Is there a way to stop an article from showing in Copyscape after it's been published? I have a website that I bought for dirt cheap, just for the articles. I would like to sell the articles individually now, but can't because they are showing as already published by copyscape. I don't care about the website they are on, so I have requested that it be de-indexed by Google. Will this de-indexing also remove it from Copyscape? How can I tell copyscape that the article is no longer being used on this site?
They will eventually disappear if Google deindexes them - Copyscape's indices are older versions, though, so it will take a long time. Bear in mind that they have still been published, so you can only sell repub rights anyway - or maybe unique if you are clear to the potential client about their history. But definitely not full rights.
If they aren't being indexed, what does it matter if they have been published before? Do they somehow lose their value after being published? Like driving a new car off the lot?
If they've been published before, there is a chance the original publisher still has the content and can republish it - since they own the rights. There's also the chance the reader has already seen it, so it's no longer original (in the sense of fresh and new). There's also the chance that someone saw the original, copied it and will republish it. There's also the copyright and ownership issues: part of buying content is knowing exactly what you're getting, and if you don't own ALL the rights, you have to know that or you could cause serious legal issues down the line.
But how do I not own ALL the rights? Don't you take that chance with any article, published before or not?
You do own all the rights. But if you sell them, the new owner doesn't - they don't have the "first publishing" right, because you (or the original poster) took it and used it. You can only publish first, once. And yes, you take that chance with any content. But that's what sites like Copyscape are for: spotting when someone's trying to diddle you on the rights, originality or whatever else.