Content copying is a very popular practice and has established itself to a great extent in the blogging field. The hard written posts of the author and just copied and pasted onto other blogs and the other blog take the credit for it.
What usually happens is…
You write a wonderful post, on which you have worked and researched for 2-3 days. Added up spice, tags and then go for the final PUBLISH button to bring the results of the efforts. And the most disappointing thing that arises is the content being copied and pasted on other blog.
If you think staring at it is the only thing possible, A BIG NO…Its time to take off that content from his blog and buzz him about the wareabouts and bang him with wake up alarm for copying the content.
Recently, I wrote a post on “How to Build Targeted Backlinks “. It took me 3 days to research on the post and then I could finally hit that Publish button. My 3 days hard work was spooked upon when I saw a blog copying my content and replacing my rank in Google.
Argh, my blood really boiled in anger but I controlled myself. With no inputs from him my hard worked article was seen floating on his website.
I tackled him and got the article off it but do you wanna know how? Indeed I used just 1 method but I am going to tell you all methods you can use if someone is copying your content.
A Polite Humble Email To Blog Author
Gabirol rightly said:
The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones.
Some bloggers may not intend to hurt you by content copying but they actually liked your content and thought to publish it in their blog. But they are unaware with the fact of copyright. Politeness is what should be shown first .
Search for a contact form or author’s email on the blog where the copied content is posted. If you don’t find it on the blog, go for Google search of the name of the author or try to contact him on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter (Everyone is on Facebook :P).
Now send him a polite email about the copied content and tell him about the copyright and the original article link. Here is a copy of a humble polite email you can send to the author:
Dear ABC
This is Karan Lugani, CEO of Trick Earn Blog.It is great that you visited my blog and found the content to be useful. But unfortunately, we found a copied post of our blog on your blog. The URL of the original as well as copied posts are as follows:
[Original URL]
[Copied URL]
Please note that the articles are the hard work of authors and are copyrighted. I request you to please remove the article from your blog and write original content on your blog.
Best Wishes For Your Blog
Thanks
Karan Lugani
This polite email surely does wonders and in 90% of the cases the articles gets removed off other blogs. You need to have patience and wait atleast for a week. If you still don’t get a reply within a week, it’s time to go for harsh methods.
Jane’s note:
Even before you go for harsh methods yet, you should implement author mark up in your own blog, so that Google can automatically know whose content is original and which one’s duplicate/copied. This post will give you all the details about that:
Author Markup, Google Plus And Niche Domination In Simple Terms For Bloggers
Get to the Web Hosting of the Blog
You can report about content copying to the web hosting of the blog. DMCA orders web hosting to keep original content on their servers and discourage the use of copied content. You can find the whois of the blog using any whois search website (I choose AllWhois) . Now find the Hosting provider of the blog and hover to the website of hosting provider.
Contact the Hosting Provider (Usually you’ll find a sparkling contact button or a live chat box on Web Hosting Providers). Tell them about the copied content but remember to be polite here too. The hosting providers will respond to your email and ask for your proof.
Show it to them by proving that you’re the owner by posting something or just showing that you have claimed your blog on Technorati.
Don’t worry if the web hosting does not respond to your email or does not remove the content from the blog. We do have a third and final method.
Bitter One: Report to DMCA and Google
It is time to get bitter.The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States Copyright Law for protecting the copied content . You can hover onto DMCA website and file a take down of the blog whose copying your content. You just need to fill up the form and rest of the work is of DMCA who will take care of the blogger.
Most of the bloggers who copy other contents have their blogs based on advertising platforms like Google Adsense for earning. You can report about the copied material to Google Adsense using Rules Violation Contact Form.
Boycotting such a blogger from search engines would be a great idea tell Google about the blogger’s content copying activity and get the site banned from Google by reporting and filling the form here.
I am sure you would be able to get your hard worked post down and maintain its originality. For those who are still wondering how I got my copied content down from other blog , I used the Reporting to Web Hosting Method as he didn’t respond to my kind email for 10 big days.
Are you too a victim of content copying? Have you experienced the problem of others copying your posts?
Karan Lugani is a 15 year old teen, proud owner of Syncers where he writes about Online Tricks, Social media, SEO , Blogging tips, Freebies and Latest Technology Updates. . Always eager to be updated with technology, he likes to share his ideas with the audience out there and build a community. Checkout his Webmaster Tips.
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Steven Phils says
It is quite essential to eliminate the content copying bceoming so common in blogging . Quite nice tips to deal with the content copying.
The action needs to be taken but in a appropriate way. The diplomatic way is the best and one should always kick off with moderate methods and then hover to difficult ones.
I guess at first like you said contact the site be fairly polite yet firm and hope that it works out. If you go the contacting the host or google route I would assume you should provide detailed info that would prove you are the original owner of the content.
