Paying Ourselves by Hunting Down Plaigarism?

1. 77

   Dan Zynskiposted 10 years ago

   Now that I have some writing of my own online, the possible revenue losses from people stealing work are at the front of my mind.
   
   I haven't attempted it yet, but I assume if I came across theft I would 1) contact the sites web-admin, 2) arrange for shared-use, attribution, back-linking and some backpay - on 3) threat of filing DMCA. That way I could potentially recoup losses and turn the calamity into a revenue stream and a better SEO rank.
   
   Then it occurred to me that the 2nd part there is a potential reward for hunting down copyright violation; something authors could do for one another and split on the payback
   
   Who here has tried to recoup losses this way? What complications do you run into and how attractive do you find this idea?

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   1. 96

      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Extremely unattractive.  To negotiate with thieves, not to make a concerted effort with others to rid the web of said thieves.
      
      There is no reason to contact the web admin, no reason to trust a thief to do anything along the lines of shared use, attribution, backlinking or anything else.  There is no reason to threaten to file a DMCA.
      
      Just file that DMCA with the web host.  The ONLY exception would be someone that might understand what they did - a school kid doing a project or something like that.  Thieves deserve the worse we can give them; alerting the hosting company to illegal activity on their server is best.

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      1. 73

         JG11Bravoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I'll agree with that. Plagiarism is unacceptable and I would just file the DMCA immediately.

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2. 73

   relacheposted 10 years ago

   And you're going to prove how much they owe you and make them pay...how?
   
   File the notice of infringement with Google if they have AdSense (they'll lose their account) or file it with the company hosting their site (they'll lose their whole site if they don't comply) and be done with it.

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   1. 77

      Dan Zynskiposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      A penalty is loss of their adsense? Well I guess that brings me around to your side!
      
      Thx for the input.

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      1. 77

         Dan Zynskiposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Well, still. I wouldn't mind hunting for fellowauthors. One good turn deserves another.

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3. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   People who plagiarize don't pay. I DMCA hosts where it is likely to work. I don't spend a lot of time on it. I am more aggressive protecting my Ebooks than my web content

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   1. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Actually they do, sometimes - though it's rare. I've been paid for stolen content twice.
      
      In both cases, the sites weren't spammers - they were genuine businesses who had used my articles on their website.   When I see sites like that, I usually send them a polite email explaining that my work is copyright but I'll be happy for them to use it, subject to payment of my usual fee.
      
      The result is usually that they remove the article - but two of them did elect to pay my fee (I charged them $70).

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      1. 84

         Marcy Goodfleischposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Unfortunately, at least one content thief sold some of my work, so I didn't get the money for it.  I found a very popular hub (word-for-word) on a site that was related to the hub's content, so I contacted the site owner. Someone had contacted him offering to write content that would 'help' the site. He promptly took the page down, but the thief had moved on and changed his contact information.

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