How to Deal With Online Content Theft
Detecting and Responding to Internet Plagiarism of Your Work
Aug 15, 2009
Freelance writers and others who post their copyrighted work online are particularly vulnerable to content theft. Every writer needs to know how to safeguard themselves against Internet plagiarism and respond to those who steal their work.
Give the Plagiarizer the Benefit of the Doubt
Upon finding that someone has plagiarized copyrighted Internet content, it's easy to get angry and assume the worst about the person. However, it pays to keep a level head.
Many people don't understand online copyright laws and may honestly not know that they are doing anything wrong. It's a common mistake to believe that copyrighted Internet content can be re-posted as long as it is credited to the original author.
In cases like these, a friendly email explaining the material's copyright will quickly resolve the situation.
Responding to an Internet Copyright Violation
A brief, personal email to the person who posted the copyrighted work is appropriate. When drafting the email, follow these key steps:
- Be polite and professional in the way the email is addressed and signed;
- Make the first sentence a positive one: "Thank you for your interest in my article about [subject;]"
- Explain the copyright rules protecting the online work;
- Politely request that the copyrighted content be removed; and
- Treat the plagiarizer as a potential client by offering to write a similar article for a fee.
When this process is followed for writing emails regarding intellectual property infringement, several would-be plagiarizers are actually turned into clients.
In the initial contact with an SEO plagiarizer, always avoid:
- Name-calling
- Giving ultimatums ("Take my article off your site or else.")
- Threatening with legal action, etc.
- Strong language ("I demand you remove my content this instant!")
- Writing in all caps
- Leaving abusive or negative comments on their blog or website
Remember not to jump the gun and assume that the plagiarizer knows they are in the wrong. Some unscrupulous people will steal online content because they think they won't get caught, but many do it ignorantly.
When a Content Thief Ignores a Polite Email
If the person does not respond and the copied content remains on their site after a sufficient amount of time, then it's time to take it to the next level.
Report the infringing material to the host of their site, remembering to provide a link to the original work with the date of copyright.
Avoid Content Theft With an Online Plagiarism Detector
The best way to protect copyrighted SEO work is making sure that the copyright is easily visible on the work. Some plagiarism checker services like Copyscape specialize in finding duplicate text elsewhere online. Doing one-time manual searches is free, but constant plagiarism detection requires a subscription.
Google alerts, a free service hosted by Google, allows writers to choose a unique phrase or sentence up to 32 words in length, put in in quotation marks, and set a Google alert for it. If a URL containing that phrase is found, Google sends an email to the requester of the alert. Though this won't catch all instances of plagiarism on the Internet, it is an effective way to easily monitor unauthorized use of copyrighted content.
Many people out there assume that the Internet equals free content, and an SEO writer who isn't aware of the problem may become a victim of content theft. Learning to draft requests for removal and prevent future copyright infringement are just parts of an online writing career.
Readers might also be interested in How SEO Writing Works and Researching SEO Keywords.
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