Yeah, the first method is quite easy while going to google or hosting needs you to submit some documents. Hosts usually have 2-3 methods of confirming and take upto 1 week to get the copied post down.
This is a nice guideline of dealing with copiers. I like that your first recommendation is to contact them and inform them nicely that they are copying content and need to take it down. I think a lot of people who copy content don’t think anyone will notice since the internet is so big. Once you let them know that you are watching, it is easier for them to just take the content down and steal from someone who is not paying attention.
Politeness rocks in each and every case Lionel. Humble method works nice and awareness is must to get caught those copiers who steal the content recklessly. Better be aware than to get scared.(By the copied content)
The email example sounds polite except for this part “and write original content on your blog.” That can actually provoke them to act even worse.
I have tried the hosting approach but they will not act just because you say the content was stolen. they will actually tell you to contact the DMCA. Which on the other hand is sometimes a pain in the neck because they require a real form to be filed, not an online form.
Reporting to Google works good when they find time to look into it which can take a few weeks, but it will only remove the stolen content from their index, while we all want to actually remove the post from the blog completely.
I had to deal with these a lot of times, but sometimes it is even better to let them be. Those blogs don’t end up succeeding much.
Hosting method does work but you need to show them many proofs. And that calls for a lengthy process. While Google is perfect in removing the content and banning the copied content but still it takes a hoard of time to complete the request.
I guess you can take the nice approach from time to time, but most of the cases that’s just wasting time. It depends on how many articles the guy copied. If he took more than two i go straight to DMCA.
From my experience, the hosting company doesn’t care about content, they have better things to do.
The reason Hosting Company cares about them is they have been ordered by DMCA to remove all the copied content. Any host violating this rule will be suspended .(isn’t taken seriously but yes, there can be a lawsuit.)
I wasn’t aware they’re forced by DMCA to remove copied content. How many people actually know this? I’m afraid that’s the main reason hosting companies ignore these things, they rely on the lack of information their customers have.
I have three of these low life scraper sites using every word of content from every post I publish. I get trackback requests from the pathetic little (source) link below the page. It’s very frustrating.
Get them to DMCA after using the polite method. You can also contact Google if they’re stubborn.
Important topic to cover…
I’ve had this occur (to my knowledge) a couple of times, but with very different situations.
Firstly A guy wrote to me to say that he’d created a post based on one of mine, and asking if it was ok. On closer inspection, he’d ripped off the entire framework of the post, just re-worded it.
I believe his intentions were good (although perhaps a little naive). When I explained the time it took to research, and requested credit for the basis of the post and a link to my original, he gave it, along with an apology. Case closed.
Second, just the other day I found a guy who’d stolen my ‘about me’ page, changed the name, location, number of kids and a (literally) a couple of other words. He stole my story. Not cool.
I commented highlighting what he’d done and requesting it be taken down immediately. Two days later it has been - I was looking into where and how to report this in case he didn’t remove it.
Thing is - whether you’re ‘in the right’ or not, there’s no benefit in making enemies out of other people online by antagonizing them. On the other hand, our work as writers and bloggers should be protected, credited and rewarded - not stolen.
Thanks for bringing up more solutions to this problem Karan.
World’s full of cheaters and blogging field is not behind in the counters. Your welcome Jym . Contact me if you have any such problem.
I had to deal with a plagiarism issue early on when I found a copy of a post of mine on someone else’s website. I actually sent a couple of emails to the webmaster, which were all very polite. I recommend starting off in a very polite manner. However, you can be stern and actually gradually let them know you are serious while at the same time being cordial about the whole issue. Eventually, they removed the copied content, though I needed to remind them that my final options were to report to the DCMA.
That is what remains the ultimate option with stubborn webmasters. Usually these are noobs who do so and such copied websites don’t last long.
Nice tips here! You’ve shared quite tips to deal with copiers. Thanks a lot!
Yeah, quick ones but essential ones which every blogger needs to know about.
Hi, Karan!
You are right-there were so many times already where I’ve noticed that bloggers keep copying each other in very obvious manner. When I visit some blogs (I will not name then now), I can notice that I’ve already previously read the posts somewhere else. Of course, I do not find this to be correct, specially when you know that someone had put effort in writing about certain topic for so many days, and then another one appears and only copy pastes someone else’s hard work.
The content copying needs to be stopped immediately. We need to stop the copiers from taking the credits. Immediate action needed..!!
Yea, it drives me up a wall too. It seems like most times comments have been shut off (or were never on!) so you have to somehow contact them via email.
Virginia says
I’ve been a victim of content copy many times. At the moment, there are two blogs who sistematically copy my posts. The problem it that if the posts are not exact copies, it is hard to demonstrate. Most copiers permorm slight changes to the original post before publishing.
