Thieves are stealing our articles.What can we do?
Internet thieves are laughing their heads off,all the way to the bank in many cases. All they need do is copy content, sit back and enjoy the rewards. What can authors/writers do to help stop this blatant criminal activity? DMCA filing doesn't work. Complaints don't work. Copyrighting doesn't work. What can we do?
I just read this interesting hub ... http://hideki-ryuga.hubpages.com/hub/Ho … -for-Free#
It doesn't have the answer to your question, but it gives hubbers tips about how to know when our articles have been stolen.
Great info; will have a look. At the same time will have a look at your profile! Thanks
The bottom line is - thieves can still copy and re-publish without anyone able to touch them.This is wrong. We need the techno wizards to invent a copyright button that sends a signal - any copies thereafter are suspended/deleted automatically. Angry
Thanks, LongTimeMother. I appreciate you posting this hub. It has been helpful.
I have not heard of this problem. Have you any specific information about it? How would I know if someone has stolen my content?
There are forums ongoing about this awful situation.JudiBee a hubber has lots of info. I've seen 7 of my hubs on a tacky thief site this morning.I'm livid.How many more are out there? We need action fast.
I too worry about this issue. I had my site hacked into but could do nothing about it so I'll read that article from LongTimeMother with interest and will keep an eye on this question. Good one!
That's good. Now my hubs are stolen I'm fuming and fed up. We need action from the techno wizards to clean up this criminal activity. Why bother writing when it can be taken, easily, and there's nothing we can do!!!!!! We need an answer.
I have full sympathies with you and its a matter of great concern.
Sometime back, I had reported this issue about two of my hubs. Now the copied number of my hubs has increased to two more. I located it while searching with my title. There may be more on sites other than Google, about which, I am not aware of.
I followed the procedure of reporting, filing complaint as advised, but nothing came about. I have lost all views from those hubs and like you asked--'What can we do?'
I am so angry. I've been with HP for a year and this issue has been raging all that time, from years previous I bet. When is anyone going to do something about it? A techno wizard must be able to sort this mess. We're feeding thieves!!! Criminals.
I say we declare mutiny! And then file a complaint with DMCA
Thanks for the reply but read through the appropriate forums. Many have filed DMCAs but they're not effective in the long run. Thieves just change the domain or whatever and you're back to square one. Easy for the criminal. What can we do?
Maybe one day they'll finally wake-up and think about how wrong it was to steal creative content from others, over a few measly bucks. Don't worry...every thief eventually gets caught and crime doesn't pay!! And their conscious will torment them.
What can we do you ask? I am aware of this problem since I joined Hubpages. Many Hubbers worry about this issue.
My answer would be: Nothing much.
If the website Piratebay is giving people all around the world the oppurtunity to download movies, music, games and other files the illegal way, our Hubs belong to the same world wide web of files.
Thieves will get away with it, simply because there's not enough to gain for the police to go after them. There have been lawsuits for years to stop Piratebay and even though in some countries, their website is offline due to changes in the law, they still exist.
Whether the boss of Piratebay goes to jail for a while or whether thieves who steel Hubs get caught, there are simply too many of them who'll go on with the illegal activity.
It's like putting all your private pictures and stories on Facebook, thinking it's in good hands. Once you publish online, it falls in good hands and in bad hands. I simply accept it as part of this world and refuse to get all worked up about it.
That's a loss of energy to me.
I understand. But surely the techno brains can get to work on a copyright infringement button/icon...why can't they do this? If I publish on the 14th June 2013 on Alien Carrot Juice and someone tries to steal this article on the 15th June?
It has nothing to do with techno brains. Even if there are buttons and even if someone gets caught and punished, it won't stop the majority of thieves.
Terrorism attacks have more priority. Try to relax because it's better for your health:-)
Even original content writers are seldom able to make any worthy money by writing at web content sites. "Laughing all the way to the bank" is a distant dream to a huge majority of them! "Crying all the way to the money-lender" is a better reality! So, where is the scope for "internet thieves" to laugh all the way to bank?!
Imitation is the best form of flattery. If somebody copies your content, be proud that you are such a great writer! Over and above nothing could be done!
Yes, there's a point but the principle remains. I also think more and more thieves will latch onto this easy game - if it's of no use to the thieves then why do they do it? Thieves prosper when nothing is done. Come on techno wizards, find a solution
"...if it's of no use to the thieves then why do they do it?"
Right. It *is* of use to thieves for the simple reason that it is much, much faster to steal than to create. That said, do sleaze sites draw views?
I just read all of these answers. It seems like there isn't much anyone can do to preserve their own right to ownership to these hubs. It is sad our world has come to this.
