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copyright © 2006, by Karyn Greenstreet. All
rights reserved. I knew
one day it would happen. Someone stole the text from my
website and used it on their own website. Dirty rotten
scoundrels!
According
to the US Copyright Office website (http://www.copyright.gov):
“Copyright
protection subsists from the time the work is created
in fixed form. The copyright in the work of
authorship immediately becomes the property of the
author who created the work.”
What Do You Do?
Here
are some ways to discover which sites have stolen your text:
-
Find some text
on your website that is so “you” that it’s unlikely that anyone
else would write a phrase or sentence that way. Go to
http://www.google.com, and put that phrase or sentence into
their search, within quotation marks. For example, one phrase
that of my own that I searched on looked like this: "you'll end
up struggling to make your business a success, and all your
passion and enthusiasm will drain away." (Go ahead, type it
into Google and see who’s got my text on their site.) You have
to put the phrase within quotation marks so that Google knows to
search for the whole phrase with all the words right next to
each other.
-
Make note of
the sites that have the same text as yours. While it is
completely possible in millions and millions of websites that
someone might have written the exact same phrase, it’s worth
investigating every site that comes up.
-
Another great
place to search for plagiarized sites is
http://www.copyscape.com
Here are some steps to getting a site to take down plagiarized
text:
-
Gather as much
information about the offending site as you can.
-
Print out all
pages from their site where the plagiarized text resides.
-
Try to find a
contact name, phone number and email address from the site.
-
Go to
http://www.internic.net/whois.html and get all their
registration information. If they are not in the USA, go to
Google and type in “whois” plus the name of their country. You
should be able to find a whois site that can get their DNS
record for you.
-
Go to
http://www.alexa.com and find whatever information you can
there.
-
Finally, write
to the offending site owner and tell them that you found
plagiarized text on their site. List the URLs of the offending
pages along with the copyrighted URLs of your own pages. Give
them two or three days to either delete the pages, or re-write
them so that they no longer include your text.
This
is not the time to play nice guy! Tell the offending site owner that
you are copying their hosting company and domain registrar on the
letter or email, and do so.
Make sure when you write this email or letter, you don't use any
passive language, and do not say "please". Demand your rights. It is
illegal and unethical for them to do what they did and they need to
stop doing it immediately.
Another great resource is
the WayBack Machine found at
www.archive.org. This allows you to check what
their websites looked like throughout the years. You may be able to
pinpoint the date when those people served themselves with a hefty
spoon of your web content.
Someone pointed out to me that sometimes the offender is the website
designer, not the owner of the site. If you are an owner of a site,
and you did not write your own text, ask your designer where he or
she got the text. Make it clear to them that you will not tolerate
any plagiarized text and that you will hold them legally responsible
in any charge or lawsuit that comes up over the copy on your
website.
Some Final Notes:
Always put a copyright statement on your site. If it took you a long
time to write your text, you should be the only one benefiting from
it, not some unethical person who is looking for a shortcut.
If
the site doesn’t comply with your request, you might have to get
your attorney involved. Only you can decide if the expense of an
attorney is worth it for you.
I have written to the six sites that stole my text. Two have
complied and taken down the offending pages within three days of my
request. If the others don’t comply, I will be posting their
websites in my blog. I'm not afraid of a little publicity, but I bet
they are.
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Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She
shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to boost
clarity and focus, create sustainable motivation, and increase sales and
profits.
Visit her website at
www.PassionForBusiness.com
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