Someone from another blog site has copied part of my hub. HubPages....

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   LasanthaWposted 14 years ago

   A member of another blog site has copied a part of my hub. Now HubPages has flagged my hub as Duplicate and says that my hub is a duplicate of the other blog site.
   
   I published my own hub "Jollibee Vs McDonalds - Filipino burger kings fight against global giant" after some research from text books authored by the Marketing Guru Philip Kottler. Images and up to date figures were taken by me from the official web sites of Jollibee and McDonald's. My hub is on the following url.
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Jollibee-and-Mc … urger-king
   
   Someone has copied a part of the text in my hub on the blog site scribd.com under the url :
   http://www.scribd.com/doc/26418861/What … -Comes-To.
   
   The topic of his blog is "What’s the first name that comes to" which are the very first few words of my hub. The most interesting thing is that it is published in a meaningless and irrelevant manner.
   
   My hub has been flagged as Duplicate by HubPages. When I enquired, the Team HubPages say that my hub is a duplicate of the blog at scribd.com. I explained my position to the Team HubPages but they insist that my hub is a duplicate of the other blog site.
   
   Now I wrote to scribd.com and explained my position and requested to delete their blog. I am a outsider to scrbd.com but I am waiting to see whether they will listen to me which HubPages cannot do even though I am a member of HubPages.
   
   Also, the topic and all the images in my same hub ie.  "Jollibee Vs McDonalds - Filipino burger kings fight against global giant" have been copied by another blog site which I have given below.
   
   http://www.andhramania.com/forum/desi-a … 36134.html
   It is interesting to note that it has been published under the category of "Desi Actress Pictures". The topic is exactly same as my hub topic but there is no text. All images have been published in the same order as mine. I found this through a Search engine search. The Team HubPages is not worried about this case.
   
   What can I do now?

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      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You are responsible for protecting your own copyrights. 
      
      If you don't know how to do that, I've got a Hub that has a section talking about what to do,
      
      http://hubpages.com/hub/Fine-Tuning-You … gs_4915593

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         Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         to underline what relache said, if you do not protect your copyrights, you can lose them in time. These people are stealing from you: they're stealing your thoughts, which is insidious, though intangible, and they're stealing income right out of your bank account, which is tangible.
         
         I don't know if you depend on HubPages articles for income or whether it's just a nice extra couple bucks every now and then, but these people are stealing from you, either way. They must be stopped.
         
         Follow relache's link to learn the best way to defend your rights and foil these thieves.
         
         [edit]I just thought of this, though: maybe this could work to your advantage. Tell the copyright infringers that if they'll cite you as a source, and link to your hub, you will give them permission to use your material. You get a back link, which works for you, and they get to use your words, which they obviously want to do, since they're doing it. Win-win.[/edit]

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   packerpackposted 14 years ago

   What happens is, if you copy someone's content (you publishing the article after someone has already published) then HP will warn at the time of publishing itself but if someone else copies you (you publishing it before anyone else) then you will be intimated on your "my account" page.
   
   Reading your description it gives me an idea that maybe you wrote the article genuinely but someone else had already published it or that the HP crawler indexed other's page before your hub which highly unlikely.
   
   And I just visited your Hub and those two other sites. So far coping is concerned it is a matter to be worried about but so far those two articles competing with you is concerned, just relax. One of them has just copied your images in wrong section while other has the contents in the a very disorganized form. You article (Hub) is lot better them. So just relax!

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      LasanthaWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your review and comments. You have read my forum post in entirety and visited the relevant sites and then made your comments.

      replyreport
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   TerryGlposted 14 years ago

   The first thing I would do is un hyperlink the url's in your thread. Your giving that site, the blog and scribd a free back link.

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      packerpackposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I agree ... just remove the link from above and make em into a simple text.

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         LasanthaWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for your advice on hyperlink. But is it possible to edit a forum post? I think it is not possible.

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            Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            You can edit a forum post. click on the "more" button under your post and an "edit" button will appear. Then click the "edit" button and your post will open up for you to edit.
            
            *Note: as a courtesy to others who may be following the discussion, I feel it's only courteous to call out any substantive edits you make with fake html edit codes, like so:
            [edit]This is the text I added or corrected.[/edit]
            
            This isn't officially required, but I think it's polite, and recommend it.

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               LasanthaWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Well. It is not possible to edit. When you click "more", you get "less ←" , "report" and "permalink". As you say edit is not included there.

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                  Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  Wait....are you trying to edit your own posts, or someone else's?

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                     Jeff Berndtposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     Oh! There's a time limit on editing, I forgot.

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                        LasanthaWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        Yeah. There may be a time limit.

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                  Website Examinerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  If your browser gives you the option to switch to Chronological view (right top corner), the edit button becomes readily visible underneath your own posts.

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                     LasanthaWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     No. That's not correct. There is no connection between editing and switching to Chronological view. I now found it. As soon as you publish a forum post, you can edit  or delete it. Both edit and delete buttons appear under "more" button. This facility may be there for a limited time. I am not sure about the time period.
                     
                     Somehow, I cannot edit my original forum post here as suggested by  TerryGl and Packerpack.

