Found my first copied Hub...I think...

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   Cre8torposted 10 years ago

   On a site call "Rewarder" I found the text from a Hub of mine just copied and pasted in as an answer with no link...does this qualify as infringement since it's being used as an answer on one of these types of sites or is this a different beast? It does say at the beginning "by cre8tor" but that doesn't seem like it's a proper attribute.

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The person who plagiarized your material is getting paid for it.  File a DMCA notice by email to:
      info@rewarder.com
      
      No, people are not allowed to steal your content. The rewarder.com site does not allow plagiarized content according to its Terms of Service: "Rewarder respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask you to do the same.  Rewarder may, in appropriate circumstances and at our discretion, terminate service and/or access to the Site for users who infringe the intellectual property rights of others.  If you believe that your work is the subject of copyright infringement and/or trademark infringement and appears on our Site, please provide Rewarder’s designated agent the following information . . ."

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         Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you WF! I thought it should be but then thought perhaps some of these "answer" sites might be different. Thank for confirming this for me!

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         Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         It went just as you said.
         
         Now, to be a real pest, what % of a Hub being copied would be considered "copied". EX: I see one with an entire excerpt copied equaling 12%. Is there a threshold? and if I find it on Copyscape do I just follow the same procedure as the last? I promise I won't pester you any further on this.

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            Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I'm happy to help.  Publishing on HP means that your content will be stolen; that's just a fact of life.  So, learning about plagiarism and what to do about it is a necessity.  If you don't constantly check your Hubs, the stolen content can outrank yours on search engines.
            
            Copyscape will sometimes give a false/positive on duplicated content.  For instance, text from an Amazon product capsule will be found on many other sites.  Some of the standard wording HP puts on all Hubs will sometimes be picked up as duplicated content. So, don't look at the percentage; go to the page and see what is on there.  If the content is just the 25-30 words of your Hub summary and a link to your Hub, that's fine (excellent, really). Anything more than that, file a DMCA. 
            
            If the website which posted your content doesn't have contact information, go to this website to find the hosting company: http://www.whoishostingthis.com.  Then, search for the hosting company on Google and send the DMCA request to the host.

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               Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I saw exactly that and could tell the differences however yes, the one is a complete copy of an entire section from my Hub so I'll follow up. Though it stinks that it's a "fact of life", I'm almost glad it happened. This has been a great learning experience and eye opener. (Maybe even a bit flattering but I'm sure that will wear off quickly!)

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                  Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I've filed DMCA requests for three or four sentences!  It's a nuisance, but these people are stealing money from you and the time/talent investment you have made creating your Hubs.  Go get 'em! (If you don't, your Hubs will suffer and your traffic will fall.)
                  
                  I'm flattered when someone gives my Hub a link; not when they steal my content.

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      3. 94

         Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         WF - I'm sorry to pester you but if someone copies my content to build a page and then at the bottom provides a link to my article under the "sources" list, is that sufficient attribution? It doesn't seem like it since, "What good does that do if they already read my entire Hub on your page?"

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         1. 0

            mommytalksposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Still stealing .... They can copy the 1st few lines and then link to "read more" (content curation) or they can talk about/discuss what you wrote with a link ... That's it!!

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      Beth37posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      How do y'all run around finding your work plagiarized? Not that I would imagine anyone would find my stuff useful for any kind of reproduction, but I would still be interested.

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         Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I just Googled my "handle" / hub topic and looked around. There are I'm sure better ways but that's how I found this one.

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            Beth37posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            so in the google space you entered cre8tor/whyIlovehammers? or whatever?

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               Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               yep

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                  Beth37posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Oh my word... I don't even know what to make of all this... (I could make a hat, I could make a boat...)
                  
                  My Gavin Degraw hub, page 2 of google has lots of... stuff... not by me, but with my name on it.
                  Ok, Im gonna go try and figure all this out. Thanks.

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                     Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     I really stumbled into it but now of course I'll have to start checking others. I'll keep in touch if I find a better way to weed 'em out.

