Got them ole Duplicate Content blues again...

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   FatFreddysCatposted 2 years ago

   Has this ever happened to you?
   
   Like many writers, I have a "slush pile" (well technically I guess it's a "slush folder" in my computer) full of half-finished fragments, old/outdated pieces, scratch ideas and other random scribblings. Occasionally when I'm bored I dig through it and pull something out that can possibly be re-worked into a hub.
   
   I dusted off one such piece tonight -- a review of a long forgotten B Movie that was written many years ago for a site whose name I no longer even remember.  I was pretty sure that I took all of my work with me when I left that site back in the day, so I figured it would be easy to polish this up a bit and re-publish it on HP. I banged it into shape this evening, hit "Publish," aaaaand not long afterward.... came the dreaded "Duplicate Content" warning email from the Powers That Be.  (sad trombone noise)...
   Dammit dammit dammit!
   
   A bit of Googling revealed that my "old" version of this review is currently residing on a shady looking movie download site I've never heard of (who likely stole it from its original home when I first published it years back) who are most definitely NOT authorized to use my work. Well, shoot. Filing a DMCA against those gomers would probably be a waste of time, so rather than go to all that trouble I opted to simply delete my revised version from HP for now. Grrr! It was a good one, too!
   
   If any of the Powers That Be are reading this, I hope you realize I was not trying to pull a fast one -- I honestly thought the piece in question was free and clear to re-publish.
   
   Rant over. Thieves and copyists suck!

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      chef-de-jourposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Shucks that's annoying. If I were you I'd file that DMCA (and send emails and warning messages etc etc) when you've cooled down a bit and gotten over this pathetic act of skulduggery - and win a minor victory for justice!
      
      Any chance you've got a record of the date when you first published the piece? Proof of copyright? And the plagiarised work is on a decent site or one of these low-life bottom dwelling creations that are sadly commonplace on t'internet?

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   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   Yes, you can't do much legally. You could just redo the article using enough different words so that it didn't trip the duplicate switch. But the way you describe it ("review of a long forgotten B Movie that was written many years ago"), the article sounds like it would likely only get a trickle of views anyway, so is it worth it?

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      FatFreddysCatposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I have learned from past experience that while writing Hubs about movies may be fun, it results in very little traffic (at least for me), even if/when it's moved to ReelRundown.
      
      ...so yeah, going to all the trouble of filing a DMCA, re-writing the whole piece over again, etc., etc. would be way more work than it's worth. I'm just gonna let it go and work on fresh material. (shrug)

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   Rupert Taylorposted 2 years ago

   I had the same issue. Article on another site, doing nothing. Removed it and gave the big G time to de-index it. Tweaked it and posted it here. HP flagged it as duplicate content as some scumbag had stolen it. I explained all this to Matt, I think it was, and the article was approved.
   
   Happy ending.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 2 years ago

   Cool that it ended well for you, but I've already canned the article in question. Moving on...

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   Dean Traylorposted 2 years ago

   I feel your pain. Had two sites steal well over a hundred articles from a now defunct site I used to write for. In many cases, the article-rippers waited for years before publishing them on their lame sites.
   Recently, after countless  reports to DMCA and personal appeals to the hosts of the sites to have the material removed, the two sites were taken offline.
   But, just as I thought I turned a corner, I discovered a shady "essay selling" site had lifted one of my hubs, and is currently trying to sell it to lazy college students who need an essay for their class. In another case (which became a topic of a Hub), a blogger stole a short story and tried to convince readers that it was his original idea. He even went as far as writing a blurb about how he came up with the idea for it.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 2 years ago

   Update!
   
   I have just received an email from Staff Member Matt, who informs me that I have been granted an exception -- the article has been re-published and is no longer considered to be duplicate content. Yay!
   
   Thanks very much, Matt. You rock.
   
   All's well that ends well!

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