How do I protect original content from getting stolen?

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by Brian Kim, May 2, 2006.

  1. #1
    Greetings,

    This weekend, I will start writing a few articles that I expect it to be around 100 pages when finished. I will be starting this website primarily for adsense revenue but will worry about getting readers first. I was wondering if there was a way for me to protect my writings so that people dont just download my whole site and publish it as their own. I am also afraid that those with better SEO knowledge than me will steal my content and get more exposure and page rank than my original site. How would I protect myself from this? I will be writing the website in pure html since I am not much of a coder.

    Advice is much appreciated.

    - quick
     
    Brian Kim, May 2, 2006 IP
  2. toomuch72

    toomuch72 Peon

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    #2
    There is no real way to prevent it from getting stolen. However even without copywriting the individual material you have an intellectual copywrite on it from the production to a year later. If you want to keep that material copywrited after a year I believe it has to be copywrited under a sitewide registered copywrite.

    That being said, since you own the intellectual copywrite on the material you have to search out and find STEALERS of your work. The best way to do this is find an obscure LINE(3 to 4 word phrase) of text in the "document" and set up google alerts when that text is added to a website. You can then go to that website and check to see if it is actually your document or they got lucky and type the obscure phrase then you can contact them to remove it or even better get a free permanant link to your website for use of the article.
     
    toomuch72, May 2, 2006 IP
  3. jackburton2006

    jackburton2006 Peon

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    #3
    It's very, very, very difficult. The only hope you have is that someone reads your site, then reads someone else's, and realizes that the other person has stolen from you, so you can take action. Otherwise, the Internet makes stealing other people's written work so easy that it's almost impossible to protect your stuff. You just have to accept it as the cost of doing business on the Internet. It happens to everyone sooner or later and 99.9% of them won't even know that it's happened. You just have to realize that putting your work out there on the Internet really is putting it out there.

    But hey, have heart: if they're stealing from you, that probably means your site is pretty popular and you're a pretty good writer. At least that's one way to look at it. :)
     
    jackburton2006, May 3, 2006 IP
  4. Otterstedt

    Otterstedt Guest

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    #4
    > There is no real way to prevent it from getting stolen.

    A while ago I thought about, changing my .htaccess to deliver
    articles with false or funny information to known steeling-robots. ;-)
    But unfortunately it is to hard to identify all of them.
     
    Otterstedt, May 3, 2006 IP
  5. ontheweb

    ontheweb Peon

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    #5
    That's a damn good idea! Gives me some ideas for other monitoring too.. :)

    Another fantastic resource is CopyScape. It does an amazing job in finding the thieves. The only hard part is convincing them to give you credit.. ;)
     
    ontheweb, May 3, 2006 IP
  6. jackburton2006

    jackburton2006 Peon

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    #6
    Really, is it worth it to spend your time hunting them down, and then arguing with them about credit and copyright? The mere fact that they stole your content already means they don't care about copyright. I still think this is something you should just factor into your cost of doing business on the Internet and move on. If you still think you can protect your copyright in cyberspace, you're living in a fantasy world.
     
    jackburton2006, May 3, 2006 IP
  7. rewlie

    rewlie Active Member

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    #7
    IMO, get the name 1st, what i really mean if, if you have become popular with your original work, then dont bother with other site stealing your work, they will not make it, same content, but what about visitors ?? Get to be the 1st.
     
    rewlie, May 3, 2006 IP
  8. ontheweb

    ontheweb Peon

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    #8
    Totally agree :) Although if they're a big fish with the potential to send you lots of traffic and help your PR, then a friendly email never hurts. Most won't object to giving you credit/links so it's a win-win situation.
     
    ontheweb, May 3, 2006 IP
  9. GADOOD

    GADOOD Peon

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    #9
    I'd say it's wise to spend your time creating fresh content all the time - if your site is in a constant state of fresh activity, there's something to be said about that.

    If however you leave your site stagnent - if people have copied it, you may see pages become de-indexed one by one over time, until there's very little left of it.

    Just keep creating new content for your main keywords often enough. I don't believe it's worth the time chasing people who steal your content. Apart from it being a pain in the arse, time is better spent on other things.

