Success with DMCA Complaint - I'm Thrilled

1. 94

   PegCole17posted 9 years ago

   Hooray! For months now I've been trying to figure out who to report the "alleged" infringement on one of my hubs where 9 links to ads have been placed. Whenever I would click the link it would take me to an advertisement that required 3 attempts to leave the page without buying the product.
   
   I'm happy to report that I filed a DMCA Complaint Takedown Notice to Clickbank (July 2) where the ads originated and received immediate response - well, at least within 24 hours  (July 3). A real person named Tom responded to my email and told me the name of the affiliate who was responsible for these pages and that the links to the product have been removed.
   
   I sent the email to abuse@clickbank.com with the standard DMCA form listing my hub and the URL for all nine links identified by HubPages. Thank you to the administrative staff here for letting me know my work "may have been stolen".
   
   Thank you so much!
   Peg

   replyreport
   1. 61

      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Congratulations Peg!

      replyreport
      1. 94

         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Kevin. Hope you have a safe and happy 4th of July.
         Peg

         replyreport
         1. 61

            The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You too Peg!

            replyreport
   2. 86

      bravewarriorposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Good for you, Peg! I dealt with this issue myself this week. HP marked one of my hubs as being copied, so I sent an email and a DMCA take-down notice via the Contact Me page on the offending site. I did get a response, but not to my satisfaction. This past Monday I did a WHOIS on the site and found the email address for the registrant. I sent him a DMCA also. The next day I was ready to file a complaint with GoDaddy, but thought I'd check the link first. My article had been taken down! What's really odd, is it was an Australian septic company who hired someone (who obviously doesn't speak English as his first language) to provide their copy. The copy that was adjusted was such bad English I'm surprised the company accepted it. What was even more flabbergasting is the content copier kept all my references to Florida in the copy! Are you kidding me? I have since gone into my Google Webmasters tool and requested the link be taken out of the search engines.
      
      I love this new feature that HP provides. I don't have the time to check whether or not my hubs have been stolen. It's nice that HP has our backs!

      replyreport
      1. 94

         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Bravewarrior, Shauna, it is a good feeling when we make headway with these offenders. I have never had much luck with contacting the copy-cat, but when you go to the host or the sponsoring site, it is gratifying to get results. I have actually found copy before the HP notice shows up on my account page here by taking a short paragraph and pasting it into the Google Search bar. That sometimes is effective, but time consuming.
         Oh, I found a site that sells documents which had one of mine spun so badly it was laughable - their translation for URL Capsule was URL Pill. LOL
         Have a happy 4th of July. Be safe.
         Peg

         replyreport
      2. 94

         Blond Logicposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         It is worth checking your hubs for yourself because it took HP 7 months to pick up the copied content on one of my hubs.
         
         There are sites like copyscape which you can use. They allow you to check a few different  (I think it is 10) per day for free.

         replyreport
         1. 94

            PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Blond Logic, Yep, it did take a long time for the copyright symbol to appear and I've found some instances of plagiarism where there was no notification on HubPages. I spot check my hubs on a regular basis.
            Hope your day is fun and safe.
            Peg

            replyreport
   3. 93

      vocalcoachposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I am very pleased to hear this Peg.  Having your work stolen is frustrating.  Good for you and for HP.  Congratulations! 

      replyreport
      1. 94

         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Audrey, For once, I had good news to report on these copy cat sites. Whoo hoo!
         Peg

         replyreport
   4. 83

      Faith Reaperposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Awesome, dear Peg!  Great news for sure!  Happy Fourth.

      replyreport
      1. 94

         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Faith,
         Glad to share a glimmer of hope about this ongoing concern. Nice to see you and hope you had a nice holiday.
         Peg

         replyreport
   5. 95

      FlourishAnywayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I am glad you had success with it.  Great job for pursuing it and protecting what is yours.

      replyreport
      1. 94

         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Flourish, Thank you. The copy cat business does get a bit frustrating so I'm glad to spread some cheer.
         Peg

         replyreport
2. 71

   lynsposted 9 years ago

   Wow, did hubpages notify you that someone had your work, this is awful glad you were able to resolve this and keep your  work from being stolen, it's funny you mention this because I often wonder if my poems, writings was copied how would I know and felt a little uncomfortable displaying my work, but if hubpages lets us know that's great, thanks for sharing your story.

   replyreport
   1. 94

      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Lyns, It does take a bit of time to get the little red copyright notice that you'll see on your HP account statistics page if it ever happens that someone has copied your work. Hopefully, you won't have to be bothered with this at all.
      I've had several hubs copied and used in various places, like one of my travel hubs that was copied in its entirety onto a travel page advertisement. Luckily, I was notified by one of the other hubbers here and was able to get it removed.
      Nice to see you today. Thanks for dropping by.
      Peg

      replyreport
      1. 71

         lynsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Peg, that's great to know, and I am glad that your work is secure it's a painful feeling to have your work stolen, our work is personal and very dear to us and if stolen there's a violation felt.  Once again I hope you have a great day and thanks for sharing your story.  lyns

         replyreport
      2. 74

         Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hubpages doesn't find every copied hub. You should try using Copyscape too. You can do it for free.

         replyreport
         1. 71

            lynsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you Barb for the information

            replyreport
         2. 94

            PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            This is true, Barbara Kay. I've used Copyscape, too, and found some of the plagiarists. At first, I was afraid to do the translation on the hubs which came up, because they were in Chinese, Russian, Turkish and Japanese, etc.. It gets very time consuming but I think it accounts for our traffic slowing down when hubs are copied to other sites.
            Thanks for adding that.
            Peg

            replyreport
         3. 78

            teaches12345posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I am so glad for the catch and remedy on the copycat hub posts.  I have a few out there that have been stolen and was wondering what the cost was to have protection.  Thanks for the suggestion on Copy Scape.

            replyreport
            1. 94

               PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Hi Teaches 12345,
               The ones that are outright stolen are frustrating enough, but when they link to ads it's hard to determine the actual source. I've just found out that the advertisement links are removed but the copycat site still has links to my material. I have more work to do - it isn't resolved yet.
               Onward, and the best of luck to you.
               Peg

               replyreport
3. 94

   PegCole17posted 9 years ago

   Thank you, again, Lyns. Unfortunately, our work is not secure. We must maintain constant vigilance and keep our eyes open. Peg

   replyreport
   1. 71

      lynsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Okay thank you for the advice, good to know that we can stop it and that hub pages are keeping some what an eye.  Thanks again. lyns

      replyreport
4. 75

   CelebrateUSAposted 9 years ago

   Congratulations! This is good news for all writers. Thank you for filing the complaint and keeping us posted.

   replyreport
   1. 71

      lynsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes it is, great for us all

      replyreport
   2. 94

      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi CelebrateUSA - Happy 4th of July
      It's nice when we get good news and results but it's not always the case.
      Peg

      replyreport
5. 88

   Pico Trianoposted 9 years ago

   Glad to hear it. Sometimes I feel like we're fighting the tide when it comes to content thieves.

   replyreport
   1. 94

      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, Pico Triano, good description, fighting the tide.

      replyreport