I was doing a search for copies of an article on my site and out of the ten sites or so that have stolen it so far, one of them is the personal site of a pastor. And he didn't just steal it, he made it a subcategory on this site, linked to it on his homepage, and filled it with Adsense ads. He did not link to my site, either. Normally, I would send a DMCA out to the host and tell them to take the content down, but it upsets that someone who claims to teach Christian ideals is stealing on the Internet. His site says he's been making websites since 1997, so there's no way he doesn't know about copyright law. He is also a graduate of some seminary. The guy lists what ministries he's worked with and I could easily find what church he works for. I could report him to Adsense, Google search, Yahoo, and his web host. If I really wanted to get this guy, I could contact the church where he works and the other ministries he has worked with. They may want to know what this guy is doing stealing my stuff. I am so sick and tired of people stealing my hard earned work. Do you think I would be going over the limit if I did this? By the way, I have been very successful in the past getting content removed from sites. So far, no host or person has refused to take down content stolen from me. What I usually do is if I can obviously tell it was a mistake or the person didn't mean harm, I email the person and politely ask for it to be removed. If it's anything else, then I go straight to the web host. But really, don't you think a Christian pastor/10-year webmaster/college graduate ought to know about copyright law and giving credit where it's due? There's no way someone could be that ignorant.
I had similar experience of a divinity student hot linking to one of the images on a site I do for another. I asked him what did he not understand about thou shalt not steal?
Don't let the "collar" fool you. Some of the worst scum on Earth buy them to hide behind. Personally, Vengence would be mine. I would report the a##$$##.
I would send him a polite email, I'm sure he meant no harm at all. You could be teaching him a valuable lesson by letting him know he did wrong! Good luck
It sounds like he knew exactly what he was doing. I would try reporting him to adsense or his webhost (then again I really can't stand hypocritical priests). Just my two cents though.
DMCA then e-mail him telling him you asked God in your prayers to seek justice on your behalf... ..won't he sh*t a brick when his website disappears from Google. Pete
The pastor might be a copyright thief or he might be the innocent victim of a freelance article writer. I have had freelance article writers send me writing samples of other people's work as their own many times. Send the pastor an e-mail and ask for an explanation. There are a lot of things you can do if you don't hear back from him or if you don't like his response.
okay, I have no advice (I like smyrl's advice) but I am giving you a green rep for the best title thread I've read all week! vanessa.
some times pastors sites are not built by them but by some one else and the guy who made the site could have copied it. I know personally some pastors who dont even know what HTML is
Maybe somebody sold him the article! Or, maybe one of congregation members emailed it to him. I'd contact him and ask him how did he come about getting your article and let him know that it is yours and you do not wish to share it without it being paid for or without him giving you a credit link for it.
did he hotlink any photos? if he did you could replace it with the one below or if not you could send it with an email (I have the original - if you want it, let me know) vanessa.