Stolen Content

1. 82

   sallybeaposted 10 years ago

   I have just discovered that someone who is a google member has stolen the content of my Bird Pod Tutorial.  I don't know how to contact him to ask him to remove it, could someone assist me please.  I don't want to add a link to his work.
   
   
   Thanks
   
   Sally

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   1. 89

      Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know how this is removed if it is on Google +, maybe someone else might. But if it is posted on Google +, the best thing you can do is to leave an obvious comment on the Plus Post so that everyone can read it, stating that it was stolen from you and the link to your original article (give yourself a free backlink). Track em all down and leave a comment on every one.

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      1. 82

         sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I have just found two more, one from kiwibox and one on travelblog - I really don't know how these things work and some of them are so difficult to contact, you have to register to lay a complaint and I certainly don't want to register with people like those sites.  Any suggestions would be welcome though.
         I will try to post a public statement on his google but that too means I have to add him to my google.

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   2. 87

      moonlakeposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      You should just file a DMCA with Google. No one else can help you but Google. You know it's yours so you have the right to do that, even if they're on Google +  you can still file.  HubPages can tell you how.
      http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/how- … -complaint

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   3. 85

      Faith Reaperposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Aw, dear Sally, I am so sorry.  This seems to be running rampant here on HP!  I do hope you get your DMCA complaints filed and they remove the content they have stolen.  Hugs

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      1. 82

         sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Hello Faith
         
         Yes and it is really so disappointing especially when you see they have a lot of views.   I think we should run a campaign to see if we can get HubPages to implement a system where nothing can be right clicked and copied.  I have this on my photographic website and it really does deter the thieves.
         
         Have a great day.
         
         Sally

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2. 66

   awareposted 10 years ago

   sighs....

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3. 79

   Author Cherylposted 10 years ago

   If you don't share the links no one can help you.  I would need to see your hub and compare it to theirs and then from there I could tell you what you can and what you can't do.

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4. 66

   awareposted 10 years ago

   what does hubpages do to protect the work of writers? in detail?

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   1. 82

      sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Author Cheryl
      
      I believe I am not meant to share links, in case I send the thief some more traffic to their site.  If it is permitted, I am more than happy to do so.  I do think it is time that HubPages made it impossible for people to just copy and paste our content onto  the thieves sites  It is time we put into place a system where the content can't easily be cut and pasted.

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      1. 88

         Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Generally, links to our own Hubs are not permitted, except under the Forum topic for asking for help in improving them.  Any links to a thief's page are unwise.
         
         Even with the cut-and-paste-prevention on a webpage, many such pages can be still be copied using the "Edit" options at the top of the browser, depending on what browser is in use, or through source code. Practiced thieves know this. 
         
         The DMCA complaint is likely your best option and it's worked many times for me.
         
         Best of luck.

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         1. 82

            sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Patty Inglish, MS
            Thank you.  I have now found a total of five stolen Hubs. This is so disappointing.   I have tried contacting the people direct - the DMCA looks really complicated but will have to tackle it sometime if it does not work. 
            
            Sallly

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            1. 93

               jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Has it in any way impacted your traffic? I'm so confused about how duplicates can be posted and yet not necessarily affect traffic. Also, you may never get that duplicate warning from HP. Did you find the dups by chance?

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               1. 82

                  sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  janshares
                  
                  Hello, I decided to cut and paste a few lines from each of  my Hubs as I noticed on Google analytics real time yesterday that I had a visitor who has been a member on this site, having joined five years ago with no Hubs and for some reason I got suspicious. I wondered why he was spending such a longtime on my pages - going through them systematically. I am not sure why I felt this was strange, but one does wonder, especially if they have no Hubs of their own.
                  I did not find he had copied my content but five separate other people had, all from different sites. Of course this is not to say that they may not appear anytime soon.
                  I did not receive any duplicate warnings from HP.
                  Perhaps members who have never written a Hub in five years should be deleted from the system.

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            2. 95

               wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Don't bother contacting them.  A DMCA is really quite simple as laid out in the learning center; it should take more that 5 minutes to fill one out and send it off. 
               
               So file a DMCA, but not with the thief; they will very seldom listen.  File instead with the host; there is a hub detailing how to find that host on my carousel.

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               1. 88

                  Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  +1

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               2. 82

                  sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  wilderness, thank you, I will check it out today when I have a bit more time.  I was feeling pretty upset about this when I saw it at midnight here last night.

