Copied content: allow ignore of copied content to eliminate notice

1. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   I notice that on the "copied Hubs" page, there's a column for "removed".   I've never seen any Hub with an entry in that "removed" column and there seems to be no way to mark a copy as "removed".  Is there meant to be?
   
   It would be an awesome feature.  Although I really appreciate HubPages finding copied Hubs, it is becoming tedious to have to open and check multiple Hubs to find the few new copies.

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   1. 85

      DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed, Marisa!  I do appreciate that HP at least lets us know with the "©" alert, as I just do not have time to sit here scouring the web myself searching for possible theft....but I would also like for that symbol to go away once it is reported/shown to be removed.  I do have a couple of hubs where the offending page was removed, and that is reflected in the box about the warning..however, it would be preferable if the entire warning went away at that point.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That's interesting, because I have several where the offending page no longer exists, but there is no such note on the warning.

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         1. 85

            DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            it just has a date under where it says 'removed.' It's not a notice, really.

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   2. 70

      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      As @Glenn mentioned, we do periodically recheck these, but due to the high volume there can be a considerable amount of time between the checks for a Hub.  If you know that the content is no longer online, then you can simply disregards the notice.
      We can manually check these, but there is no benefit to doing so if you know the previously infringing content content is gone.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Matt, that doesn't answer my question.
         
         I can see that my Hubs have been checked recently as there are NEW notifications.  However the OLD notifications have not disappeared, even though the copy was removed ages ago (and yes, I did check). 
         
         It seems like making work for HubPages staff, to have to notify you every time I get a copy removed.    Wouldn't it save a lot of work for everyone if we had a way to mark a warning as "ignore" or "removed"?

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         1. 74

            Anna Marie Bowmanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Yes!!  What would be great, is a little box for the author to check off on, that lets us know that we already took care of that copyright issue. It would make it easier, especially if you have a large number of hubs, to keep track of what you have taken care of, and what you haven't.

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         2. 93

            Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I would like to see that copyright symbol removed once the plagiarized piece is removed. I just found two more pieces stolen, and am thinking of just closing my account here. Why should others benefit from our hard work, and HP does so little, even when a clone of it's own site shows up?

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            1. 70

               Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Only a copyright holder can issue DMCA notices for copied content.
               As such HubPages has no legal authority to issue any such claims.
               This is one of the reasons that we recently have worked to improve the system that finds copied content in order for you to be able to better track and protect your copyright work.

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   3. 70

      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The current system reviews copied content every 30-60 days.
      If the copied content is no longer published, then the notice should no longer show after that review period days.

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      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Matt, I've had cases where the © symbol remained well past 60 days, and was only recently removed when I sent an email to support.
         
         Since we're on this subject, I'd like to include my vote for considering the idea of having a button we can click to indicate that we filed a DMCA notice and that the copy was removed. 
         
         Then when we click that button, it will trigger your system to run a scan on the URL of the copy. And if your scan verifies that it was indeed removed, then the © symbol can be removed from the stats.
         
         In my opinion, that would use less resources than having to run random scans.

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2. 93

   melbelposted 9 years ago

   This would be a great feature. I've found some articles have been taken down shortly after filing a DMCA, but after a year or so, the C still appears on my account.
   
   I opened a hub the other day that has had a C for some time now and I had the offending article removed. When I opened the hub, I saw that there were other sites that had copied it. I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't opened it by accident -- because, by now, I'm kind of used to that article having a C on it.

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   1. 96

      Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      No need to open each hub. You can see an updated list of all stolen copies when you click "my account > copied hubs"

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      1. 89

         Victoria Lynnposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I found that, too, under my account. But why aren't the symbols removed after the problem is rectified?

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         1. 96

            Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I had to notify HP by email that the copies were removed. They checked and then removed the © symbol on some warnings. But they left the © on others and they told me that the copy was still there.
            
            So I went back to check I saw that  after the thief's host had removed the copies, he had reposted the article with changes. But much of the text was still from my hub. So now I need to send another DMCA to that host.
            
