Writers - has copyright infringement altered the way you write?

[Obelia]

If it's not scrapers, it's people who copy and paste your articles wholesale from your site, often without changing a thing. Copyright infringement is the kind of thing that happens to us all eventually, like catching the common cold.

Lately I've found myself adding references to the source domain into the text of articles I'm writing. The sort of thing that wouldn't make much sense if the article was copy and pasted onto someone else's site, and the domain name simply changed. Good examples are references to offline publicity, mentioning the sort of topics that are explicitly not covered on a website, or mentioning anything else about the domain's history and founders.

Obviously it's not always appropriate to do this, certainly not on every page, but it's something I tend to work into the copy when it makes sense to do so. Does anyone else do this?

[felix77]

i dont get u exactly .. by source domain u mean ure own??? wat if somebody changes that in the text before they copy it?

[Obelia]

by source domain u mean ure own???

Yes, as in the domain that the piece is originally published on.

wat if somebody changes that in the text before they copy it?

The point is that firstly, a lot of copyright infringers don't bother to take this small step, because they don't notice / they are too lazy to change it / they copy the website using a bot. Secondly, I'm not talking about simply putting in a domain name, but also inserting sentences that would not make sense to a reader if they were copied to another site.

For example: "Example.com has been online for 5 years, and in that time we have never before reviewed black widgets". It would look instantly fishy to a reader if it was copied onto a new domain with reviews of black, blue, green and all other flavours of widgets, perhaps taken from other websites. Things like that.

[marketjunction]

No it hasn't changed my writing. My first major experience with content theft came in 1995. I actually showed up at the person's house for that one. :D

Anyway, over the years it happens so often that all you can do is keep moving forward. I refuse to write as if the article will be stolen. If the article calls for using domain.com, then I use it. If not, I won't. I just keep moving forward.

[geegel]

This is pretty much a no problem for me. As a copywriter I usually give up all the rights to the written material in exchange for the fee. Nonetheless this issue is real, but frequent stops to copyscape.com and a smal cease and desist mail will take care of 90% of the cases. For the other 10%, well... the law is clear and you should use it.

Best regards, George

[marketjunction]

If you are mainly a ghostwriter then this is probably a non-issue for you.

[Obelia]

My first major experience with content theft came in 1995. I actually showed up at the person's house for that one.

Wow, things have really changed since then.

[KLB]

I rely very heavily on tools like Copyscape (among others) to detect copies of my articles and I am very aggressive about issuing cease and desist notices to site owners and take down notices to web hosts. I have even succeeded at getting accounts terminated for infringing sites hosted on servers in Eastern Europe.

If you play your cards right and spend the time necessary to figure out exactly who to contact, you can take down the most obstinate infringers. I also register my copyrights with the U.S. Copyright office so that I can go for the full $150,000 per infringement under the DMCA if necessary. If I ever have to take a matter to court, I want to be able to sue the offender into oblivion if necessary.

[Obelia]

That's a sound approach Ken. Obviously I'm not recommending changing your copy instead of tracking down infringers, but as well as.

I found an instance of infringement today, on a Polish forum. I don't think it will be hard to get it removed, but I don't speak any Polish, so wish me luck.