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      2. 37

         ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Scraping softwares and savvy thieves with just find their way around it.  To answer the question about what does HP do to stop theft - nothing.  It's been my one major complaint about this site.  They have information on how to file DMCA complaints.  There are numerous hubs on the topic of fighting plagiarism as well and also numerous forum threads where people have dealt with the scraping of content. 
         
         I don't even bother asking the thieves to remove it anymore.  I go straight to the web host.  If it's on Google+ contact Google. 
         
         I think what we need is a large list of contact information or direct links to complaint forms for all the major hosting companies to be compiled - that could be immensely helpful.

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   2. 95

      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Nothing.  HP does not own your material, and does not own the copyright.  It is your duty, your responsibility and in your best interests to protect your copyright.  HP will not do it for you.

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      1. 82

         sallybeaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         wilderness, I do understand that but if they put a system in place which would not allow anyone to right click and copy the content it would make it a lot harder for the thieves.  I do have this facility on my own website and I do not think it would be difficult for them to implement.  Is it not in their interests as well as ours to keep traffic to our pages on this site?

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5. 78

   DanielMarcosiposted 10 years ago

   I've had content stolen from all of my articles by Google, Yahoo, and Bing members.
   Personally, I wouldn't spend any time fretting over it.
   HP checks to see that your content is not copied.
   WordPress doesn't check.
   Life's short. Write, live and let live.

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6. 90

   Tinskyposted 10 years ago

   File a DMCA complaint and takedown request with Google. Google also has a trouble shooter you can follow in their support area for this issue.
   
   Thanks to HP's duplication finder, I had a similar experience last week when it was discovered a post of mine that was 80% copied to a Writers' forum by a user at their site.  Thankfully after emailing the website and posting on their suggestions forum they removed the copied content and replaced it with a link to my article - all within 24 hrs (still showing up as copied in my Hubpages account).   I did the soft approach first.
   
   I know some people are recommending that you shouldn't do anything, I disagree with this advice.  Significantly duplicated content can affect your page rank and page score especially if your page is grouped and "crowded out" of search results by Google's search engine. This can result in less traffic to your page and related pages and reduce your revenue. File the complaint with Google. 
   
   Since the copied content was removed my pagerank for this article has increased significantly again. (I expect the link from the forum may also be contributing to this increase as well.)

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7. 78

   DanielMarcosiposted 10 years ago

   Tinsky is correct.
   I was speaking for HubPages non-revenue writers, like myself.
   If it affected my revenues, you can be sure that I would rattle some cages.

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8. 91

   cperuzziposted 10 years ago

   From a server capacity POV, it really makes sense.  Put up or shut up.  I like that stance.

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9. 85

   DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years ago

   My turn.
   
   I just found a hub that had been stolen, and it is hosted on a "GoDaddy" site.  The URL, main DNS server and registrar are all listed as a "GoDaddy" hosted site.
   
   The culprit who has the blog and content, however, is in China.
   
   I contacted GD to file a DMCA complaint, and first, I got an auto-reply asking for my "shopper number" and "pin code."
   
   I then wrote back to say, "WTH??  I have to be a GD customer to file such a complaint?"
   
   I then received the following reply:
   "Thank you for contacting Online Support. I understand that you would like to avail the rights under the digital millennium copyright act (DMCA). We do not have service as such.
   
   "As I value your feedback regarding my service, please take a moment to complete the short survey linked at the bottom of this email."
   
   Well, what???!!  I did not think that was even legal, to refuse to service a DMCA filing??!!
   
   If it is legal, it is most certainly unethical!!
   
   So, what now???  I'm SOL, as the saying goes???  I don't have the financial ability to hire a lawyer to go after these crooks, and it probably is not worth whatever pennies I earn from the article anyway, if I did have that kind of money...
   
   But, you'd better know I did fill out their damned survey, and gave them the lowest possible ranking:  "completely dissatisfied," and also added a scathing comment and told them I would spread the word far and wide.
   So--consider this the beginning of that spreading message:
   
   DO NOT USE "GODADDY" WEB HOSTING!  THEY ARE UNETHICAL!

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10. 64

    Lisa HWposted 10 years ago

    A kind of "reverse angle" on the matter of stolen stuff can be when people actually write/put together their own Hub on this site; but then quote (and give credit) to the person they believe is the author of something - when, in actuality, they've gotten the quote or information or poem  (or whatever) from a less-than-reputable site online.
    