            The saga continues... They can take it down and put it right back. I imagine that's why HP can't just remove the warning so quick.

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            1. 89

               Victoria Lynnposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Okay, so we have to let someone at HP know? Good to know. I figured that there was a system to automatically check.

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               1. 96

                  Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  HP ran a scan again when I notified them that my DMCA was taken care of. But with close to 900,000 hubs, they can't run the scan automatically on all hubs. That would tie up the server.

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3. 89

   Victoria Lynnposted 9 years ago

   I agree! I don't understand why the symbol isn't deleted once the offending page has been removed. I get tired of checking. Surely, HubPages can fix this . . . ? :-)

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4. 38

   ChristinSposted 9 years ago

   I agree totally - I have a few where the offending sites have taken down my content or have been shut down all together (grin) and the hubs are still marked.  It would definitely be a great feature if we could change this ourselves.

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5. 92

   Sherry Hewinsposted 9 years ago

   I recently got my first © symbol on my account page, although it's far from the first time I've had a hub copied.
   
   HP gave me the link to the copy, but they said they did not have contact information, and asked that I pass that on to them if I found it.
   
   I was successful in getting the copied content removed, and since I was emailing HP anyway with the contact info, I also informed them that the copy had been removed.
   
   As you've said, symbol did not go away. I appreciate HP bringing the matter to my attention, but that feature would be much more useful if the symbol went away after the copy has been removed.

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6. 72

   relacheposted 9 years ago

   Users used to be able to click and remove the symbol ourselves, but for unfathomable reasons, they took that feature away.

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7. 74

   Anna Marie Bowmanposted 9 years ago

   I have several hubs with the little copyright symbol, after a year or more, despite the fact that the copies have been removed, sometimes after a great deal of work to track the right people down. I used to be able to email HP staff, and just give them a heads up that I resolved that issue, and the copied content was removed, and in short order, the little warning would disappear. Now, nothing. I don't know if they downsized their staff, or they are just really busy, or what. The algorithm put in to check for copied content must be able to recognize when there is no copied content.

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   1. 96

      Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Anna, See my post just prior to yours. That should answer your question.

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8. 74

   Barbara Kayposted 9 years ago

   They probably don't have time now, because there are such large number of hubs being copied. It would take hours of work to take the C off all of them.
   
   With so many C's, it is getting hard to keep track of which ones are new ones and which ones I've already taken care of.

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9. 86

   Cardisaposted 9 years ago

   I totally agree Marisa, because I have to keep checking to make sure that these hubs aren't showing fresh URLs or if the content is actually gone. One the offending pages are removed, when a new symbols shows up we can be assured that those are new offenses. With the system as is, I get confused as to which hubs I already filed for.

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10. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 9 years ago

    It's a pretty recent change to the system to remove the designation if we no longer detect dupes.  I suspect many hubs haven't been rechecked yet.
    
    It would be useful to have a few real world examples of pages that have had their copies removed to monitor.
    
    Feel free to email me your URL.

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    1. 96

       Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Paul, At this moment there are 22 URL's of copies displayed in my copied hubs report that you can use.  They were all removed yesterday in response to my DMCA and replaced with 301 redirects to a page that has the same topic, but not my text anymore. 
       
       Please grab those URL's soon because a few hours ago I replied to an email from support stating that these were removed. So it's possible that someone on your staff may clear that report soon.

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       1. 70

          Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          @Glenn I looked at your Hub "Personal Experience with a Torn Shoulder Rotator Cuff" and this new system is catching some stuff that isn't as easy to find, for sure!
          
          Check the Hub and you should see a link to a RSS feed URL as the copied site and if you open the link in the feed and then view the source of the page, you should be able to see the text copied from your Hub.
          If I hadn't looked at the page source, then I wouldn't have found it.
          
          Email team@ attn Matt M if you need any more help!

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          1. 96

             Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Wow Matt ! This is very disturbing news.  I did what you said and analyzed the source of the page that one of the feeds points to. I saw my own text!  You are right!
             
