Someone Stole and Altered My Content

[gotabiz]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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