Content theft, unavoidable?

[tomt]

Would it be safe to say that content theft and web site design theft are inevitable and there's not a great deal one can do about it?

I'm still kinda new at this, and had a bit of a "why would anyone steal content or design from a newbie like me" attitude. Then I found an article I'd written posted on someone else's site. And only a few days later found a cheap cut and paste rip-off of my site that someone (a PAW member who shall remain nameless (pojax)) had put up.

So it just left me wondering, is this what I will have to learn to live with as long as I'm placing content on the web? I'm thinking yes.

[losercore]

I would say always be alert for it. there are plenty of people out there that, for whatever reason, have no skills, no creativity and no intelligence but somehow think they are going to millionaires in the affiliate industry.

All you can do is spot and tell them to remove it.

I'm a firm believer of calling them out in public if you know who theyu are and HAVE PROOF of such threats. I believe this for 2 reasons mainly.

This alerts others to go look at the site for their content
Is forces this person to clean up there act or find another industry.

I've only had this happen to me twice that i know of and i called them out on this forum and in PM's and all was well taken care of and they can move on and create original content and become a great affiliate if they want.

I do say always contact them first but don’t ever feel bad about calling someone out. Although be sure to have your facts straight if you do it.

it just part of this game i guess. it happens everyday.


Pretty sad really.

[stocktrader]

I recently wrote a page on my webmaster site about copied content (http://www.webpageblueprint.com/maintanence.php). Most webmasters should have a philosophy and plan as to how to deal with copied content. This is some of what I wrote, although I'm sure others' opinions are different:

WHAT TO DO

1. Be Nice. Look for contact info on the site and email them asking nicely asking for the material to be removed. You should also use a Whois lookup to find out the website owner's name, address, e-mail, and telephone number and record the information in case you need the information in the future.

2. If they refuse your requests you can contact their web host and tell them that their customer is using copyrighted content. Provide links to their pages and yours.

3. Send a formal 'Cease and Desist' letter notifying them that they must remove the stolen content from their site. Some sample letters are available on the web.

4. File a notice of Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement with Google and other search engines to have the site removed from their database and search results.

"There will be times that the offending site will refuse your requests even if you start to mention lawyers. At that point you need to sit down and think about what your next move will be. You need to make an honest assesement of the damage to your site. How much sales are you losing? What damage to your brand has there been? A couple of things to consider here are how much money your site makes and how strong of a brand do you have? If your site makes $5,000 per year it is hard to convince people that a lot of tangible damage is done. Most webmasters are not going to suffer financial damage because most web pages are not making money so getting a lawyer may not be worth the cost.

Similarly, if you have a great site but the offending site is a crappy imitation site that you can tell gets no traffic then there won't be much damage either. Cheap pages that are obvious amatuer ripoffs won't do much damage. There are always going to be 14-year-old kids who cut and paste your page into their Geocities page. Sometimes, other than e-mailing Geocities, these pages aren't even worth the time.

I'm not trying to minimize the issue of copied content. I understand the value of intellectual property and the legality of copyright laws. I'm not arguing what is right and wrong. I'm simply pointing out that as a webmaster you have to ask yourself "Has this person actually hurt my traffic, profits, image, brand, or reputation in any TANGIBLE way"? Then you need to think about what it is going to cost you and decide if it is worth it.

Most webmasters' decisions in this area are purely emotional. Picture this: you find a site that has copied some of your content. You look it up in Alexa and see it doesn't even have a ranking. You lookup their Whois information and send them and e-mail asking them to take it down. No answer. You wait a week. You send another. No answer. After another week you send a more harshly-worded letter. Finally, you get an e-mail back from the site that says "Go fuck yourself". What do you do? Most webmasters have that reflexive reaction to go on the offensive and get a lawyer and show people who is the boss. After all, you are right and they are wrong. But it isn't that simple. Taking someone to court is expensive and the cost may be worth more than the benefit. Not to mention the person may be across the country or in a different country. If the offending site is crappy do you really want to pay a lawyer $300 per hour to take down a site that gets 30 visitors a day?

Many times when you go on SitePoint and see people asking other webmasters what to do in this situation every loves to take the tough talk route but how many of these webmasters have actually done it in that situation? If getting a lawyer or going to court is the best decision to make then go for it - just make sure you are doing it for sound business reasons and not to satisfy your ego."

[losercore]

Great post stocktrader. maybe some of the best advice we've heard on the subject.

[tomt]

Great response. I have considered that the guilty party is doing me and my site no real damage. It's just annoying, briefly, to find one's stuff being lifted by a no-talent hack.
As I said before, I guess it's just a part of doing business.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by tomt

Great response. I have considered that the guilty party is doing me and my site no real damage. It's just annoying, briefly, to find one's stuff being lifted by a no-talent hack.
As I said before, I guess it's just a part of doing business.

Not really. They are duping your content which could put you out of the SERPs for that article/page.

[tomt]

Not really. They are duping your content which could put you out of the SERPs for that article/page.

Unfortunately still not a lot I can do about it, right? I just looked at his rip-off cut-and-paste job and he's added more content from my site to his just in the last 24 hours. This after I sent a polite email asking that he remove or alter the copycat site.

This is pojax, the "author" of Sit n Go Pro. When I started selling SnG Pro I contacted him for a copy of the product for review purposes. He emailed me back asking how my blog was getting so much traffic. Guess I shouldn't have told him, and also shouldn't have left my site meter open. Lots of traffic can look good to unscrupulous thieves..

And what's really cute is the big show of outrage pojax put on over his accusation that the author of Sit n Go n Win had copied his idea to make money from a cheap knock-off of his product. I guess he figured if someone can steal from him, he may as well steal from someone else.

So, Jeremy, can we have a new section where folks can post incidences of theft, and the names of the perpetrators?

[Jeremy]

Hmmm let me think about that one. It might make more sense just keep posting these incidences in the general forums so that everyone sees it.

In the interim if he is stealing content I would suggest nobody promote his product. It's too bad also that he would do this to a fellow PAW member when I actually published one of his articles here and put up with 95% of his posts pimping his own product.

[Brandon]

I would suggest the same, no one promote his product.

He stole content and spammed the crap out of PAW. I would like to get his take on this issue...