             I am surprised that HostGator does not stop this fellow. They just keep deleting his pages each time I send a DMCA notice, and they let him republish new pages with the plagiarized content all over again. As you can see, there were six occurrences of this already with 53 copies in all so far, and 16 remaining presently.
             
             This time he got smart and started hiding my text in the source.  If it wasn’t for you and HubPages’ great copy detection tools, I would never have known this. 
             
             I wonder how that helps him. People don’t see the text. But I realize that search engines pick it up since they read the web as plain text and basically ignore HTML. But does that actually help him get better results? I wonder.
             
             Question is, what to do about this now.  I will have to file an additional DMCA with HostGator again.  And this time I will explain how he keeps publishing new copies and now is hiding the text from browsers in his obvious efforts to “game the system”.
             
             Any other suggestions about how I report it? Or does that sound good to you?

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             1. 70

                Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                I think a normal DMCA claim is appropriate.
                Perhaps in the past hiding text in the non-rendered portion of a page may have helped in SERPs, but I would think that Google has probably caught on to this scheme by now.
                
                As far as HostGator goes, they are operating under safe harbor and as such probably won't respond to anything other than a DMCA claim.
                
                That being said, depending upon their policies, you may be able to convince them of a pattern of behavior and have them suspend the account. I am not familiar with their internal polices, so you may want to just ask them about their policies for people who repeatedly use the work of others without permission or ask for a copy of their terms of service.
                
                That way if it happens again you have the terms to use as well.

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                1. 96

                   Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes, I know what you mean. They basically just react to the DMCA automatically as per the safe harbor policy. Anything extra I might mention in the DMCA would be ignored.
                   
                   So I'll just file a standard DMCA for those new copies that were posted yesterday. And I'll mention the other stuff in their "feedback request" that they send each time they remove pages as per my DMCA notice.

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    2. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I'm pretty sure my Hubs have been scanned recently as a whole heap of new copies have shown up, but some of the older ones still seem to be there.
       
       As an example, this Hub
       http://marisawright.hubpages.com/hub/Vo … -flat-hair
       
       has a link to a copy on Popular Articles, which I'm sure I got rid of some time ago.

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       1. 70

          Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          @Marisa Please check the notice on that Hub again when you have a chance.
          I think a new copied location may be showing up. It is showing as having been copied to Blogspot pages.
          
          We recently made some improvements to the system we use to check for copied content online, so I think this may be why this new copied site is showing up now. If you have any further questions about your Hub please let us know via email at team at hubpages dot com and we can look into it further.

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          1. 86

             Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Yes you're right, but the one for Popular Articles hasn't gone away.  So I'm assuming that if those Blogspot articles hadn't appeared, I'd still have the copyright symbol showing.

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    3. 74

       Anna Marie Bowmanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I sent an email with one example of content that was removed, but symbol still appears next to the hub.  I hope it helps.

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    4. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Paul, the point is that we'd like to be able to remove (or ignore) the copyright warning ourselves - which Relache says used to be the case  (I can't recall).
       
       I just found another reason why it would be useful.  A ballet blog has copied my article on Margot Fonteyn - but they've credited me, and although it's a big chunk, I'm happy for them to use it.  However that means I'm going to have to regularly open and check that Hub to check if there are new thefts, because it will have the symbol on it permanently.

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11. 86

    Cardisaposted 9 years ago

    I am so frustrated and feel like just deleting all my hubs. I never thought I would cry over something like this but as I write this poSt tears are in my eyes.
    
    Upon checking I discovered that over 90% of my hubs have been stolen. Some of them have been stolen multiple times. I think the thieves have finally broken me. I have no more strength left to fight.

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    1. 70

       Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       @Cardisa
       Sorry that you content has been copied!
       
       I reviewed your account and there are some Hubs showing as having been copied, but it is about 6% at of your Hubs.
       
       I know it is frustrating to have to do work and file DMCA claims when your work has been copied, but that is likely the best course of action for these Hubs.
       
       Please email team at hubpages dot com attn Matt M if you would like further help with your copied Hubs.