Yes, you're right but I feel there are techno wizards out there who can find the solution. They can invent a true authorship icon which we as authors activate with a unique password...I hope someone can do this.
I've had several of my "best" Hubs simply copied and pasted right down to all my personal photographs I had included on the Hub. I was successful in having that one particular article removed by filing a DMCA.
These thieves don't care if your work is copyrighted or not. I use Copyscape, but they are not afraid of that.
I wish I knew the answer to this problem, too.
There must surely be a technobrain out there who can come up with a copyright infringement button/icon. I publish original on 14th June, 17.49, under my name. Thief copies and posts 17.51. Surely they can stop this happening?
You literally have to take legal action against them. If your work is copyrighted this should be easy to do. I have gone through an attorney to get a copyright, so if any one steals my work, they are committing a criminal act and will be held responsible. In the past, members of HP have banned together and gotten some of these sights closed down. Good luck to you in your quest for honesty.
Well done for the work but the thieves return like a recurring bad dream. Come on technowizards, get this issue sorted. Is it too great a problem to overcome - invent a copyright infringement icon, author clicks on it with unique password.Viola!
The instant you publish unique content on the www, it is copyrighted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
I have had several of my hubs copied too. They are on really poorly formatted sites, so I don't see that they would get much traffic.
They are covered in ads for cheap knock off brands like fake Rolex and Cartier.
Maybe we should contact Rolex etc let them know, that we are not the pirates?
I would imagine that our online reputaions are being tarnished.
Quite weird to see ones words, with these odd brand words just stuffed randomly into the text.
I can't see them ranking very highly on Google. Maybe they will get the message sometime, that crap sites don't actually work.
Thanks for replying. Thieves in my experience only thieve when it's worth their while!! Crappy sites must work or why do they do it? Some techno wizard MUST have a clue about a copyright infringement solution to this awful problem. I hope!!
Aha! How wonderful it would be if I really have an "on-line reputation" and it gets tarnished! What we write is actually read by an abysmal fraction of a fraction of Internet readers! May be 0.00000001 percent of those who seek info from Internet!
You can report them to google, yahoo, yandex.ru, and bing and they'll remove the articles and all of their websites from search.
Thanks for the reply. This is only a temporary measure, the thieves will return in droves again. We need action from the web wizards to make copyright safe and beyond the reach of lowm life stealers.
In 1985 I wanted to re-publish a card game, "Authors," that I played as a child. That process cured me of EVER worrying about someone stealing any content of mine again.The reason? It's simply worth the worry and this is why.
The original full-color game with beautiful artwork was over 40 year old, and out of print. I went to a lawyer who told me all I had to do was to get a copy of the game, change ONE author and I could publish it. I couldn't BELIEVE what he said. I thought that was outrageously unfair to the original inventors of this game. So I DIDN'T follow his suggestion.
Instead, I had a student draw new images, called it "American Authors" and published it, feeling that was only the RIGHT thing to do. Of course, I couldn't afford a 4-color process and a local printer "jerry rigged" a merely passable game for me, but I was happy, feeling I had integrity.
Well, I went to Games By James at the Mall of America one day to see if my supply of "American Authors" was running low and THERE, sitting right next to MY little game was a BEAUTIFUL copy of the ORIGINAL "Authors" game, republished by a guy out east who's last name was ironically close to mine and who had the same idea at the same time. Only HE listened to his lawyer and changed ONE author and picture of that game. If you go to a game store and buy it, you'll see that the author, Poe, is decidedly different than the others.
That publisher went on to producing lots of games like this and I would imagine is sitting in a nice mansion somewhere while I am in a 940 sq ft. condo.
The point is, that for me (and call me a defeatist cynic if you think it fits) your statement is right - "copyrighting really doesn't work". Someone can change features of your work and call it theirs. Even if they don't, it's really hard to monitor where your writing actually IS on the ubiquitous internet.
It's a hard pill to swallow, but the solution is to be soooooo good, sooooooo prolific that someone will be AFRAID to steal your stuff. No one's stealing Jason Segel's movie scripts. Until then, it's not worth the energy spent in worrying about it. Use that energy to write, write, write.
Signed: The Resigned Cynic Pushing Forward on to Fame.
Great story, with a twist. Thanks. The principle is the same, stealing. Some technobrain must invent a unique authorship button/icon. Author clicks on it, uses unique password, hey presto, article secure. Any resemblance to original is stopped.
I get it. I'll get my software husband on that right away. Who knows? I'm being half skeptical, half-serious here. He encrypts stuff for Fortune 5 companies, why not here, why not now? We'll make millions! (Well, now I went too far).