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      Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Well that was fast! They took it down almost immediately via a contact on the site. No reply to my request or confirmation but it's down so kudos to Rewarder for being quick to take care of the matter. Thanks all for the feedback though. I've learned to keep an eye out and how to handle it in the future. Sorry for causing a stir...just never had this happen before...that I found anyway.

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         Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Glad that's handled.  You can check all your Hubs on copyscape.com.  They have a free service that allows so many free checks per month from HubPages.  The paid service is 200 checks in a year for $10.  It's a good idea to check your Hub URLs once a month.  For content which gets stolen frequently, use it once a week.
         
         Also, now that the content has been removed, you need to have the cache of the plagiarized content removed from search engines.
         
         To remove the cache of the plagiarized content on Google:
         
         http://support.google.com/bin/static.py … page=ts.cs
         (click inside the circle which says 'Web Search', then scroll down the page and click inside the circle which says 'A piece of content I am concerned about has already been removed by the webmaster but still appears among the search results.' Then, click on the link 'this tool.' You'll then be asked to sign in and then to enter the page URL and, if the page is still live, a word from the outdated cache page that you want to remove.
         
         To remove the cache on Bing/Yahoo:
         http://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/bing … l-cb6c294d
         
         It can take 24 – 48 hours for the removal process.

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            Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Wow WF! Thank you so much! You've gone far beyond any help I expected and am excited to put this info to use...I think? Haha. Really though, thank you.

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   Beth37posted 10 years ago

   Do you know what this is? Why does ABC have its own search engine? http://ww2.abc.go.com/search?search=en. … amp;nord=1
   
   http://www.desktoppages.com/search/yout … -houston/5

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      Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not sure...this little trip around the net has me asking all kinds of questions. There are stats on me everywhere...found some proper links too which is awesome I suppose but my curiosity is through the roof right now. I need to go to school for this stuff.

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         Beth37posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, my brain is already over-taxed. I've resigned myself to flunking and I've gone to smoke in the girl's locker room.

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   mommytalksposted 10 years ago

   I have filed a ton of DMCA requests in my time. What bothers me almost as much as my work being stolen is that we are raising a generation that sees nothing wrong with stealing from the internet. They copy articles and photos left and right as if it is perfectly acceptable to take what they want without permission. Plagiarism is a lesson that *I* learned in 3rd grade.
   
   I have two girl scout brownies selling cookies this year. There is a very thick book on the ins and outs of their computer system. Imagine my surprise when I turned the page and saw a Disney image from the movie "Up" with no credit. I searched and searched - nothing. I called my local service unit as well as the HQ in DC. No one understood my concerns. They simply said they would "make a note of it". One person even told me that she was sure it was ok to take things if it was for an internal publication. Um, no. Plus, when you print 100,000 of something, that is not really 'internal'.
   
   I am not picking on the girl scouts. I like them. I am using them as an example. They are a non-profit dedicated to raising up strong, well-adjusted girls. And, yet they plagiarize.
   
   A friend was recently lamenting her lack of recipe organization and was told on FB to "start a blog where she can just copy/paste what she wants". I politely tried to explain the difference between a link on FB or Pinterest v copy/pasting another author's work. A lawyer, of all people, jumped on and tried to tell me that I was wrong and the internet was free use.....
   
   I am sorry but I, for one, will be raising at least three people in this world that know better than to steal. I can only hope that others do the same.
   
   *steps off soapbox*

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4. 94

   Cre8torposted 10 years ago

   Yep. Flattery gone. I joke but agree. Just really trying to "grab the bull by the horns", I admit that I saw so much of it that I was starting to think "Is this okay? Am I putting in extra work unnecessarily?" But I knew better and never have. Guess I just figured others mostly felt the same and no one would want to copy the work of a rookie writer.

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5. 94

   Cre8torposted 10 years ago

   Thanks Mom! Lol. That's what I was thinking. Well, I'm off to do some more hunting and slaying of copycats.  Don't suppose you'd like to chime in on my other forum about the use of my name in titles?

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