct, authoratative copies of material in 2 or more locations on the 'Net, all of which (if done correctly) are bringing user traffic to the areas you want to be most visited. It is my opinion that this is not a bad way to help boost yourselves a bit in the eyes of the search engines either. Ideally you want unique content with unique links in unique places pointing back to a common place such as <your website name here>.

I am interested in hearing the other's feedback on your question

Cheers,

[edhan]

OroLatina - Yes. It sounds good and practical to do what you have mentioned. It will indeed be good for search engines and target on the site I want to promote.

Guess I will need to spend a little more time with the articles to accomplish it and avoid duplication. Thanks for the suggestion.

[FoundByDesign]

@NJ
Seems like it may be more than it is worth. If they have ads there that are converting it will take a lot for them to cut off potential profits for a simple case of someone's stolen/copied content.

@OroLatina
Glad you like the 3 R's! That wine sounds good!

[gotabiz]

I won. I just received a notice from Blogger help that the offender's blog was taken down "due to policy violations." That's why I never back down. It's important to stand up for yourself and when you know something is wrong never keep silent about the matter or accept it as "okay". BTW, "vindicated" was a poor word choice because I was the one filing the complaint, not the accused. "Won" and "victorious" are the words applicable to this situation.

[FoundByDesign]

Originally Posted by gotabiz

I won. I just received a notice from Blogger help that the offender's blog was taken down "due to policy violations." That's why I never back down. It's important to stand up for yourself and when you know something is wrong never keep silent about the matter or accept it as "okay". BTW, "vindicated" was a poor word choice because I was the one filing the complaint, not the accused. "Won" and "victorious" are the words applicable to this situation.

THAT'S AWESOME! Now you can drink some of that Relax wine that OroLatina spoke of! This is good news for all of us, as it does help to Report the infringement... also good news about Blogger taking this seriously!

[NJ]

Originally Posted by edhan

I had good experience with Ezinearticle as I had first submitted my article in blog and then to Ezinearticle. They did not approve it as they said it has already published in the blog site. I have to go through 3 weeks of communication with them before they acknowledge and publish my article.

So now my articles are first published with ezinearticle before putting into my blogs / sites. I do not know if that is a good move or not.

That is very interesting Edhan. I wonder if they have had a policy change because now, I have not had any issues with submitting articles that were published first on my site or my clients' sites.

[NJ]

Bravo, Gotabiz!!!

[williamc]

Originally Posted by edhan

So now my articles are first published with ezinearticle before putting into my blogs / sites. I do not know if that is a good move or not.

That could well be a bad move, as google is likely to 'see' the first one they run across as the original, and discount any other copies out there. Meaning ezinarticles would get the credit, and your site would not.

[Chuckmiser]

I make a point of first putting the article on my site after I change it around a bit , ussually by adding more content or adding additional keyphrases naturally. I also put pictures in the article. I then publish it on my site first, with links from internal relavant pages, If I am going to put it on my site, after a week or so, I submit it to Ezines. Some articles I write and only put on ezines.

My biggest concern is dup content. I believe that you cannot be dinged for links INTO your site. you can however be dinged for linking to "Bad Neighborhoods"

I had a page scrapped, emailed to the owner of the site, it was removed right away with no acknoldgement, which was cool with me.

[FoundByDesign]

Chuckmiser,
I am with you. If the article will be on my site and submitted to article directories, the original goes on my site first. Then I will re-write the article based on the same basic overall message, but enough to prevent dup content, then submit.
Ed