Forum Moderators: martinibuster
What I mean is (I've been around and seen things you know. These guys are LAZY) I don't want to fire a DMCA so then Google contact the thieve with a warning... Then the thieves instead of copying my content would begin to EDIT my content and then publish it. Research is one thing, but editing content to get free articles is another thing.
How many infractions do you think (or know for sure) are needed to get their accounts banned? one article? five? twenty? I'm preparing my report about one case in particular that refuses to place credits of my material, instead he is publishing my articles are his own. He is using my content and content from other sites as well.
Please comment.
We filed a detailed DMCA report with 6000 stolen pages cited. There were many more, but we thought this was more than enough.
They replied to Google stating they were doing nothing wrong. G in turn let them off scott free. Our only option at that point was legal proceeding in federal court (where copyright law is tried). Minimum 30k to retain a lawyer for filing such a suit.
So don't waste your time with Google. Go after their ISP. They have been known to be more responsive since they are housing the stolen content.
We usually go in this order
step 1. email infringer a properly formatted C&D on our law firms letterhead outlining infringing content and request for removal with 5 business days of notice before we start legal proceedings. This usually scares the hell out of them and the content is taken down.
step 2. if step 1 fails contact the infringing sites web host with a properly formatted DMCA highlighting infringing content.
99% of the time step 1 works like a charm. Only have had to go to step 2 a couple of times and usually because we cant find contact information for step 1.
You have to really be careful with the DMCA process and make sure you have a clear case of copyright infringment because if you dont and they take you to court you could be in very serious trouble.
After a while we stopped bothering with the pilferage because its just a waste of time. I knock out a few of the blantant offenders but otherwise my time and resources are better spent building content, links and authority to outrank them:)
Please be aware that the burden of legal proof lies with you. If you file a DMCA and the other party denies wrong doing
I've got at least one which is my whole page, including my copyright notices and URL at the bottom of the page.
There can be no dispute and still Google will do nothing. Not even remove it as duplicate content.
I have no faith in the system.
[added] Also stolen graphic files.
[edited by: IanCP at 9:45 pm (utc) on July 2, 2009]
I have no faith in the system.
G could-might-will penalizes me for lots of reasons on search results, yet we have seen our content in diff pages, completely stolen. Some report stolen content OUTRANKING the original content on the search engine results.
Yet Adsense does nothing... its OUR problem to report and even so we can have it fired back to us ?
After a while we stopped bothering with the pilferage because its just a waste of time.
I knock out a few of the blantant offenders but otherwise my time and resources are better spent building content, links and authority to outrank them:)
Remember all the tools and techniques we use to keep our audience informed? well, they are using them against us to monitor our content.
Over the last two years I've submitted about 150 DMCAs and usually in two-three weeks Google removes the page (or about 95% of them). Of those 100 I think only one claimed the content was theirs. The pages they don't remove are probably because of the fair use rule when they only copy several sentences.
Since G has reviewed my main pages dozens of times the removal rates are nearly 100% now and since I don't bother with those copying just a few sentences.
Often the offender has hired a website development company and that developer steals the pages. The owner is often embarrassed and sends me an apologetic email.
Having filed several in the past we have found the web hosting providers to really make things happen in short order
Having filed several in the past we have found the web hosting providers to really make things happen in short order
I look at it like this.
My neighbors aren't home yet I see a truck in their front yard with 3 guys loading televisions, furniture and other goods from the home into the truck.
I could drive up there to my neighbor's house, roll down the window and yell to the thieves that I have called the sheriff and they are on their way. The bad guys would probably stop right away and flee.
Or I could call the sheriff and stay on the phone giving information while the sheriff is on his way. It would take a bit longer, but if the bad guys are arrested and go to jail, they won't be on the loose to come steal from me or another neighbor next week.
It's easy to get a new host and be back in business in short order. It's not easy to get a new AdSense account after being shut down.
Added: And if the thief is his own host, contacting him is probably pointless.
FarmBoy
It's easy to get a new host and be back in business in short order. It's not easy to get a new AdSense account after being shut down.
Exactly my point.
Getting their account closed really helps to solve the problem. They will face changing host and domain. But contacting the host, (even as its been useful) will mean saying to them "hey, don't copy the whole thing, just pieces" and what about the next copied-re-edited article?
If they have no adsense account, is very unlikely they will spend time creating a blog-site and steal content.
