My Hub has been copied - is it worth taking action?

1. 61

   2patriciasposted 14 years ago

   Last year 2Patricias published a hub which we called 'Choosing a Handbag'. A few weeks ago we renamed kt 'Buying a Handbag'.
   When we signed in today, we had a 'flag' on our account showing that this hub has been copied. 
   The content of our Hub now appears on a Chinese site that sells handbags. 
   As the site is Chinese, is there any point in taking action?

   replyreport
   1. 62

      prettydarkhorseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      the other day my article was posted in china daily, I emailed them, if they will not respond until tomorrow, I will file DMCA

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   2. 52

      storiespatposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Dear two pat's
      
      I'm a political activist. I have been working since the early 1970s with people all over the world who share my views on green architecture, alternative community development, organic regional farming and anything and everything related to positive and proactive community growth.
      
      Having said this, I should note that my ideas and my words have been stolen constantly over the course of the last four decades. The reason they have been stolen is that I have good ideas.
      
      While there was a period of time when I used to get quite angry over deliberate infringement of my copywrited material, there are two things I've come to learn;
      
      First of all, someone who takes my work is a student of my teaching.
      
      Second, while that student might feel smug enough to steal a few thoughts here and there, I am ultimately the author of my own master thesis. For every person who takes my words for their own there are ten more that will write their own words because of what they read of mine that was original.
      
      Anyway, keep a smile.

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   3. 0

      cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      absolutely.

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   4. 60

      Google Galposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      communist china stole your hubb? Take it back they have enough of our stuff , and we are allready so in debt to them they dont need any more

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   5. 70

      pylos26posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I reckon i'd pay anyone...to copy one of my pethetic hubs. haha

      replyreport
2. 67

   VacationAustraliaposted 14 years ago

   I hate being copied! If the IP is in China it may be difficult, but the IP could be anywhere, so I would try anyway I think.

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3. 79

   Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

   If they have Adsense fill out a DCMA report at the Adsense site, you can do it electronically.

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4. 84

   Sa Toyaposted 14 years ago

   If it were me I'd deff try and get some justice. It's awful that people would copy the hard work and creatitivy of others especially without permission or passing it off as heir own.
   
   Whether it be in another language or not- it's just nor right!
   
   Good luck!

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5. 72

   Himitsu Shugishaposted 14 years ago

   Worth taking action? Absolutely. Keep us posted on what happens!!

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6. 61

   2patriciasposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for the advice.
   The website that has copied our Hub does not have Google ads.
   They do have a 'contact us' facility, which I have used to tell them that I do not want them to use the contents of the 2patricias hub, and request that they remove  it from their site immediately.
   
   I will let you know if I receive any response at all.  (Not hopeful).

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7. 60

   Bredaviesposted 14 years ago

   I think you should take action! Someone can't take credit for your work!

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8. 60

   visitmaniacposted 14 years ago

   You can for sure take action, However I would not count on much of anything happening to be honest. There is so much going on online and people copying others information its impossible for agents to take everyone down. The resources that would have to be spent are to great and I am sure there are much larger lawsuits.
   
   I would not lose much sleep over it and instead focus your time on creating more articles and such and do what you love doing. Report it yes, Action taken on it not so likely.

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9. 72

   thisisoliposted 14 years ago

   Send a DMCA threat to both the website owner and to the ISP, it is your content and copyrighted by yourself.
   
   If you do not get rid of the copied content your own hub will lower in value.

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10. 61

    2patriciasposted 14 years ago

    My email inbox has a conspicuous gap instead of a reply from that copying website - will look today to find their ISP.

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11. 68

    Pearldiverposted 14 years ago

    Put the site name on this thread and check it's whosit details.
    
    I'm sure if they have copied one so easily... they have copied many.
    
    Hate this rubbish!

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12. 61

    2patriciasposted 14 years ago

    The site name is b2bfashionbags.com

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13. 68

    Pearldiverposted 14 years ago

    Thanx Trica
    Have you checked out their published TOS statement?

