Cyber Crime, Intellectual Property, Help Authorities Stop It

There are some readers who are easily offended.

On this website I can find offensive material usually published by a person who is extreme in their religion.

Some individuals want life "G-Rated," that is unrealistic, for the rest of the world, but for those who choose to cloister their thinking away from some subjects, forms of nudity, and language.

Readers who waste time and effort flagging content they just don't agree with - no matter how well written. These will flag authors who maybe use some bad language, or show too much of a body part. Those are not Cyber-Criminals.

If you are offended by this language or use of body parts in an article or other Internet Publication, click the X at the upper right-hand corner of the page. Self-censor. Work out your own salvation...

Close it, and move on.

If you view content that appears to be exploiting children or harming another person contact the appropriate agency.

Don't look at it.

Move on to someones site or publication you can enjoy, use your energy to encourage or promote material you love, or can learn from.

I will explain in simple terminology, and have included links for taking steps to recover your Intellectual Property.

Turn in a Fraud, Stop Internet Criminals, and make the Internet a friendlier place.

• The main action that will be taken against the trespasser, who pirated Intellectual Property, is they will be asked to remove it.
• If the thief has benefited financially, there can be many harsher sentences imposed.

Sometimes people innocently use IP that was pirated before they got it.

An example: When I was working on "Bad Girl, bad seed, give me those shoes...", I used YouTube Videos for props in my Hubs. The next morning, I had a notice that Warner Brothers had removed the contents of the YouTube videos, because the person who posted them on YouTube did so without permission. it was simply removed. I was not in trouble. Now whenever I use a follow-back link from another resource like YouTube™ I simply leave a comment under the article, photo or video.

• Url Copied
• Where found
• Purpose for Use of Linked Content
• Give Them The Title of the Item

I have not had anyone ask me to remove content, but it has been removed because it belongs to an other person or entity, that was not credited or cited.

If your complaint or problem is found to be valid and the Cyber-Cops take on your case, it is best to gather all of the possible evidence you can safely harvest.In most cases such drastic measures will not have to be taken. Simply flagging a problematic Hub will often call attention to an errant Hub.

Like any job or detective show highlights the importance of "chain-of-custody", or "chain-of-command". This means if your City or County, or State has an active Cyber-Crimes project, department or division, you may get more help simply notifying them.

If you do end up turning your "case" to any agency, make sure you get a receipt for any information or evidence you leave with them. Keep copies. Ask them for a Time-Frame, and if they will follow up. Depending upon the seriousness, if after 90 days, nothing has been done, contact the next in the chain, or go ahead and file directly with the Cyber-Crimes Division.

Keep in mind, using Federal resources for revenge or fun will land a person in a world of hurt (fines, jail time, loss of internet privileges, grounding), so consider before you file a fictitious complaint.

The Very First Step: Notify the Administrators of the Website that has the Violation, Theft or Crime. Notify all sites affected, UNLESS they are sites that are unsecured, or show Red/Yellow on your Internet Security, do not go onto them!

You can safely click on a "Cache" of the Web Article. If it does not show "cache" do not click on it. If you are in dangerous territory on the web, even by catching a snapshot of the site (cache), it can be tracked back to you, if the site or owner are very sophisticated.

(If you are on the World Wide Web without Internet Security and a Firewall, it is the same as having unprotected sex with 6 million other people - in terms of the personal danger there is in that)

An internet user, can have better security and firewalls than the FBI, CIA, NRA...etc., but if a user on the "secure" computer venture off into web sites that are not secure, the user has opened the door to the wild web world.

Having opened the door, the system is now open to anything.

Accessing an unsecured or dangerous site, is like having a million dollar security system on a mansion, but when you leave, you don't lock the door or set the alarm.

Cleaning out your cache on your computer.

Security wise - I am not a computer expert.

I do know about internet crime, predators, and how scum-bags can get into your system.

There are instances when your computer might be in the process of getting breached. (War Drivers) When this happens your computer will act funny.

Depending on how sophisticated your internet security is, depends upon how severely a hacker can infiltrate your web system.

Like a car, when it is tuned up, and running like it was built to run, it is easy to tell when something is amiss.

When your computer has had its memory cleaned, caches swept, fragmented files defragged, a thorough security scan, and a shut-down and/or restart, you will know when something is not right in your cyber world.

Most newer computers have a program where you can watch your entire inside of your system and do check ups.

A good computer "house cleaning chore" is to 1). Tools, 2). Options, 3).Clear Browsing Data, 4).Delete everything except passwords, unless you share your computer with the most trusted soul in the world...Everything. Different versions of software have different names for this. IE has a tab that says , Safety > Delete Internet Browsing History

If you have not ever done this, it could take hours. It is recommended to do daily, weekly, monthly whatever. If you do a lot of searches, do it a couple of times per day. Your information sort of hangs out and will clog up the pipes. Your computer will run much better.

Most of you have been around the e-world long enough to know to delete junk mail, and spam.

It is good computer housekeeping to delete read e-mails.

