Disappearing sale?

[SuzanneBosworth]

I wanted to pick up on a post someone added to a related thread - if some nasty little insect has managed to get hold of some articles using stolen credit cards, what's the status of those articles now? Presumably they can only be sold now for usage and not any other rights? Or did they not manage to get their greasy little mitts on the complete articles?

[4rumid]

I would think -- and hope -- that as long as the stolen articles can't be found online, all licenses should still be available. And if they can be found online, presumable they can be taken down. Just the fact that an article was stolen shouldn't determine what licenses we can offer. I may not be thinking about this objectively, but I'll be damned if I let a thief ruin my chances of selling an article I worked hard to write.

[CieleEdward]

No answer so far on whether or not the thief was able to actually download the articles. Since we have had communication with the higher ups on the two threads that address this, I'm taking that as a bad sign. As in, yes the thief was able to download them, and now we begin the process of just waiting to see when and where they will turn up. I really hope that isn't the case and that this will be addressed in the notifications about the issue that are supposed to be going out soon.

I agree with 4rumid though. There is no way I am going to take down the option for a customer to purchase the full rights to an article for an incident that wasn't my fault.

[AngiePapple]

Well, I just tried a quick search of a phrase from mine and if they got it... they haven't put it anywhere.

I hope they didn't get any of ours!

We can all look on the bright side... at least the little jerk has good taste in writing.

[SuzanneBosworth]

We can all look on the bright side... at least the little jerk has good taste in writing.

Now that is good thinking. I like!

Mind you, it reminds me of a time several years back when I got home to discover that my apartment had been burgled. Broken glass, smashed pots, stuff taken - including books, ornaments etc. He'd even gone through all my music tapes - and didn't take a single one.

That smarted just a tad ..

[4rumid]

He'd even gone through all my music tapes - and didn't take a single one.

That smarted just a tad ..

How funny! Were you glad he'd stolen your books?

[SuzanneBosworth]

No! (Let's face it, he wasn't gonna win whatever he did or didn't take ..)

Good thinking about stolen content from here. Just let him try selling it anywhere. He'll be toast, with no ISP (hopefully)

[Sharion]

All of my articles are set with Google alerts before they ever go live so if he posts mine anywhere, I should know instantly.

I wonder if he stole from any of the Copyscape authors? I imagine they'd know right away if their articles were posted anywhere.

[Celeste Stewart]

Unfortunately, none of the "alert" type services are instant or overly reliable from what I've heard. I've heard of many Google alert delays by months. I used to use CopySentry by CopyScape on some articles, but it was weekly. Plagium's "weekly" report arrives monthly at best. . .

[4rumid]

I use Google alerts, and they may not be consistent, but I've gotten alerts almost immediately after articles were posted (fortunately after they were bought and posted, not stolen). So I'm optimistic . . .

[jrichards]

Just a quick note that I've sent out emails to each of the people who have been affected. If you have any questions please feel free to respond to the email.

Thanks,
-jrichards

[Sharion]

Google alerts have choices as to when you want to be notified. Once a day, once a week, or as it happens. From Google:

4. How frequently will I receive alerts?

The frequency you select when you set up your alert determines how often we check for new results, not necessarily how often you'll receive alerts. If you select "once a day," we'll check for new results once a day, which means you'll get a maximum of one email per day. If you choose the "as it happens," we'll check for new results continuously and send you an alert whenever we find a new result.

[Sharion]

Now if Google hasn't crawled a particular website in say, a month, I wonder if that would delay results until Google does crawl the page again on their normal rounds.

[SuzanneBosworth]

Sharion, I wonder that too. I have a Google alert set up for a particular piece which has returned nothing, yet in a routine Google search for my name to check for any rogue postings I found that article reproduced in full on someone's blog. A quick, pleasant email sorted that one and it's now down, but I'd rather have a reliable and automated system that checks, rather than having to do a manual search on a regular basis.

[CieleEdward]

This is one of the reasons it is so important for us to know whether the individual who was attempting to purchase articles from a fraudulent Paypal account was able to actually download our work. So far there has been no response from Support on that one. I was hoping it would be addressed in the e-mail that went out, but it wasn't. It's pretty scary because if they weren't able to download anything, I'm sure Support would have said so to reassure us. As it stands, I bet they got it.

Why does this make me so angry? I should be flattered, not mad....yet...I'm furious that someone would try to do that to us.