copied content, what to do?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by pau, Jan 30, 2008.

  1. #1
    Does anybody have experience having their sites content plagiarized?
    What is the best thing to do about it?

    I have found many of my sites pages entirely copied without mentioning where the text came from but using it as if they wrote it.

    I'm thinking of emailing them, but I'm not sure what the best way to approach this is. I'm also worried about any revenge actions (such as clicking many times on my ads or so) as an answer to my request of removing the plagiarized content or adding my site url.

    Anybody has experience on this?

    Thank you!
     
    pau, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  2. hans

    hans Well-Known Member

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    #2
    in some serious situations i had that site shut down - that usually takes 24 hrs, seldom longer.

    in cases of smaller quantities of copies material ...
    if yoiu start searching for copied original content you never have time to create any new and thus you would be wasting your valuable time and loose your peace of mind on top of all.

    sooner or later the readers of copied content figure out who the owner is and will stick to the original content.

    stealing is common in modern society of laziness and lack of moral / ethic standards. just see the many posts on DP forum about click fraud, etc ...

    after nearly 11 yrs of publishing I have ceased to search for copied content and focus only on improving and increasing new content. most thieves lack knowledge to get top SERPS and thus they will eternally lack the satisfaction of having true and loyal site visitors !!

    on an annual average I spend some 300+ days creating content - some 60 days in learning, server security and SEO/adsense optimization and only 1-2 days in having a few sites shut down for copyright infringement.
     
    hans, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  3. pau

    pau Active Member

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    #3
    Hans, thank you for your answer.

    I don't spend much time checking for this either, that's why today (after years) when I checked I founded many sites copying my text at once.

    I don;t worry extremely much about this, but I find it quite unfair. I work hard on my sites and writing my content, I don't like it that other people then use it as if it was their own.

    In those cases when you got the sites that copied your content shut down, could you tell me how you did? Have you ever tryied just emailing the site owner and asking them to remove your text from their site?

    Anyone has experience on doing that and succeeding on it?
     
    pau, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  4. Lofty

    Lofty Member

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    #4
    I agree with Hans. I gave up worrying about copied content as well. Mostly the sites that it appears on never get anywhere and will be getting the penalty for dupe content. It's annoying but my view is that if they are not smart enough to create their own content then they are not smart enough to be anything to worry about.

    If it really bothers you there are things you can do to get sites shut down but it takes up valuable time that could be spent making your own site better.
     
    Lofty, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  5. BILZ

    BILZ Peon

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    #5
    Send them a letter from your "lawyer" tell them you have saved a copy of the entire site as evidence in litigation. Tell them that the host and registrar will be contacted if you do not receive a reply within 3 business days.

    Make it all sound very official and professional. Try to sound like a lawyer. You'll likely be able to scare them into removing the copied content.
     
    BILZ, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  6. hans

    hans Well-Known Member

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    #6
    I never wasted a minute in contacting site owner
    since site owner is thief/criminal - never expect their change of mind.

    I directly contact server owner/host - provide solid hard evidence of ownership - then give a 24 hr period to shut down the site and that is what happened in all cases.

    however never waste your time attempting so with chinese or russian or eastern european sites - these are countries without law living from stolen property.

    if server/host is USA based in most cases it works without any problems - the $-liability of a host is far too high and most hosts have TOS prohibiting storage of copyright protected stolen content.

    I fully understand your point - I spent myself some 55'000 hrs of content creation and a 6 digit amount in investment during past 10+ yrs.
     
    hans, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  7. thunderbolt007

    thunderbolt007 Active Member

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    #7
    Yes, many of copycats are just building for some conversion purposes.. I have encountered that because my blog has been copied and they just put some adsense on it...
     
    thunderbolt007, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  8. pamminikin

    pamminikin Peon

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    #8
    Very good advice I believe. But make sure that you are not spending your valuable time chasing what may not result in your goal. Choose your battles.
     
    pamminikin, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  9. websitetools

    websitetools Well-Known Member

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    #9
    Check the domain whois contact info... If it is fake and you can't contact... Domain registrators have to pull the domain (at least in US as far as I know). Just another way to do it.
     