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14. 70

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    On the plus side, that site has little to no chance of effecting your hubs rankings, especially with english speaking google searchers
    
    They are not monetized via adsense, a DMCA will not be much of a worry to them.
    
    I would guess the company although responsible for their posted content, probably has no idea about their site
    
    the bottom of the page "Internet Marketing By Netcec.com "
    
    I would guess that netcec made the site and/or  stole/scraped content.
    
    If it was me, after sending a letter to their ISP (offshore hosts arent very strict about IP law) I would either forget about it or change my own content so it was unique again.
    
    Theft sucks, but so does wasting your own time to combat it.

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15. 57

    ecogirl333posted 14 years ago

    Hi,
    
    I quite often have content copied from articles and blog posts.  So far (touch wood) every time I have contacted the website they have removed the material (or replaced hyperlinks when articles) pretty swiftly.
    
    Don't get too stressed too soon as usually things do get sorted!

    replyreport
16. 61

    apaceposted 14 years ago

    Hi, newbie here. First post for me.
    
    There are ways to protect your copyright online but each way has inherent limitations. Litigation is impractical, expensive and slow.
    
    I'd suggest a combination of legal and practical approaches or at least legal threats.
    
    1. Consider issuing DMCA take down notices and/or cease and desist letters requesting the site's removal to:
    a) the ISP
    b) online service intermediary/web hosting service
    c) business partners, suppliers and customers of the perpetrator
    d) contacting the domain name registrar
    e) Contacting the search engines
    
    Assuming the whois information is incorrect, it is illegal to sustain the internet address based on illegality including the provision of false or misleading contact information. Much would depend on the willingness of the ICANN registrar to co-operate, and of course with offshore service providers they are not legally mandated to take action.
    
    It is still worth sending a C&D letter IMO. You would probably know how to do reverse IP searches and other investigative tools. Even if action was taken they might just migrate to another webhost, but at least their actions would be reported.
    
    Your aim should be to get the URL cancelled and disable the website. In theory it is now possible to sue in a Chinese court but impractical.
    
    Maybe you could enlist the support of some local speaking bloggers to expose their infringing activity. That might make them vanish.
    
    You might try to contact Google's spam section which requires a lot of form filling. They have the ability to remove the infringing page from the search results and indicate to users that the site had been penalised for copyright infringement.
    
    
    Best of luck. As others have already commented, it is a cost benefit analysis. Maybe there are other things the site is doing that could implicate trademark rights, misappropriation, and false and deceptive advertising?? Hard to know without seeing the two sites. You need to ask yourself how far do you want to go to pursue them.
    
    My advice would be to weigh all of these things, and at least take some of the practical steps you can take yourself without spending extravagant amounts on legal fees.
    
    Best of luck.

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17. 82

    manlypoetrymanposted 14 years ago

    W0W...That's bad 2pats, PDH...and whoever else has been stung by copying...Go After them and file on their _ss! There is no excuse for copying!

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18. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 14 years ago

    I let it go if they link to my Hub.  I actually like it when they do this, but the key is they have to link to the original work.  For people that take content without a link, I'll ask them to take it down when I notice.

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    1. 0

       BookFlameposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       That's an interesting tactic.  Hadn't thought of that.

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19. 0

    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    If it's a good link, I don't complain. But then I do rewrite the Hub, so google doesn't get in a snit though.

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20. 0

    pgrundyposted 14 years ago

    I don't follow up on it anymore, since in about two out of three cases I either can't find who owns the site or can't get any results without snail-mailing a DMCA report.
    
    Even sites that used to care, like Squidoo, seem to want a blood sample to pursue it. I've got at least 15 hubs that have been stolen by one or more sites.
    
    If something gets traffic it gets stolen almost immediately it seems.