I think if you can't do anything you can be happy that you have not lost anything but gained as your writing is so good people copy them.Your reputation is a gain.money wont make you happy ever.
The principle - stealing by cheats. I'd like a techno wizard to invent a unique authorship button, with unique password to secure articles. Any resemblance to original is somehow stopped. Is this a pipedream/impossibility?
Soft ware is copied so what can you do.I was told Windows itself is a copy of some one;s work.
Your first line of defence is to be vigilant. Don't rely on the HP system to keep you informed about your hubs being stolen; half my subdomain is currently copied and neither in this particular case, nor in any of the other cases when I've had hubs stolen, have I ever had a notification on my stats page.
Keep an eye on the forums for threads about stolen/scraped hubs.
Set up a spreadsheet with a few sentences copied from each hub. Periodically, copy these sentences into the Google search bar, with quotes around them; if only your hub comes up, you're good to go. If anything else comes up, you've found a thief.
If you find a thief, ask him/her to take the hub down - some will. If there is no response, use whoishostingthis.com to find their host. Send the host a DMCA (save a template on your computer).
If no luck, file a DMCA with Google etc.
Make a complaint to Adsense if appropriate.
Make a complaint to Amazon if appropriate.
Some people aren't concerned about these low-quality sites and I have some sympathy with that view - in most cases they won't outrank your hub. However, I do worry that Google quite unfairly down ranks the original (I've got no evidence of that, but I usually spot that a hub has been copied when its traffic falls - it often never recovers, even if the copy is taken down).
Full of great content your answer. I'm barking up the wrong tree thinking that a technobrain can invent a true authorship button to validate origianl work,with a unique password for the author.How do the secure pin number things work for banks? Help.
Every time this issue comes up, people ask about prevention in the form of software or similar. No one ever has an answer. I guess if someone did, they'd be marketing it and we'd all be subscribing to it
a) Ask them to delete the article from their site.
b) If they do not follow, file a DMCA complaint with hubpages.
To my knowledge, I've only ever been copied once. It was distressing, and I lost a bit of traffic early on because HP pulled it pending verification that mine was indeed the original. But the copy quickly sank without a trace.
I did ask several times that the copy be taken down, but without response. I didn't file a DCMA because it would have taken some time to find out where it needed to be served to, and by that point it was obvious that there was no payoff for the energy it would have taken.
I see. I think this is an issue causing too much strife and damage. We need a technical solution involving copied material, or resemblance issues. Techno wizards please come forward, secure our original articles with a unique password and icon or?
Since i do not get paid anything substantial for writing anything on this site i really don't care if someone else steals my articles. If they do, then it is a form of flattery that they think what i write is worth something to someone.
Since my audience is limited to hub pages, if someone takes one of my articles in total, or in substance, and the intent of that article is passed on to more people than those who read them here, i am OK with that.
I would think that having proof that you wrote something before someone else did you might have their versions removed from wherever you find them published.
I digitally sign and date everything i write on H.P. and when you click on your statistics they are all listed with the original dates published and the dates they are updated or changed.
Where does one look to find out if their articles are being plagiarized?
Our current thief is using scraping software to scrape HP content daily to spread across his 16 sites in an attempt to make money from hubbers' hardwork. There is no discernment, simply industrial scale plagiarism. I'm anything but flattered.
can you tell me who it is, and where they are publishing, so i can investigate it more?
The scraper is based in China. This is the thread I put up originally - note that more sites were added http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/111298
this whole issue is somewhat confusing, all i know about is where google has a copy check that you can do a search for to see if your own sentence or paragraph has been produced somewhere else.
copy scape or something.?
it's kind of like when k tel hits the market on a hot product. then thousands of reproducers make it and sell it for one dollar.
I am really lost on how to protect anything in this world. lol
cept for our day today, and hope we lived it well.
I love writing so I can't give it up. but lawsuits are too expensive unless we make the best sellers list and can afford to take the financial hit.
Stealing articles is a normal every day activity on the internet. I'd love to know the exact number being thieved and set up for traffic and reward which ought to be heading the author's way. Bad,bad. Technowizards please devise a true way forward.
When people stole my articles a year ago it was easier to bring them down. Today, thieves have found ways to beat the system. I still go after them, but it is time consuming. If it becomes worse, the entire procedure could be revamped by Google. If not, writers may not have time to spend filing complaints.
The basic ingredient of the act of stealing anything is that either the thief is not capable to acquire it from his hard work or the said thing is too pretty to be stolen. Anything as mentioned here is in respect of any physical object or an intellectual property created by the mind power. We live in the circumference of the tendency of stealing the things. Even it effects more or less in every person. No one in this world is perfect honest. Even an idea for doing this act is also treated as the same sin as it is performed actually. We, in my opinion, should keep the things in such a manner that it may be most valuable but must be looked like an ordinary object or thing.