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       1. 86

          Cardisaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Those are only the ones with the symbols, but majority of my hubs without the symbols are also copied. I have spent the last week having to file numerous DMCA complaints. This has debilitated me and I haven't worked in a week, thought I have passed my deadlines.
          
          Here is an example of what I am finding as well.
          
          The Poem About Human Right shows only one URL on HP as copied. But search shows five : Google search results for poem.

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          1. 96

             Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             All those copies are on the same domain (freeweibo dot com), so you can file a single DMCA Complaint listing all those copies. That's how I do it.
             
             I looked up the host for you. Amazon is hosting that domain.   
             
             Source: http://www.whoishostingthis.com
             
             Send your DMCA Complaint to Adrian Garver ( email: copyright@amazon.com )
             
             Source: http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/agents/a/amazon.pdf

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                Cardisaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Thank you again Glenn.

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    2. 96

       Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I'm right in there with you Cardisa. Let's follow this path together and not let these thieves win. Otherwise it's GAME OVER and we don't want that. 
       
       As you can see from the prior posts in this thread, I would say that Matt and Paul are obviously very concerned about this, since they are working so closely with these issues.

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       1. 86

          Cardisaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks Glenn, I had a breakdown today. I bawled...really I did. But if I delete my hubs now I lose them as there would be now way to prove they are mine.
          
          I sent in that email you suggested, I am hoping that the site will be taken down permanently.

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          1. 96

             Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             I feel the same way Cardisa. Disgusting feeling!
             
             Hang in there. Don't delete any hubs. You are right, if you do, then they win for sure since they'll have the only published version.
             
             In my case the thief has repeatedly reposted under different URLs. So I'm still going through this back and forth. Each time the host removes the pages, And each time they get reposted as a different article.  So keep in mind that there's a chance yours will get reposted too. This is what they do. I think they are trying to test us to see who gives up first. If we give up first, we may as well stop writing. I don't want to let that be an option.

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             1. 72

                Alastar Packerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                With Glenn on the hang in there, Cardisa. For what it's worth, maybe our catch-phrase should be ' lls ne passe/ on ne passe pas!' They shall not pass!

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                1. 86

                   Cardisaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                   Thanks for the support Alastar, it really means a lot.

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             2. 86

                Cardisaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                The Lady I emailed yesterday disabled the DNS for 1hairstyle dot net. That makes me happy. Now all I have to do is find the host for the other trouble website.
                
                You are right Glenn, I had a momentary lapse but we must fight on. I hope you get some results as well.

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12. 72

    relacheposted 9 years ago

    Glenn,  If you read the HostGator terms, there's usually wording about repeat offenses on the part of the site owner.  Look for that and it may be that you have to file an abuse complaint via their own system along with the NOI filing for the copied content.  I've only had to do that once in all my years online, it took way longer than I imagined, but having someone's ISP drop them was the only thing that finally ended the abuse.  They did not come back for more after...
    
    And just for everyone's education and edification, you submit a Notice of Infringement when someone steals your content or you submit a DMCA complaint, you don't file the Digital Millennium Copyright Act itself.

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    1. 96

       Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks relache for that info. I'll look into that to notify them of the continuous repeat offenses. I'll do that after filing the latest DMCA notice. 
       
       Also, as you can see, I always say "DMCA notice" or "DMCA complaint" and not just "DMCA".   But it's good that you mention that for others to be aware of the difference. I see many people use the term "DMCA" as a synonym for "Notice of Infringement" and that's just wrong terminology.

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       1. 86

          Cardisaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Relache is right. I always refer to the notice as DMCA when in fact it's the NOI.

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          1. 93

             Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Matt,
             I understand HP does a lot to help us to track down the people who stole our work. It's just the frustration talking. At first it was just my metaphysical stuff they were taking, but now it's anything. I can't even decide why they are bothering with certain pieces, I put effort into them, but they aren't really pieces that fit into a particular niche, it's stuff I was probably just thinking about the day I wrote it.

