Permanent Suspension

[astralflyer]

Today I received an Email from Constant Content informing me my account has been suspended due to plagiarism. The article name is "The Health Risks Associated With Ibuprofen". This is my own article and is not plagiarised. I used to write articles for a company named Suite101 but due to changes in their writing styles accepted, I chose to withdraw all my articles from the site.
Suite 101 promptly removed all my articles allowing me to publish them on Constant Content. I have since found that some of my articles have been "Scraped". (other websites are using my articles without my permission or the permission of Suite101. Here is a copy of my email from Suite 101 sent me about Scraping after my enquiries.
Suite101.com (Support center)

Jun 06 12:07 (PDT)

Hi Sandra,

I've removed your articles for you. It'll take a little while for them to disappear from Google. Also, remember to clear your browser cache before checking to see if they're gone, or else it may appear that they're still there.

As for articles elsewhere on the web, those are articles that have been "scraped" -- those sites have stolen them. We haven't granted permission for this or given your articles away -- it isn't associated with us at all. Unfortunately, there's not anything we can do about this, but you can file a copyright violation report with Google (https://support.google.com/bin/static.p ... page=ts.cs) if you'd like to try to get your articles taken down, or else you can contact those websites directly.

Best,

Jennifer

I was not aware that my article "The Health Risks Associated With Ibuprofen" had also been scraped. I usually check Google to see if any of the articles I wish to submit have been stolen by other websites and am currently in the processes of taking action with Google against these websites.
I do feel that I have been unfairly permanently suspended from Constant Content. I recently sold my first article and was overjoyed and encouraged by the sale. I have over 250 articles that I would like to submit to constant content and am continuously writing more articles daily.

I hope this post helps other authors to be aware of Scraping. It is new to me and is very disheartening.
It would be nice if the admins at constant content reconsider my suspension considering my article is not plagiarism.
Sandie Markcrow

[stelle]

If you wrote articles on a revenue-sharing site, then they're no longer original articles. You can't sell them for full or unique rights - they've already been published online. Full and unique rights articles can't exist anywhere online or in print. They have to be fully, 100% original - not just written by you, but also completely new. That's why articles here are more highly priced than on other content sites. You could have offered previously published articles for usage rights for a lower price.

Assuming that's what you did - offered for usage rights rather than full rights - CC is very clear that they'll only accept pre-published articles that are clearly attributed to you, including using the exact same pen name. Anything else - scraped content, content written by you under another name, etc - is considered plagiarism.

So yes, according to CC's policies, when you submitted an article that you originally wrote but that had been scraped, you submitted plagiarized work. You can't prove that you wrote it first. And clients here pay better than at other content sites because they can trust that any content that they buy is original.

That also goes for work scraped from CC. Two years ago I had an article excerpt on CC manually retyped and stolen. I wasn't able to sell it. Frustrating? Yes, absolutely. But it was what it was.

It sucks. There's nothing more frustrating as a writer than having our work stolen. But I'm not sure that there's much that you can do at this point.

It's worth writing to CC to see if they'll make an exception and let you submit some new articles. But I'd only submit brand new content if I were you.

[Lysis]

Ah, Sandie, I was a Suite101 writer too. My suggestion is to try to write CC. When you try to publish for use, the editor must be able to find your name associated with the original content. New writers shouldn't do usage IMO, because they are less trusted than the people who have been around for a while. I would bet CC boots a lot of spinners and content thieves.

I would write CC and tell them what happened. I feel for you, because I'm sure you're telling the truth. Suite101 got scraped to high heaven!

[astralflyer]

Thank you stelle and Lysis
You have both helped me to understand why my article was considered plagiarism because it was scraped. Due to the fact that I have been permanently suspended from the CC site, I do not have anyway of contacting the management to ask to be reinstated. Do either of you have a contact email address for CC that I can use to appeal my case. I would like to at least try. Thank you both again.

[Lysis]

Can you access this page? https://www.constant-content.com/area/contact.htm

[astralflyer]

Thanks Lysis, the link worked and I have now sent an email to them to appeal my case. I really appreciate your help.
Sandie

[Lysis]

I hope it works out for you. Really sorry, man. Went through the Suite101 circle jerk for a while too. A shame, because it was a great passive income stream for a while. I only wish I had gotten on the bandwagon years earlier. I was just starting to make a decent income from the site when Panda hit them hard.