Hey guys, I have a website on World of Warcraft, with unique playing guides written by myself: www.epic-warcraft.com I recently noticed that some guy just stole ALL of my content and put it on his site, www.http://www.wowgold-wowgold.com. He has around 700 guides in his collection, but I'm betting all of them are stolen from other sites. The problem is, not only did he steal my content, now google thinks his is the original on most terms, as searching from particular phrases in the articles finds his site while mine gets listed under supplemental results :C His site is older than mine, so maybe that's a factor (but obviously, the unique content was on my site first). Here's an example of a stolen guide: My site: http://www.epic-warcraft.com/magebuilds.php His site (he didn't even bother making new images): http://www.wowgold-wowgold.com/World-of-Warcraft-Mage-Guide---Talent-Bu-Article725.html He was even careless enough to copy all the links, so on some guides, I internally linked other pages on my site. So many of his site's links point towards me (I don't need those shit ridden links, thank you!). Can anyone direct me towards what I should do, I never had to deal with content thieves like that. Thanks!
Sorry to hear about this mate. Piracy and copyright fraud are a big issue in this industry, mainly due to it's trans-continental nature. I will be a small fortune that those who have stolen from you (MMOBag.com seems to be the mother site) will be Chinese and can get away with it too. This is not a racist or xenophobic generalization; I've worked in China... he hui shuo yi dian... there's simply no accountability or legal protection for this kind of thing. Reading through, your content is great, but what will make you successful is promotion. So push on past this, don't dwell on it and focus on growing your site further and further.
Thanks. But I did some investigation and it seems that the owner of mmobag.com and the content stealing site also has a lot of .pl domains and websites, so at first glance, he seems to be Polish. Even better, I'm very close by
The easiest method would be to try and contact them demanding them to take down the copyrighted content. If that failes, file a DMCA complaint with his host. If that doesn't work, file one with google and any other search engine you want the content removed. Google can take up to 30 days, but they will remove the content or entire site from their index.
I would block hotlinking images and make it so when the image loads on his site, it says something like "stolen from epic-warcraft".
Hmm great idea aj. Is there any way to do that automated from my server, or do I need to manually modify all pictures?
hes probably reading this thread and laughing because theres really nothing you can do. but best of luck to you.
You can submit his site to google through webmaster tools. I would also send a cease and desist letter cc google on it.
Well I searched by keyphrases and indeed, with some 6-7 word kphrases he's taken the lead and sent me in the supplemental index. However, my main keywords are still growing in the serps, so it's not that bad it seems. Still, stealing is stealing and I'm going to file a DMCA and have reported him to Google. I have a feeling that of his 700ish guides, the other 600 he didn't steal from me aren't his own work, so I'm probably doing a favor to others as well Cheers, thanks for the help guys.
You can file DMCA notices to have his site removed from the SERPs. You can also send notices to his host and have his account suspended.
Well I'd just like to say that I got him Google took him down from many of my targeted keywords (I didn't check for all though). And ClickBank just e-mailed me that they asked him to take off the stolen content and if he doesn't comply, they'll ban his account from their network I know I'm evil, but I hope he doesn't comply. Still no response on my complaint to his host, GoDaddy though. But oh well.
It stands for Digital Millenium Copyright Act. You can find more info here: http://www.copyright.gov/ It takes a while to get one going, but I see it shows results, so it may be worth it in case of a similar copyright breachment.
And by the sounds of it, neither does your brain. Or perhaps not even enough power outwith your skull. Nonetheless, you need to do these: Request the content is removed immediately. File a report to Google (and other search engines, if need be). Inform the site host that the site is breaching copyright laws. If the site still steals your content, file a DMCA with the administrator/website host. Optional ideas: Use hotlink protection, using an image which reads: "I have incestual relations with my sister", just for laughs, really. You could always block robots from your site for a couple of days, using robots.txt, let him steal your new articles, then delete the articles, and allow robots again. Make sure you link to some seriously f%&£*d up stuff in those blog posts - again, just for laughs. And if not for laughs, to get him a nice Google penalty. - I like this idea most, because it even makes me laugh