Everyone who makes their living writing online shares one fear: that someone will steal their intellectual property. In some cases, site that steal content rank higher in search results than the pages that host the original content, cutting into authors’ earnings.  How do you know if someone is stealing your work, and what can you do to stop them?

How to Know If Your Articles are Stolen

Google offers a service called Google Alerts that is a handy tool for monitoring the security of your intellectual property.  It searches the internet daily based on keywords and phrases, then sends you an e-mail detailing any new documents that meet your criteria.  While setting up Google Alerts for each individual article you write can be time-consuming (especially if you have a large library of existing work), it is the best way to know if your content is being stolen.

Each time you publish an article, you should immediately create an alert for that piece.  Choose a unique portion of text from the article that is two to three lines long, preferably from the beginning of the article.  Use this as your alert text; any time your exact words appear online, you will be notified.

What Can I Do if My Article is Stolen?

If you find that one of your articles has been stolen, there are several steps you can take to have your content removed from the violating website.

    * Contact the Infringing Website – Send the website a strongly-worded e-mail.  Identify yourself as the author of the piece and provide URLs for both the original and the illegal copy of the article in question.  Demand that they remove the content from their website immediately.  Save a copy of the e-mail for your records.  If you cannot find any contact information on the website, you can perform a WhoIs search to find out who is listed as the owner of the website.

    * DCMA Copyright Infringement Notice – Under the Digital Media Copyright Act (DCMA), all intellectual property online is protected against unauthorized reprinting.  To report a violation, a written complaint must be filed either by postal mail or via fax.  Make sure you include all of the requested information.

    * Report to Google Adsense – The reason that people steal articles is to make money.  They post stolen articles on websites filled with advertising in order to make a profit.  The most commonly used ad service is Google Adsense, who have a strict anti-plagiarism policy.  Hit content thieves in the pocketbook by reporting them to Adsense. Google investigates all reports and, if found to be true, revokes accounts from those who plagiarize.

    * Reporting to ICANN – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are some very powerful people to have on your side.  They have the ability to revoke someone’s internet domain, effectively shutting down a website.  You may find that information from a WhoIs search on an offending site is untrue.  For instance, people who are looking to make a dishonest dollar may use a fake name and contact information who registering a web address.  Google the street address, telephone number, and other contact info from your WhoIs search results.  If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t.  Don’t be afraid to make a few phone calls or do other poking around to verify your suspicions.  Using false information is a violation of ICANN’s terms, so if you can prove the information to be false, be sure to file a report
 

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