    Pete
     
    GADOOD, May 3, 2006 IP
  10. JamesColin

    JamesColin Prominent Member

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    #10
    you can use a javascript to disable the right click of the mouse or to disable selection of your text, you can find such scripts on the web. It is not bulletproof at all, but should work on some of the less web savvy users.
    Also, if you put your articles on the flash format or .gif files (so no benefit for the search engines) then stealing them is much more work than pure text.
     
    JamesColin, May 3, 2006 IP
  11. clancey

    clancey Peon

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    #11
    The simplest way top avoid having something stolen is to keep it to yourself. If you are so worried about article theft that you cannot sleep at night, find a different way to make money.

    Javascript only protects against amateurs. Turning articles into images kills efforts to get listed high in search engines.

    Copyright does not expire after a year in most countries. Under all circumstances, it is the job of the copyright holder to protect their copyright by chasing down violators and forcing them to remove your material from their websites/books/magazines/etc. You must assert copyright by including a notice on all relevent pages.

    There are times when you want people to use your material to help build interest in your site -- such as distrbuting edited versions of your full articles to article submission sites, in the hopes sites using the freebie will respect your request for links to your site to be maintained.

    People who do not respect copyright can be harassed into leaving your material alone. It takes persistence, patience, imagination, and vigilence.

    People who know what they are doing won't post copies of your articles on their sites, they will make it look like their own. More likely, people will write about the same thing as you, and they will be completely unaware of your existence. Don't waste time pursuing them for plagiarism.

    The only completely original idea is a frabrication and, even then, someone else probably came up with the same thought first.
     
    clancey, May 3, 2006 IP
  12. Japes

    Japes Peon

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    #12
    On a related note, I discovered that it took just over two days for some of my articles on a web site that I worked with to make it to three other web sites. Can I track them down, e-mail them and ask them to take it off? Yes. Will they do so? Maybe. Is it worth my time? Probably not, as I barely have enough hours in my day as it is. Earlier, someone stated that it's something of a backhanded compliment to have your work stolen. I've come to agree with this. Now we know how all of those songwriters and musicians feel.
    JP
     
    Japes, May 3, 2006 IP
  13. jackburton2006

    jackburton2006 Peon

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    #13
    I've actually had this happened to me on three occassions that I know of. Once, a "writer" for a major Asian magazine (Time Asia) took one of my writing and changed up a few words and then submitted to her editor as her own. I only found out about it because one of my daily readers recognized my review of this item and told me. I contacted the editor, and he told me the "writer" (snicker) was an intern, and the writing she stole was her first submission to the magazine. Needless to say they apologized profusely, pulled the article, and sacked the bitch.

    The second time, a genre magazine that publishes in the real world stole about a half dozen of my articles and published it as their own. Come to learn, this guy had been stealing from not just me, but dozens of websites, perhaps believing that because we are in cyberspace, it would be easy. He learned his lesson when we joined up and sued his ass and got re-imbursement.

    The third time was more innocent; a website took one of my articles and posted it in its entirely, but had the nerve to "correct" some of my "errors". Of course I told them to pull it. What annoyed me most was that they had the nerve to not just steal from me, but to actually "fix" the work they stole. Got them to pull it.

    And those are just three occassions that I know of! I've seen my work show up in snippets (big and small) all over the place. Some of them were good enough to leave a backlink, although I never got any real noticable traffic from those backlinks -- what the hey, the site's name gets out there, so I leave them alone.

    But really, if you put your work out into cyberspace expect it to get stolen. It's no use worrying about it. Just keep adding your fresh content daily and as they say, the cream always rises to the top.
     
    jackburton2006, May 3, 2006 IP
  14. bloodwrath

    bloodwrath Active Member

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    #14
    bloodwrath, May 4, 2006 IP
  15. seojunkie

    seojunkie Banned

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    #15
    You can try copyscape.com or set Google Alerts to notify you when your content is used somewhere.
     
    seojunkie, May 5, 2006 IP
  16. ontheweb

    ontheweb Peon

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    #16
    Please try reading other responses before replying. Both your suggestions were covered days ago. :confused:
     
    ontheweb, May 7, 2006 IP
  17. frisby

    frisby Well-Known Member

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    #17
    I don't know, but i think that have got no sense. There is no real tool, because anyone can printscreen and with abby fine reader or any other program get 100 pages long document in 30 minutes.

    Who want to steal your "online writing", he will...

    But I agree, if someone copy you, that mean that you are good. ;)
     
    frisby, May 7, 2006 IP