Thanks for the comment and visit. Please look after your content, the fruits of the mind, and do what you can to deter the thief who cares nothing for us as human beings.
Think why they try to steal our articles. It's because the articles here are very good and of high standard. This action of theirs itself reveals the greatness of our articles.
Let them enjoy those rewards, but they won't give them the satisfaction we do get after writing an article.
But something has to be done on this issue.
Thanks for the visit - Yes - we must deter these thieves as much as we can. Put copyright on articles, copyscape and any other tool/device to thwart the low life.
Maybe someone can invent a software that scans for copyright infringement and automatically report it to the correct authorities to shut the site down. It should be able to scan the web I an automated way. For example many of us with websites have the hacker safe badge where there is screening every 15 minutes, so when the hackers see this they don't want to spend their time hacking the site when they know it will be detected right away. They will most likely move on to the next site. This can work with articles as well. If a thief knows as soon as they post the copied content that it will be detected and reported to shut them down then they may move on to the next article that doesn't have any protection. That is my million dollar idea but since I'm not a techy I have no idea how to start engineering a program like this.
The hacking prevention scan sounds great and will be a deterrent to those who seek to do damage. If you could create similar scanning software for articles thieves would be put off!! Thanks for the comment.
Even if this would exist and even if they would shut one down, they'll enter the internet through another way and copy content again. A hacker safe badge on each article will probably be so expensive that no engineer wants to lose money on this.
Just like the majority have stated, while thieves steel content and make a bit of cash, there is not a lot that we can do to stop it. However, by publishing on hubpages, or any other site, your copyright is protected and dated, and with lots of witnesses.
In the event that someone actually does make a lot of money from stealing our work, we have a very good case to sue (and win) all the royalties and profits.
In some respect, the thieves actually could promote our work and as long as we are vigilant, we can still claim the rewards.
Many thanks for the visit. It would be great to have a genius invent software that guarantees absolute safe publishing. One day it will happen but not in the foreseeable future!
There is a way to stop it . Involves a lot of work. Hub pages know of that problem. They have records. Your idea is first on the hub pages's computer . You get the credit. The other idea is just a copy. If you know someone doing it. You can report the problem to hub pages.
Many thanks for your visit and comment. Yes, we have to do all we can to prevent stealing. The more we deter the more success we'll enjoy.
In my opinion the full scale theft of the entire HP site by Rank08 is grand enough to warrant Justice Department involvement. I think it would be considerate of HP to become more proactive in at least notifying authors that their content may have been compromised, but in the forums if one mentions this, a smarmy couple of smart alecks will shoot you down, so I have filed complaints with my local FBI. If enough complaints are filed the DOJ may look into dashing these pirates to the rocks. This quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quote … 77528.html by Edmund Burke says it all for me. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing " when our hosts refuse to get involved it puts a bad taste in my mouth. Good luck to all the good writers out there who have been ripped off, I hope we have solutions soon.
by Audrey Selig 12 years ago
I checked today on this website and found one of Cardisa's recent salad recipes stolen with a dead link to the hub. It is a summary of the hub. I don't know if anything else can be done. It may take traffic away from our site. I have done what I can. I reported it as spam to Google. and someone...
by David Patrick 2 years ago
So I checked some of my better performing hubs that I published years ago and it says my content may have been stolen! I clicked the links and there are multiple websites that are just copy and pasting my paragraphs! They are plagiarizing my content! Some of these websites are foreign apparently...
by Rob Welsh 13 years ago
These Thieves are back up again.. and once again monetized with that company that has a dollar each way on both the thieves and the Copyright owners... Google!It appears that much of the HubPages content has been shifted or merely re-published with all links, authors and previous publishing sources...
by Teri Silver 2 years ago
Usually I find a couple pieces of stolen article copy on different sites. Today, it's more than enough to make me comment here. HP notifies us, adds the complaint link, and the complaint file cut-paste copy but little else to build a brick wall against content thieves. For every click...
by Mary McShane 10 years ago
If you have noticed your traffic decreasing lately on some of your hubs, this Facebook page is copying content from several hubbers and publishing it on their FB page. The Facebook page is called OHealth atwww .facebook .com /pages ...
by SmartAndFun 9 years ago
Thanks to ThatMommyBlogger for finding this site and bringing it up in another thread. I think it deserves its own thread to warn HP writers. It looks like a site called 2uidea-dot-com is taking newly published hubs and putting them up as their own at a rapid pace. It appears they have filled their...
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