Someone Stole My Site: How to Defend Yourself When Someone
Plagiarizes Your Website Text
by Karyn Greenstreet
Published on this site: March 2nd, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
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 http://www.waybackmachine.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.
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small
business coach. She shares techniques, skills and strategies
with self-employed people to boost motivation, create clear
goals and cohesive plans, and increase profits. Visit her
website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com
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