Defending your copyright

What if it's just paragraphs or sentences

[Jane_Doe]

I have a content site with a research type article that has material spam sites love to copy. I've had my article copied outright and even put into somebody's newsletter and passed off as their own. I've been contacting the sites to have my stuff removed or else I plan to escalate with DMCA filings and possible legal action.

However, some of the spammers just copy parts of the articles and not the whole thing. In some cases mutiple sentences of 20 words or so each are copied exactly with no reference or attribution.

How picky do you get in defending your copyrights? Do you go after people for sentences, paragraphs or just whole articles? Where do you draw the line?

[Harry]

In your Web site, do you have clear in structions for those who would like to use your copy?

Try to be pro-active. Claim your ownership and rights as well as you can your contents. Then, give them sets of rules to follow to use it.

By using sentences they are trying to claim that they making fairn use of your contents. Ask them to credits your stuff or remove it.

[ScottM]

How picky do you get in defending your copyrights? Do you go after people for sentences, paragraphs or just whole articles? Where do you draw the line?

Do a search on "fair use laws".

I think a paragraph is fine for fair use if the article is say, 10 paragraphs long.

It's a grey area, but there are laws allowing fair use....and they vary.

One interesting example is the old "Far Side" cartoons. I read that just by posting one, you violate his copyright. Why? Because you posted his work in "full".

Going after people is up to you.