Scraped/Copied Material

1. 78

   arizonataylorposted 12 years ago

   Two separate sites have copied a significant amount of one of my hubs.  Both credit me in their articles.  Both copies are word-for-word copies but do not include my entire hub.  Neither uses Google AdSense.  How damaging could this be to my site?  Do I have much of a case?  What should I do?

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2. 59

   onefinehamposted 12 years ago

   The fact that they provided attribution is unusual but nice. Did they also link back to your hubs? If so, it should not damage (and in fact should enhance) your site, provided the site isn't a total spam site.
   
   If there is no backlink it might be worthwhile to contact the site owner(s) and request one - even nofollow would be good enough for attribution purposes.
   
   If you think the sites are junk you could ask the site owner to remove the content, but given your hubs were cited as reference I would probably not go this route.

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   1. 78

      arizonataylorposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      One of the two sites linked back to me.  This site ranks higher than mine!  The other site is right below mine in ranking.

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3. 67

   relacheposted 12 years ago

   I'd file notices of infringement and have the copies taken down.

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   1. 76

      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed.  Anyone scraping large portions of a hub need to understand that that isn't acceptable.  Small sections with a link provided, yes, but not a major part of the hub.  One can drive traffic to the hub, one removes traffic.

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      1. 59

         onefinehamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Hadn't thought about it from that perspective.

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   2. 59

      onefinehamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It's tough to assert infringement on pages where source acknowledgement is made unless an all rights reserved notice is made on the source document.

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      1. 63

         psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It is infringement when it doesn't fall under fair use.  Attribution has no effect on that and is not substitutable for permission.

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         1. 59

            onefinehamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            How easy is it to get cooperation vis a vis fair use? Plagarism is rampant on the web and if you or others know of a magic wand to get rid of it I'd sure like to have it.

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            1. 63

               psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               If i judge it is not fair use I send a take down notice.  So far this has been effective in all but one or two cases.  If i can't get them to take it down I get Google to de-index it which has a similar effect. Writing (in various venues and forms) is my business and, to me, protecting my trademarks and copyrights in an efficient way is just part of that. If you know and follow the law, it isn't difficult or time consuming.

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               1. 59

                  onefinehamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Appreciate the feedback. I have had an awful time with that.

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                  1. 63

                     psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     If you set up a basic DMCA form it is just a matter of putting in the new urls.  Most people would rather pull it than debate it.  I only get into a discussion about it when I think it is an honest mistake, I am willing to give permission, or the user seems to be a child.

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                     1. 59

                        onefinehamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Do you go after spun content as well or do you feel it is only worthwhile to go after word for word scraping? As I said, this has been a MAJOR problem for me.

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4. 78

   arizonataylorposted 12 years ago

   I think I also need to state that the two sites also have a significant amount of original content about the same content.  They obviously started to write an article and then realized my hub addressed the issue too, so they copied part of my hub and then gave me a credit.  I guess what I'm wondering is can they use a lot of my hub and call it a quote if they have original content too?

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   1. 59

      onefinehamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If a lot of the content is truly original and your page is quoted and cited (and preferably linked back to) I would think they have used your content fairly but I think more experienced / knowledgeable writers may also weigh in on topic.

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