    I just ran into something on which the Hub author appears to want to give credit, although I happened to be familiar with this particular material and am fairly certain the material was stolen before someone claimed it was written by someone other than author.
    
    The real point here is that whether it's this site or another one that  someone is posting something he didn't write and didn't think up himself, people really need to be careful to double-check their sources and don't just grab something from somewhere and believe the author is who one site claims it is.   
    
    All else aside, it makes legitimate Hubbers (or other posters) and the site they post on look really, really, bad (even if they're not).   (There's something to be said for sticking with the stuff one comes up with from his own head, or at least posting links to an original source rather than posting the actual material and "giving credit" to a fake author.
    
    In other words, if someone isn't familiar enough with some piece of material he shouldn't just double-check, he should triple check and make sure something isn't just someone's blog (or something that isn't "good and official").

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11. 79

    Trish_Mposted 10 years ago

    I have also had my work stolen and, in some cases, I have found it helpful to contact the apparent 'thief'.
    
    Twice, I discovered that they had no idea that the work was stolen. It had been given to them by someone who had copied it and they had then published it in good faith.
    
    They took my things off their sites immediately.
    
    I am not having such good luck with my current copyright problems, unfortunately.

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    1. 93

       jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I had the same experience yesterday, Trish_M. It isn't always a "thief" posting information trying to make money off of our articles. In my situation, it was an innocent mistake/glitch of an old 2012 posting. The copy was taken down after I contacted the editor. It was a community e-letter that posts happenings in the community. I don't think the average reader has any idea of the copyright laws pertaining to online information. I hope your current copyright problems work out soon. Maybe those are the professional thieves who steal content for a living.

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12. 97

    PegCole17posted 10 years ago

    Sallybea, I just want to offer some hope that when and if you do file the DMCA form that you will get results. I've heard from two hosts today on reports I filed and they are currently investigating the sites in question.
    
    The DMCA report may seem intimidating but it is really quite simple, one page only.
    1. Copy and paste the URL of your material to identify your work and
    2. You do have to visit the offending site to copy and paste the actual URL where your stolen work is posted without your permission
    The rest of the form is just to confirm your address and that you are the author.
    
    Then email the form to the host where the site is being hosted. (This is more difficult to determine.) But when it is Blogger it's easy. Report them using the Google Blogger online form. They respond immediately.
    https://support.google.com/legal/troubl … r&rd=2
    Hope this helps,
    Peg

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13. 85

    DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years ago

    A related question:
    
    Can we still file a DMCA when the copied content is not "quite" exact, but appear to have been 'spun' ???
    
    In the case of one article I found via the HP "©" alert, it appeared to have possibly been spun by means of translation into another language, and then re-translated back into English, and poorly done.
    
    The basic article is still intact, but the grammar and a few of the word choices have been altered.

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    1. 67

       Paul Wardposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, spinning (or even just making minor changes) does not evade copyright laws. Similarly, resizing or editing an image does not enable the thief to use it without permission,

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    2. 36

       Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Copyright law covers you when your article has been translated into another language.  I've had a multitude of plagiarized/translated/spun articles removed by filing a normal DMCA notice.

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    3. 80

       colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I just had to file a DMCA for a hub that was spun last week, and it was taken down within 2 days.

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14. 61

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    How does anyone find out if their content has been stolen or not????   Frankly, I can't see spending the time to look for every hub, every article on my sights, just to see of the content is being used.

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    1. 79

       psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       There is an alert that appears on your account when Hubpages detects a duplicate.

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    2. 97

       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       You can do a random check on your best hubs. Copy a short phrase from your hub's text and paste it into the Google search bar. The results usually will show you who is "borrowing" your work. Then paste the name of the site into WhoIsHostingThis? and write an email to the website host with the standard DMCA wording.
       http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/how- … -complaint
       
       I found one copied again today by some city in a foreign country.

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15. 61

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    psycheskinner: Okay that I know.  But what about your own blogs, ect, including writing sites like Wizzley, etc unless they have a system that picks it up.  I guess you just have to look to see if it is copied or not.

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    1. 37

       ChristinSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       copyscape has a premium service that can be purchased that can batch check your entire website/blog.  Otherwise, individual checks can be performed with tools online, or you can simply take selections from your content and search for them within quotation marks.

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16. 61

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    Thanks Christin: I have used Copyscape  and didn't know that.  I will check into it.

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