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13. 93

    Suzanne Dayposted 9 years ago

    Just thought I'd post my way of doing things here in case it makes it easier for any of you.
    
    My hubs were copied far and wide. What I have chosen to do is the following:
    
    1. Keep all hubs published, no matter what. If you unpublish them, they are no longer considered your originals because the date stamp on the web file changes and Google will not be able to tell you are the originator. For this reason, I also never change the URL and republish. I only change title text and that works just as well.
    
    2. I cleaned up all my hubs by going to each one individually and searching with "title" in Google and "snippet text from hub" in Google. All small sites/blogs with copied articles (with text of whole hub in them) got a Google DMCA (not a hosting provider DMCA) - https://support.google.com/legal/troubl … 4905?rd=2. Click "Web Search" then "other" then "violation of my copyright".
    
    This means they were removed from Google search results and cannot get organic traffic from the words. The site still stays up, but the owner is not inclined to build more sites because they don't know they have been removed from search, even though they get no search engine traffic from my writing. They just think it's pointless copying more stuff because it aint working.
    
    I also report all offenders with ads to Adsense etc. https://support.google.com/adsense/cont … eport?rd=1
    
    For larger sites like kakun, I filed DMCA with host, because they will get traffic from the 1000s of hubs they have on there and this flows on through, affecting everyone's traffic because they are grabbing lots of traffic from other people's hubs, people who might not yet know to file DMCA.
    
    For sites which had spun articles (nonsense articles with my words in them) or came up in search but no article text appeared in the page when I clicked, I reported them all to Google Spam (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools … form?hl=en) who have teams to sort it out, from deleting sites to making webmasters change their ways. All you have to do is get the Chrome extension for reporting Google Spam and click it to report. Google does the rest of the work.
    
    3. If you haven't done it yet, get Google Authorship on your hubs. It will help immensely with copyright issues in the future.
    
    4. After cleaning up all the misleading search results from your hub, enter your "title" and "snippets x 4" into Google Alerts, selecting "As it happens" and "all results". From now on, Google Alerts will email you when your hubs are copied and you'll never need to do all this work again. Google Alerts crawls the ENTIRE WEB to find the phrases entered and will catch all of the ones you enter into it. It is the best tool to catch all of the duplications. No one else even comes close. Don't forget to use the double quotation marks when doing this eg "xyz" so it finds the exact matches only.
    
    5. The minute you publish a new hub, add it to Google Alerts immediately.
    
    6. Relax! All the hard work is done and you can now deal with copiers as soon as they publish, without needing to go to Copyscape or file DMCAs with hosts ever again! (unless they are really big sites).
    
    The reason I decided to do it this way was because of the reasons you are all stating - that as soon as the copier's website/account/blog is removed, they pop up again elsewhere. Doing it this way means they stay where they are but can't be found in Google except by someone typing in the exact URL of the page (and it is almost impossible, based on the long and boring URLs I have seen).
    
    I only file with the host when it is a big site that will pull in tons of traffic.
    
    So, make up a spreadsheet of hubs done and as soon as you've completed sorting out all search results and adding to Google Alerts, be safe in the knowledge that it is secured and you'll be seeing copies immediately as they appear from now on!

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14. 86

    Cardisaposted 9 years ago

    Suzanne, what Marisa is talking about is the copied hub symbol on the accounts page. The symbol remains even after the copied content is removed.

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       Suzanne Dayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Oh, I saw that, I have one too that won't go.
       
       I don't rely on the copied hub symbol because it doesn't pick up even a fraction of copied content like Alerts does. Therefore I just ignore it.

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       1. 96

          Glenn Stokposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Suzanne,
          
          Yes and no. We really need to do both.
          
          I have found a few of my hubs that were copies and that were not reported by HP. But HP has also reported many that Google Alerts can't find. There is a new scam where the thief is hiding text in the non-rendered portion of a page.
          
          HP implemented a new method that catches these scams and it helped find 53 copies of my hubs so far in the past month. For more on that see the discussion with Matt above at http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/122129? … ost2589798

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