    websitetools, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  10. Kwyjibo

    Kwyjibo Peon

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  11. WebAttend

    WebAttend Guest

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    #11
    WebAttend, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  12. starguru

    starguru Peon

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    #12
    I use www.copyscape.com

    Check every few days with all my sites, if theres any duplicate content then you can

    1) find contact details and tell them to remove it immediately
    2) Find their host and contact them
    3) Contact all the search engines and tell them to remove the offending page from their index

    This usually works

    URGENT CEASE AND DESIST

    Your webpage copierssite.com has blantantly plaguirised content from one of my webpages mywebpage.com

    You can see from Google's cache that this page was cached on (date), yet the website that is using my content is yet to be cached with that content, thus proving it has been plaguirised from my website.

    Please remove this webpage within 48 hours else I will have no choice but to commence legal action in line with the Digital Millennuem Act.

    Then you send the same message to the hosting company...A website your are hosting...etc..

    If you check every few days then the offending site will not be cached in Google, as the content has only just appeared, so you can use the cache as proof.
     
    starguru, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  13. sweetfunny

    sweetfunny Banned

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    #13
    Not always true, i purchased a bunch of "original" articles once because i was busy i just run the first example article through Copyscape and it came up good so i threw the package online when i received all the articles. Later i found out they weren't original.

    Another time i downloaded a bit of script for a jQuery Portlet from an open source site, threw it up on my site and allowed people to download it. I found out it wasn't for distribution 8 months later, and it didn't even have the proper credits in the footer.

    So there's many situations where someone may unknowingly display something they shouldn't.

    I "always" contact the owner first, usually giving them a few options such as providing a return link as credit or taking the content down. I also say if i don't hear from them in 7 days or the page isn't fixed i will need to contact their host and Adsense in order to stop Ads being served and the page taken offline.

    They generally respond pretty quick.
     
    sweetfunny, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  14. ncmw

    ncmw Peon

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    #14
    You need to rewrite it with proper keyword usage. Just dont let the spiders see it before you fix it.
     
    ncmw, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  15. pau

    pau Active Member

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    #15
    That is the kind of activity or way to build a website that causes the rest of us to have our work stolen. You should build your own content instead of copying others, even if you change keywords.


    For the rest of you, thank you for your tips and the links, they are very interesting.

    Would you consider, for example, a site copying one page (completely and without mentioning the source in any way, but only one page) worth to take any action? I have a few of these.

    I also have a blog doing this, and I'm a bit more uncertain on what can be done about that case.
     
    pau, Jan 31, 2008 IP
  16. thsadmin

    thsadmin Notable Member

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    #16
    I have a article site and sometimes users submit copied articles, as I don't have the time to review every article - sometimes they just slip through, now and again I get nasty coments about ripping others content, all I can do is remove the article. I always react accordingly to the demands of the publisher - sometimes it's not the admins/owners fault, I'm only speaking from my experience and for my self though.
     
    thsadmin, Jan 31, 2008 IP
  17. Bloomtools

    Bloomtools Peon

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    #17
    Go through websites having nice content, choose content wisely based on keyword you are going to target,
    Use content rewriter tool, but before use of that tool you should have attention.
    Some time it converts in to non relative words with the business.
    Check it out the content after words, and prepare separate content that you are going to use on web.
     
    Bloomtools, Jan 31, 2008 IP
  18. igme

    igme Banned

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    #18
    All you have to do is rephrase the content.
     
    igme, Jan 31, 2008 IP
  19. Lapdog

    Lapdog Peon

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    #19
    I'm a newbee and I would also have the same question. We are trying to put up as much good, relevant content on our site as possible and much of what we want to put up is published on other websites. Should we copy this when we feel it is valuable content? Or, should we note the source?
     
    Lapdog, Jan 31, 2008 IP
  20. bomberman

    bomberman Peon

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    #20
    That's a duplicate content and your site might get trouble someday. Rephrase the content before you post it.
     
    bomberman, Jan 31, 2008 IP