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    1. 61

       Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Then you must be a better person than I am if you're able not to pursue it; because I've really, really, close to doing something else with my free-time writing.  I've had it with vegetables who couldn't string a couple of sentences together if they tried, trying to make money by cheating.  I know sleeze balls have been around forever, but I'm sick of these morons who can't earn a living the normal way BECAUSE THEY'RE MORONS!!!       (Obviously, I'm about losing it at this point.  )

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       1. 0

          pgrundyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Oh I'm right there with you. It's just that it's at the point where pursuing it takes so much time and is so unproductive that it loses its appeal. I want to write, not chase down thieves and only win once in awhile.
          
          I'm not a better person than you at all. I'm getting very discouraged but I do need to earn SOME money, so I've been doing more freelance work. Yes I sell all rights with the payment but then chasing down thieves is THEIR problem. I'd write for print but print is dying fast.
          
          No matter how you try to squeeze a buck out of this medium you deal with huckters and jerks constantly. I blew off some steam about it here:
          
          http://hubpages.com/hub/Dear-Abe-An-Int … eb-Writing
          
          Maybe it'll give you a laugh. We have to laugh or we'll go nuts.

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          1. 61

             Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             That was funny. I really enjoyed it (and suggest anyone on this thread go read it if they haven't already).  (Hey - can I copy and steal that, I wonder?  After all, if I haven't been able to come up with something that clever, shouldn't I be able to earn money from your work?????    I mean, why should I have to think up something and be able to write when all I have to do is steal your work and post it under my own name?  (I particularly liked the "87years" thing.    )
             
             Back to the  point about jerks, thieves, and hucksters; in a way I've made a certain amount of peace with the realities of the Internet, but sometimes it really does get to a person.

             replyreport
21. 0

    BookFlameposted 14 years ago

    It's outrageous and a big issue re: online writing.  I researched and wrote a hub about this issue and it gets almost all of its traffice from Google searches.  Obviously everyone is hot about it.  Yes, do somehting!  Curious to know if you read Chinese?

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    1. 61

       2patriciasposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Ha ha - no, neither of us reads Chinese.  The website is for a company that makes and sells handbags.  Most of the text is in rather poor English. 
       They have stolen our hub about what to look for when deciding to buy a handbag! 
       They don't have any Google ads, so there is no route through Google to get them to remove our text from their site.
       Both of us are really busy with our non-web, real-cash-paying work right now, so I guess we're going to have to let this one go.

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22. 56

    wrenfrost56posted 14 years ago

    I have had my work copied before too, word for word no less. It's awful but it happens. Take action if you can, it's your work damn it!

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       prettydarkhorseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       yes file DMCA if afterwards they dont link it to your site..
       
       http://www.google.com/support/blogger/b … fringement

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23. 0

    Denno66posted 14 years ago

    There it is again!

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24. 47

    johnr54posted 14 years ago

    I've had people copy the entire hub, including links to my other money sites.  I was happy to have them do it.  Just stick some links in your hubs and don't lose sleep when your content gets "syndicated".  With the ranking power of Hubpages it will most likely outrank any site that's just copying content, and anyone who's blatantly copying content probably already knows they are outside the law, so sending a warning is not effective very often.
    
    Just a side note, duplicate content between sites doesn't seem to be a death knell with Google these days.  If having your content copied was a problem, Ezinearticles or any of the other article directories wouldn't get any traffic at all.  But as it is that's a big part of their business model.

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25. 61

    Lisa HWposted 14 years ago

    I just discovered one of mine stolen AGAIN! and I just reported it.  I don't know if it will do me any good, but the site that's apparently a Somalian site has Google ads on it next to MY article: (and they have it "all disguised" in with other stuff).  Then there's another foreign site.    I'm getting pretty sick of it.
    
    
    Then today someone e.mailed me to announce they'd like to buy one of my Hubs and them immediately asked "if there's a way to transfer it to him".    You just think you whip up some stuff in your leisure time writing, and then you figure out people are out eying it to see what they can get out of it.   After a few years of online writing you get pretty fed up and think, "Get your mind off my stuff!     )   "Why don't I just 'transfer' my Google Ad Sense deposit information to make it easy, as well!!!!   

