Article stolen

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   Rupert Taylorposted 7 years ago

   HP tells me my article Guns for Children has been stolen by a website called Brutalist Press. The offending website says it is "copied" by someone called Helga Dagmar. HP offers advice on what to do but most of it is quite beyond my technology skills, and some of the links admin offers go to the dreaded 404 error thingy. There appears to be no advertising on the piece so I can't appeal to AdSense. The site appears to be hosted in Russia so perhaps Mr. Trump can help.

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   1. STAFF

      Matt Wellsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If someone has copied your content without your permission you can file a DMCA complaint. If the website owner does not respond you can file a DMCA complaint with Google and Bing to get the copied content removed from search results. Click on the copied content warning in your article and then click 'File DMCA Complaint' to get started. For more information please visit the FAQ.

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         Rupert Taylorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Matt. I'll give it a try.

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      peachpurpleposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If you can get DMCA to look into your complaint, you are lucky. I can't because I cannot reveal my personal details. So, 12 of my hubpages hubs were copied by expertscolum members

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         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         DMCA doesn't look into anything.   That acronym is simply the name of the process.  It's the hosting company or the website that has to look into it. 
         
         Why can't you reveal your personal details?   On most DMCA forms you need to submit just your name and your email address.   I can find out the name associated with peachpurple by clicking on your Facebook account, so it's not as if it's not public already.

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2. 54

   LasanthaWposted 7 years ago

   One of my articles was copied 6 years ago by two persons and published on two websites one of which was Scribd.com. If you can read the following forum you will understand the problem, how fellow hubbers helped me and how I got it corrected. Both sites removed the copied contents finally.
   
   http://hubpages.com/community/forum/460 … b-hubpages

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      Rupert Taylorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your help

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      TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      LasanthaW?   Because you have experience in dealing with these situations, I have a question for you.  If someone publishes one of my hubs without my permission with my pen name (Jason B Truth) as the author, and one can only bring it up on their computer screen in cached format, do I still have the right to submit a DCMA complaint?  One of my hubs was illegally published on an Indian website, but I can only get it to come up on my computer screen in cached format.  They acknowledged that I wrote it by putting my pen name at the end of it, but I never gave them permission to do so.  I haven't had any other incidents of this nature, however, I did find out that another website named "News Of The World" may have illegally published three of my hubs.  That website is mainly in the Arabic language.  The problem that I am having is that all three of them are password-protected, so I cannot get to them on my computer to prove that they were illegally copied from my three hubs.  Therefore, I don't have any other proof that they have done so, except that the titles of all three hubs come up either in cached format or regular format along with their descriptions whenever I go into this website.  One of them does display a cartoon picture that I have in one particular hub.  The reason that I am asking you this question is because when I read the instructions on how to file a DCMA complaint, it read that "you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights."  When I do Google searches with excerpts from all ten of my hubs, only the actual hubs that I published come up in the search results.  I want these people to remove my hubs from their websites, but I want to be careful about doing everything by the book if I have to file DCMA complaints.  What would you do if you were in my shoes?

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         LasanthaWposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         No one can copy your articles and publish them unless you have given permission to do so in the article itself. In certain work done for certain purposes, permission is given to copy and publish them provided that the name of the author and/or the original source is published along with the article. However, these things vary from country to country depending on Intellectual Property laws of each country. According to my knowledge, these laws are not followed seriously in India. They even copy and manufacture expensive patented pharmaceuticals/drugs invented by other countries after investing millions of dollars for research and development. Anyway, suggest you write to those websites first and see what they will do.

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            TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, LasanthaW.   I'll follow your advice.  However, I did have one more question.  I noticed that one of my Hubs was published on this one website named "Diet & Weight Loss Articles|HubPages Health."  Except that when I go into that website, it doesn't seem to be an actual vertical site to HubPages.  It's at the following web address:  http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s … &gl=us
            
            I'm thinking about submitting a DCMA complaint to them, but I don't wish to do so if they are actually a vertical site to HubPages.  Have you ever heard of that website?  Should I just go ahead and submit a DCMA complaint as I am in doubt about that website?

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               LasanthaWposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               It looks like a RSS Feed site. Anyway I am not sure about it. Better to enquire from the Team HubPages?

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               1. STAFF

                  Matt Wellsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, it does seem to be an RSS feed site. They probably just linked to your article so there is no need to file a DMCA complaint.

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                  LasanthaWposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  TheShadowSpecter, Matt Wells is from HP staff. You can rely on his words.

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            TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            LasanthaW?  I communicated via e-mail with the website in India that illegally published my article, and I submitted a DMCA complaint to them two different times to get them to remove my article from their website.  Here is what they finally e-mailed back to me:
            
            [    Will you please give me permission. i add  source link of your website that particular page as bigger view to the top of page, so user know the real source is your website. It will link to your page.
            i show you the changes.
            
            or please give me any other suggestion also i do.
            
            Im a designer and devloper if you need any help for your website also. I can assist you.
            
            Or if you dont like i remove that page.  ]
            
            The offer they made to me does sound tempting, because it would send traffic my way if they replaced my article with just a link.  However, I don't want to be opening a legal can of worms either.  My inner feeling urges me just to tell them to remove my article from their website altogether.  No link.  No nothing.  Just  for them to remove it.  I just feel uneasy about agreeing to anything with someone who did something behind my back, and they did publish my article on their website without my permission.  What would you do if you were in my shoes?

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            1. 95

               Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               You don't know the quality of that site. His poor English already indicates low quality. If it were me, I'd refuse to accept his offer to link to my hub.
               
               From an SEO standpoint, having a low ranking site link to you can actually hurt your own ranking. I wouldn't take that chance. Anyway, beside all that, he seems to be up to something. You have to remember that all this started with him being a thief. Do you really want to work out a deal with someone who already screwed you once?
               
               Just tell him to remove the plagiarized copy and if he doesn't then file a DMCA takedown request.

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                  TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yeah, your advice mirrors my inner thoughts about this whole situation for the most part.  I'm going to tell that Indian website to remove my article.  If I were to take them up on their offer, it would probably be like making a deal with the devil.  Thanks for the response, Glenn.

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               LasanthaWposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I too agree with Glenn Stok.
               Tell him to remove the copy. Write to him in simple English.

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                  TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you, LasanthaW.

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   nomadspiritposted 7 years ago

   I wonder if allowing them to keep a part of your article, but demanding a link back to your original work for the rest would be more beneficial to you? I know that a website with a good reputation and readership could send your more traffic and maybe even give you better serp rankings.

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      TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      At first, I was thinking along those lines.  However, after considering all the facts, I went ahead and decided to send them an e-mail to ask them to remove my article from their website.  When people do stuff behind your back like stealing your intellectual property, they seldom ever have good intentions.  At least that has been my experience.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, IF it's a quality website.  Any site that knowingly steals your work isn't a quality website.
      
      Very occasionally, I come across a site which has innocently stolen my Hubs.  For instance, a hairdresser who doesn't understand about copyright and just thinks my article on volumizing is good, so he posts it on his site.  In that kind of case, I'll offer them the choice of buying my article for $100, or posting a paragraph and linking back to my Hub, or removing it.

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4. 58

   Marisa K Roseposted 7 years ago

   Marisa, I am new to this site. Is it easy for one to steal our work? If so are there measures that may be taken? Also, how would you know if someone has stolen your content?

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