Outlined below are the steps I take when someone steals my blog’s copyrighted content. blog plagiarism

  1. I send a polite request to the site owner to remove copied content. This solves the issue 90% of the time. [Though it may sound crazy but I have seen that people think any material available on the web can be used by anyone freely]
  2. If I don’t get a response, I send a harsh mail telling about what can be done if they do not remove the content. Things like complain to Google Adsense or their advertising agencies or the web host scares them off. This solves the issue 9% of the time.
  3. Rest hard-core 1% needs a complain to be sent to their webhost or advertising partners.

This (pt 3. above) is what I had to do about a fortnight back when steps 1. and 2. failed in a recent case. The offending site in question was hosted on blogger using custom domain. The offender copied at least 46 posts from another blog of mine. Since I couldn’t locate any advertising on the blog, I resorted to sending a complaint to web host. All webhosts require a formal DMCA complaint to be sent to them. Generally all webhosts accept content in email format. Google Blogger requires DMCA complaint to be sent either through fax or normal mail service, in their prescribed format.

I sent the fax on 9th/Oct. Received a mail from blogger support on 11th where they asked for the list of infringing URLs in the ‘soft copy’ format. Without wasting any time I sent all the URLS which I could get hold of. (Remember that the offender in question had copied nearly whole of my site). On 18th, I received a mail saying they have removed the content in question. To my surprise they have not only removed the content but the whole site itself. Now that site shows 404.

So next time you see someone blatantly copying your posts, don’t fret. Just follow what I did.

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