Delete Spam forever.

Do not delete confidential information, unless you have an electronic shredder.

The last quick and cheap tune-up for your computer - Delete all of your "Sent" Mail from all of your accounts. There is no numbers showing on most programs for sent. They just sit there. Remember to do this in your Social Networking sites too. All that data, just sitting there.

Once you have done these steps, do a restart on your computer. It should be better!

Always give props where props are due. Sweetwusieg was kind enough to take extra time to warn other Hubbers including me that there was a possibility there may be pirated Hubs about...(Makes me want to talk like a Pirate but, this is serious).

Due to her quick action and the quick movement by Hub Administrators, The gig was Up! The Pirates had to drop their booty! Way to go Ms. Sweet Susie!

One reason HubPages is so successful is because it is a part of a wheel of activity, community and artistic, making an endeavor to swap knowledge, and help one another. If you are a serious writer, or you just "must write", be a part of this "wheel of writers, photographers, preachers, teachers, grumps and lunatics.

1). Since this is a Hub, on HubPages, let me say that HubPages Administrators do an excellent job at looking into valid reports, and stopping unethical, and illegal activities on HubPages. They are concerned and do want to know when someone is in violation of HubPages Terms of Service.

2).On HubPages , if you are almost certain someone is in violation of HubPages Terms of Service and/or use. While you are on the "alleged offending" Hub or Hubber's page, "Flag" the Hub. You will be given choices as to the reason you feel it is a violation. If you are not positive, there is a place for "Other" where you can explain why you feel it is a violation. You may not get a response unless the seriousness warrants it, but the HubPages staff will quickly check it out, and have bad stuff removed.

3). If it is outside of HubPages, but it is connected to HubPages in anyway, you can click on Help in the upper Right-Hand Corner. Check out "Other HubPages Resources" and "Unanswered Questions". At the bottom is "Contact Us."

4). If your concern is on the www (world wide web).

• Your Blog or other website, is being used by an entity without your permission,
• You notice another Hubbers' work whom you follow, posted by someone else
• or, when you Googled your Blog, and it is coming up linked to Holland Honies for Horny Honkers, your name or Intelligence is now hooked up to a pornography site. Those who operate outside of legal boundaries of websites' Terms of Service (TOS) will use legitimate and popular blogs to drive traffic to their sites. Notify your co-writers, who's work is out there know your findings.
• Make sure you gather facts not supposition.

What To Do:

Go to the offending web page. USE CAUTION when clicking on one of these sites. Make sure your security shows it is a safe site. if it does not , simply scroll your mouse over the active url and click the "other button", and you should get the option to check properties, or identify what the url address is, take a snapshot of that, or just write it down.

Capture a picture of what is showing on the Screen - Use your Ctrl / Alt / PrntScrn Key, that shows the url (http://urlurlurlurlurlURL.com ) in the picture.

Go to your open Word Screen , that is ready for data. Use your Ctrl "v" Button to leave the 'snapshot' on the Word Page. Give it a title. If words on the screen aren't legible, but important to your case, go ahead and enter the data that is visible to you, but possibly not clear on the 'snapshot'.

Save it in your Folder created to gather evidence. Make sure Date/Time Stamps are accurate, and reinforced on your documentation. Because stuff can disappear or be hidden on the web, for important info, containing URL's and web links of the case you are building, it is highly advisable to make a PDF file / memory copy and/or print a hard copy.

In some cases of the theft of intellectual property, or that your work is linked to child pornography, there is a possibility that Federal Agencies and other Legal types may get involved.

They will ask you can you get the "properties" (google chrome and opera say "inspect element" it shows everything) of the offenders and / or pages, links and photos. If it is an entity who does this often or you have stumbled on a big nest, when you check the properties, or do the url roll over, you will see the same names or sub names popping up.

Follow your gut.

To get the "properties" information, do the "other button click " (the Right button) on the mouse. The "other button " will present a drop down box with tabs and choices. Usually at the very bottom, is "Properties" (or inspect element). The information is like a drivers license and important information is contained there. It is a good idea to 'snap-shot' these and again, re-type information that is not clearly read on the Screen Capture. Save to your Folder.

Google Analytics has many tools that can help anyone who is concerned about their internet traffic, and monitor how their internet publishing is doing. My blogs are much older than my time with HubPages, and I began to see a sudden surge of growth in an Asian Country that could not be explained by a simple growing interested in my Blog posts.

The topic of my two blogs are very topic driven, and there are only two areas of interest that would be concerned and such growth in this area did not make sense. I began googling my blogs, key words. (I have my AdSense set so when I click on my pages, it doesn't count as a visit from a searcher). I found my blog links being used to drive pornography.

I saw the growth on Google Analytics and as happy as i was to have thousands of new hits and back-links to my Blog, it was not a good thing. Reporting this type of activity to Google is not the easiest. It is 100 Times easier with Google Chrome users. This was fairly recent, and I switched to Google Chrome. They have more security and filters for blocking out Adult content. Per your settings on Blogger.com. via Google.