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26. 92

    habeeposted 14 years ago

    This totally sux canal water!!

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27. 90

    RedElfposted 14 years ago

    Sage advice. Absolutely go after them! It is your work, and the moment we roll over and play dead, we give them all license to do what they please.
    
    I wouldn't make it your life's work, because you won't get justice sometimes - but sometimes you will.
    
    I like the notion of the link back, too.
    
    ...and have a cupcake, or a drink, or both!

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28. 60

    Mr. Nedposted 14 years ago

    I hate it when my work is ripped-off.  Unfortunately, plagiarism is very common on the web.  Recently, I found some of my work used by other websites without my permission.  I contacted them and told them that I would take action, but my threat fell on deaf ears.  These culprits know the time and money involved to pursue them outweighs the dirty deed.  Unless there is substantial monetary loss, the cost is not worth it.  You will win, but still lose.

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29. 79

    Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

    My Olympic torch hub is copied on a Chinese hub. I did complain to AdSense and it was removed, but now the site uses another advertiser and it's back. Still, it does okay and the original is still high up on Google.

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    1. 61

       Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I find it's that moment when you see your writing posted/stolen - there for the world to see; and you're just amazed that some moron has the nerve to be so blatant.

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30. 87

    Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

    I know some sites insist on a DMCA being sent by snail mail, but it's not universal.
    
    I never send an ordinary email to the webmaster.  I wade straight in with an official-sounding, DMCA notice email accompanied by appropriate official-sounding threats.  It often works.

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31. 72

    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    Send a DMCA to teh ISP and the website owner.  Copied content hurts you, and it is a crime.
    
    Sending a DMcA to chinese sites used to be worthless, however the Chinese have been cracking down on copyright infringement recently, everywhere from online content, to DVD's being sold on the street. You can report the stolin article to the Chinese Police, who will follow it up for you, expect some poorly worded e-mails though!

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32. 90

    Nell Roseposted 14 years ago

    I recently had one of mine stolen, even down to the pictures that I had added! so I was very childish, I just kept putting comments on their page, having a go at them, till in the end they got so fed up with me, they apologised and now it has my picture and links all over it. Then they had the nerve to ask me if they could be my friend on Facebook!! unbelievable, but at least it gave me an excuse to see them face to face, so to speak. obviously I did just ignore them then. Can't help being childish when I get mad.

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    1. 87

       Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       That's risky - they can take revenge, either by spam commenting your Hubs, or over-clicking on your ads so it looks like fraud - it happened to one Hubber, and she lost her Adsense account over it.

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          Nell Roseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Hi, yeah I know, it was stupid, but I did'nt realise at the time. It was the first time it had happened and I just got a bit mad. next time I will try and handle it better. Mental constipation, and verbal diahoria!!!(if that's how it is spelt)

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33. 61

    aceofhearts552000posted 14 years ago

    I would def report them for copying your hub. That's plagerism and illegal. Go after them! prayers are with you

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34. 61

    2patriciasposted 14 years ago

    The funny thing was, the 'stolen' Hub could do with improvement.  We originally wrote the text for our website, but then decided it was too long.  We didn't want to waste the text, so published it as 'choosing a handbag'.  Later we changed the title to 'buying a handbag'.  It never did that well as a hub, probably because out pathetic title didn't place very high on Google.  (Paul Edmondson could sell hub titles, in our opinion because he has such a knack).
    So in a way it is flattering that somebody with an interest in selling handbags took the trouble to find our hub and then copy it.
    At least they haven't got Google ads, so they are not sapping any of our earning potential.
    Reading all the replies here, especially from a Hub Genius like Pam Grundy, leads us to conclude that it's not worth pursuing the fraud bit.
    When our Christmas/ January rush (in our real life world) is finished, we might re-write and re-title our Hub.

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