I always try to ping my new posts to be indexed as soon as possible. I think Google should detect duplicated content and penalize the blog copying me.
The worst part about Google is it penalises the original content sometimes in Google Panda . Try to get it indexed asap and rock with original content.
Pool Parts says
Content copying is a big issue now a days…Thanks for giving the solution on this problem
antioxidants says
thankyou for the advice…it worked, i was polite but firm, great guidance with dealing wit copiers in this blog too!!!!!!
It’s big issue now a days, thanks for your advice. I personally hate content copying, Google also hate this. If you have unique content then you’ll get more visitors.
Content Copying should be strictly prohibited by all bloggers… I personally hate such people who do such mistakes. If I find anyone copying my site’s content, I also follow the same steps as you mentioned here… And really cool ways to deal with copycats, I think mailing them works most of the times. If not, then we need to be bit harsh and file a DMCA or report to hosting.
Cool Post…
davidwilliam0544 says
Hi Debasis
I agree to this statement “Content Copying should be strictly prohibited by all bloggers”. Even I faced lot many problems regarding to this content copying, i don’t know why these guys use to follow these kind of cheap promotions by copying other content. That’s why each and every time Google is Updating their Algorithms to control this Spammers. Recently Panda has released a new Version for this Content Copying.
Hello Karan, Great article. I completely agree with you, How hurt it is when you write a post spending a lot of time and someone just copy and paste it. Every blogger should fight against this copy paste bloggers to stop this. The ways you show to claim copyright content are awesome and very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Weird! Really bad habit!! I think every blogger has his own style of writing and this signature should be kept for his own profit because readers also don’t like to get same thing. It makes them monotonous. If someone can’t give his followers any new stuff then he should be stopped but not this. Hope your tips will work to prevent this tendency. Thanks for your cooperation.
Alleya says
I must admit that it i really a bad habit but then I must also say that it is one of the most enticing information that I had heard of this day. Very interesting and much more a practical way to meet up your client’s set deadline. I guess I must also have it for some time.
Hi,
I had one of my blog posts copied on one blog, I have contacted the owner of the blog whom didn’t respond, my luck that his blog was hosted on blogger, so it was pretty easy to contact them so they have deleted the post. The author markup thing is new thing to me.
You’re quite right about the copying problem
I always put my copyright symbol and name beneath every articls - it really does deter copyists
Keith
Hey Karan, Thanks for the post.These points are guidelines to be followed as most of the bloggers who see their copied content in another blog gets upset and don know what to do at the time.Wish to read more related posts.
Nice post and great example letter that can be used.
I tend to agree with one of the other comments that suggested removing part of the wording, so as not to annoy them; after all you need their cooperation to remove the post.
Thanks for sharing, it’s just a shame that you had to
bryan jackson says
Having copied some lines in an article or posts made by other person is not great at all. Bu in some cases it is helpful. Just remember to quote the author of those copied lines. I do that sometimes as well. And I have never encountered any problems about it.
Content stealing can be really annoying. Fortunately some of my content that was stolen resulted in some extra back links without them out ranking me. So I suppose in that case it wasn’t so bad.
This is piracy at its lowest level. It takes alot of work to dish out 2-3 great articles per week, and nothing hurts worse than having your content copied to another blog and not even get any credit.
I wouldn’t mind at all if someone used my stuff on their blog as long as they shoot me a solid anchor and review link.
Usually it is copyscape that tells me someone just posted up my stuff….I have never even tried to have it taken down..takes less time to just write more content, and forget about the link juice there stealing from my url’s.
+jeremy
One of my site was plagiarized by someone, on a blogspot blog. Luckily he was decent enough to read, reply and implement what I asked him by email.
But unfortunately, one other such blog’s owner didn’t reply to it. Now after reading it, I’m planning to contact the host. Hope it helps!
Play it fair then you need not to fear with the result. As long as you are doing it legally then for sure it will give a good result for your blog.
I had one of my blog posts copied on one blog, I have contacted the owner of the blog whom didn’t respond, my luck that his blog was hosted on blogger, so it was pretty easy to contact them so they have deleted the post.and The author markup thing is new thing to me.
Read more: How To Get Rid of The Content Stealers?
Fred says
I had this also a couple of times, and the site owners where sensible. But, if I had to escalate it to the host or Google, how would I prove that I’m the author? OK, if I’m lucky and Google has indexed the post on my site first, then they have it. But what about hosts? What documental proofs should I prepare beforehand - probably even before publishing the article?
It is a big problem nowadays as some of the blogger also used the copying text. And sometime innocent people got penalize for it.
Umer says
Blocking the access of the content stealers via http access is an easy option to get rid of them or just report those stealers to their web hosting companies.