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                        Website Examinerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                        Well, what I said is the way it appears on my computer. If in Chronological view, there is no "more" button. The buttons visible to me are: reply, report, edit, permalink, delete.
                        
                        The time limit is approximately 4 hours.

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   Whitney05posted 14 years ago

   You can contact the website to see if they're remove the content. Otherwise, if you want it remove submit a Google DMCA report.

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   Daniel Carterposted 14 years ago

   Yes, you can edit your forum posts. Along the bottom of the post is a list of possibilities, one of them "edit."

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      LasanthaWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Please see the conversation under TerryGl above.

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6. 52

   Shalini Kagalposted 14 years ago

   More often than not, the people who manage the site will take the copied article down. What you need to also send them is the date your hub was published and the date the article was published so there's no doubt who copied whom. I've done it - and every time, the owner of the site has taken it down and written to me saying it had been done. So chin up

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   contentposted 14 years ago

   I agree w/ Shalini.
   If it is copied, contact the site manager, or the hosting company and have them take the content down.  Usually they are cooperative when it comes to that.

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   LasanthaWposted 14 years ago

   I have now sent a DMCA report to Scribd dot com asking them to delete the blog appearing in their web site which is exactly a copy of a part of my hub.

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   thisisoliposted 14 years ago

   I actually have stopped sending out DMCA notices.  I now send cease and desist notices instead.
   
   With a DMCA the person who stole the content has certain 'rights' which they can use to make matters difficult, with a cease and desist the host can go right in there and remove the content if they are given reasonable proof.
   
   Of course if the cease and desist fails, then I send off a DMCA.

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    Go Writerposted 14 years ago

    Talk to Scribd.com and tell them what happened. They're very strict on copyright issues. A lady who wrote for eHow had someone copy her recipes. Scribd jumped right on it and removed the copy cat's account.
    
    Show them the proof of your article, too.

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    TMMasonposted 14 years ago

    You guys have copyrights on file? And I mean on file... US Library Of Congress, a CopyRight.
    
    Yes?...
    
    No?...
    
    Just intersted in seeing how many authors here actually bundle and copyright thier work. You can print and bundle your work and copyright a bunch at a wak you know.They don't have to be seperate copyrights, it is alot cheaper that way.

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       thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       The DMCA laws provide automatic copyright protection to online content, you have no legal oblication to file copyright material. The DMCA is also internationally recognised, which makes it much more powerful than US Copyright.

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          TMMasonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          That wasn't the ?...
          
          And I will stick to a real copyright, thank you. You can believe all you want your protected, not in the US courts.

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             thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             I think you need to read up on copyright law, and the US courts are more than aware of DMCA.

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                Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                We went through this a few months back.

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12. 55

    LasanthaWposted 14 years ago

    My DMCA report sent to Sribd.com was accepted by them. Therefore, the blog appearing on scribd.com which was a copy of my hub <snipped> was removed from their web site. As a result, the Duplicate flag on my hub has now been removed by HubPages.
    
    Thanks everyone who contributed to this forum.

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    Ingeniraposted 13 years ago

    The repetitive work to write comment, letter, etc to the site that copied your hub in order to get the article removed is very time consuming. I truly hope there is another easier way to do it.

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    paradigmsearchposted 13 years ago

    "Someone from another blog site has copied part of my hub."
    
    Some religionist thief did the same to me as well. Their page is google indexed at position 911,222,409,317. Mine is much better placed. So, as other posters have said, who cares?

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    Sneha Sunnyposted 13 years ago

    i think we write hubs for sharing information and so what if someone has taken some points from our hubs. they are taking some points means that your hub is useful...... and before writing any hub we also refer many articles which are written by other people.....they can also raise the same question for you..... fact is fact, it never changes. yes, if some has copied the whole matter and published it by his name then you can say that is wrong.

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       Sun Pen 50posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Yes Sneha, that also is done by some idiots. You are true to say that we take info and ideas from others.. Yes... That is what we call education.. We  do that in the school, college and graduate school. We pay a lot to learn the art of doing that and call it researching.  But copying and just changing the name of the author is a lot different. It happened to me also. One of my hubs was copied and published in another site with authors name changed and some paragraphs deleted. I commented thanking the fellow  and inviting the readers to read the full article.

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          Sneha Sunnyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          researching is definitely important........thats why a lot of writers are writing many articles in different sites to share whatever they have researched.....
          
          how do you get to know that your matter is copied??? you get some msg or just find out by reading those copied articles accidently???

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             WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             There are several ways to check if your articles have been copied:
             
             -Google a sentence from a hub you think may have been copied.
             -Hubpages scans your hubs free, once per month. You'll get a red C symbol beside your hub if it's been copied. Visit the hub and click on the warning at the top to see the copy.
             -Copyscape and other online programs will track copies.
             -Use a program like Hubdefender, created by our very own Edweirdo.

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             Sun Pen 50posted 13 years agoin reply to this

             I just check how my hubs fare with google. Then this one was direct above mine. I was No: 2. for a particular long tail. This copycat had nudged me to third place one day. later I came to my former No:2 place.

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