Has your writing ever been stolen?
@unusualsuspect (2602)
United States
November 25, 2008 11:31am CST
I just found one of my blog posts on a site that pretends to be a news site. They had a link back to the original, but it's still theft because they used the whole post, word for word, and without even asking permission. I found it when I was checking a blog I was suspicious about and found out that their content was also stolen from different websites and blogs.
So I spent the whole morning reporting sites to Google (for violations of Adsense rules) and to the owners of the original material. I know it won't really do much good because there are thousands of these thieves all over the web. They use Adsense to make money off other people's work. If you write on the web, do a check now and then. You can plug a few sentences from your post or article into Google and do a search, or you can use Copyscape.
I've also heard that some people use Google alerts to get notified if their work turns up on another site. I don't know how many words you can enter into a Google alert, but it might be worth trying, especially if you have so many articles on the web that you can't keep track of all of them.
2 people like this
7 responses
@unusualsuspect (2602)
• United States
25 Nov 08
I think the URL for Copyscape is copyscape.com. It's a site where you can put in the URL of your blog or a page with a post, or the URL of an article. It will show whether it's anywhere else on the web. Some of the big writing sites like Associated Content use the professional version to make sure that submissions aren't stolen and haven't been published anywhere else. If you're asking for upfront pay from them, they expect first rights.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
18 Jul 09
oh thats just terrible. im so sorry. people are just as lazy online as the outside world it seems. leaveing the hard work up to others and just living off others work. they should be locked up or at least made to keep off line a few days to teach em a lesson.
@DoriLentrich (1016)
• United States
14 Sep 09
It's sad that people are so willing to exploit other peoples work this way. I wish there was a way to really stop them. Other than litigation, I'm not sure the best way to shut them down. And to copyright each individual post would be prohibitive in the extreme. (You have to formally copyright to sue for damages).
You have good ideas for checking to make sure your work is still yours. Copyright is a rapidly shifting area right now. The technology is changing so fast, the laws can't keep up. At least the culprit here had a link back. A lot of places won't even do that. Did you contact the site administrators and confront them?
@rosepedal64 (4188)
• United States
19 Jul 09
I am new on this site. I do however have another site that I do write on. It never crossed my mind that copying could take place. I guess I'm real new to the internet world. I never started on sites that pay until my husband got laid off, and now I'm always looking to make money without having to put up money. I want to thank you for letting me know that things like that can happen. I will keep my eyes open at all times.
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
12 Dec 08
This is Scary, and there needs to be something to STOP this, but I know people have probably done this here, etc. and it is getting crazy. Why do people think that this is appropriate and try and earn a few extra dollars from this. But personally it would probably take someone patroling the Internet 24/7 to catch all of these people and stop these kind of things.