Copyright infringement - This is NOT a complaint; rather a compliment

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   LiamBeanposted 11 years ago

   About once a week I peruse my hubs to check on traffic, comments, and just generally see how things are going. One of my hubs, "What Are The Benefits of Eating Bananas," had the copyright symbol next to it. I know from past experience that this means hubpages has found my content somewhere else on the web.
   
   This hub gets quite a few reads, which surprises me, I don't think it's all that special. But, and this is a big but, when I clicked on the notification I found that the article had been copied five times.
   
   FIVE TIMES!
   
   In three cases the thief copied everything, the formatting, the pictures, and naturally all of the text. In the other two cases just the text was pilfered. In one of those two cases the absconder changed a few of the words around in an attempt to disguise the theft. I was gobsmacked!
   
   Here's the compliment. If HubPages didn't have this feature I might never have known about it. Everyone has gotten a notice to take the content down or else.
   
   Thank you HubPages!

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      Millionaire Tipsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree that it is a nice added feature.  Even though my hubs have been copied, none of my hubs show as copied.

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         LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Millionaire: I agree. It's a problem and the truth is, not even copyscape catches them all. I maintain that as writers we should warn these thieves away, or more, whenever the theft is found.

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      Matthew Meyerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks.
      We are glad you find this feature useful.

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   rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

   It is a nice feature.  I don't think it catches everything, but it's a great feature with the link provided, etc.  Now you can go bananas and take them down.

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      LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I used copyscape to look for more offenders. The only thing I found was one of the recipes I posted. The ingredients matched; that's not enough, really, to pursue. And frankly I always get recipes from elsewhere and modify them to suit my own tastes. I'm really big on getting rid of fat. If I can, I substitute vegetable oil or avocado. I always try the recipe at least twice before I publish it.

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   Pearldiverposted 11 years ago

   So....... you didn't find the copy I hid then?   
   
   Believe me mate, if they peeled you once, then they have peeled you on many more occasions AND right across ALL your fruit! 
   Don't rely on a notification...
   Sorry, but it always pays to check randomly and personally right across your hubs!

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   peachpurpleposted 11 years ago

   really? If the hub is being copied, there is a c symbol? Wow... didn't know there is such feature. Up till now, i haven't seen any on my hubs ... cross my fingers not to... Anyway, i love reading your hubs. Couldn't figure out why these thieves had to do such a shame work. I mean, this is all your hard work.!!!

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   jdw7979posted 11 years ago

   Nice feature, and knowing is half the battle in keeping your work just that, yours. I applaud HubPages for doing this..

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   WryLiltposted 11 years ago

   The copyright checker doesn't pick them all up. I have the C symbol on one hub but I know at least 10 are copied multiple times.

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   Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

   So sorry your hub was copied - and I am glad to know how the alert system works here. It would be great if it picked up everything (and then hunted down the thieves).  But it's very good to know it does catch some of the violations.  Thanks for posting the information, and I hope you get the sites taken down.

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      LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It was more than one. I quite literally spent an hour tracking down response links and writing CandD letters. I made not one dime doing that. But that's not the point is it?

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   LiamBeanposted 11 years ago

   Well folks, there's an upside to this. If they aren't taken down in a timely fashion I get to sue them.
   
   Here's my routine. Now that I know that the content, in whole, has been used without my consent I now know to check with copyscape.
   
   WryLilt: This is YOUR WORK. You are protected BY LAW. Pursue, pursue, pursue. If you don't you not only let yourself down, you let all other original content authors down as well. We all work hard to produce this work. It takes years to get recognition and even more years to turn pro. When someone steals YOUR HARD WORK they are making money on YOUR EFFORTS.
   
   You worked hard for this and it is theft. You conscience and the law agree on this point. It is theft.

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      WryLiltposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have my ways to induce labour hubs copied across forums all over the internet by appreciative mummies. I still outrank them, so removing them doesn't do much and isn't worth my time. My time is too valuable to chase down how-to guides.

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   SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

   I just to warn writers not to rely on this feature. My hubs have been copied many times and I have never had the copyright warning symbol show up on my list of hubs. I'm sure this is a great feature when it works, but if you are worried about thieves stealing your material, you need to be diligent about finding copied articles yourself.
   
   Try using Google Alerts to let you know when your work has been copied. Here is a hub by homestead bound that explains how:
   
   http://homesteadbound.hubpages.com/hub/ … gle-Alerts

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    Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

    I guess one could think of others copying your work as a compliment...at least it was good enough to steal ! Only kidding! I've been in the same boat and it's distasteful.

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       LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       It's more than distasteful. The sties that use your work without permission are usually monetized. They are making money on your content and not compensating you for it.

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    theraggededgeposted 11 years ago

    I had an odd experience this last few weeks. Not a hub but a Squidoo lens. Found it copied on a National Trust (UK charity that maintains and restores property: stately homes, that sort of thing) blog. I wrote to them by snail mail and enclosed an invoice for £250. A couple of days later received a phone call with an apology. After two weeks, they sent a cheque for the full amount.

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       Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Result!

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          wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Unbelievable!  Judi - do you think we should hire a Swedish lawyer to bill the current host?

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       LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       What a great idea. I think I'll ask for some dollar amount as well as insist on removal of the content from here on out. After all, the DMCA has provisions for recovering funds from sites that have made money featuring your content.

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    jansharesposted 11 years ago

    So is the copyright "c" now in place of the "duplicate content" email? I got one of those once and it turned out not to be what HP thought. Anyway, I like the phrase 'possibly copied' instead of the other terminolgy and phrasing that implied it was the author's fault before any investigation was done. It caused unnecessary stress.

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    Peggy Wposted 11 years ago

    I was only notified once with that copyright notification from HubPages and apparently my copied hub...photos and all had been up for a couple of years!  I have found many others...but on my own.  So while nice, don't count on it.  Wish there was some built in software that HP could use to notify us all of the time.  Would be an added perk to writing on this site. 

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       LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       You could try http://www.copyscape.com
       
       It doesn't catch everything either, but you'll get results HugPages may miss.

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    theraggededgeposted 11 years ago

    I've never had a notification from HP, even though a lot of my hubs were scraped. However, the way I've found the easiest to track copiers is to copy a section of text from the middle of the lens - a sentence or two - and paste it into a google search within quotation marks. That will bring up exact matches. Click on the 'show omitted results' button at the bottom of the search results.

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       LiamBeanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       That's a good idea too.

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    Jean Bakulaposted 11 years ago

    Hi LiamBean,
    I was shocked when HP told me that my most popular hub had been copied, and it was only one month after I wrote it in 2011! They took every piece, pictures, and even info about my personal blog, insinuating it was their blog. HP found two other hubs where the same thing happened. I was able to write to all 3 who stole my writing, and they did take it down without my filing a complaint, so I was lucky. It's nice of HP to do the work for us. I never would have checked, as they were older hubs, though ones that get a lot of views. It's amazing how some people are so nervy that they will copy someone else's stuff word for word, and then even use the same pictures, and pretend they have a blog on the same topic!

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