Are authors protected from content theft?

[dmgray]

Still new and learning the ropes on CC but I have a quick question...

When you submit and article for a public or private request, are there any measures to stop a custome from simply copying the content of the article(s) and then using them without paying? Some people are not always honest and it seems a great way for a morally defunct person to grab good quality free articles! Put in a request, get loads of good articles send to you, copy the content and paste it wherever and them reject the article.

Am I just cynical?! It is not as if you know where the article would end up and can therefore check. Or do customers have to provide that infromation to CC admin?

I recognize there has to be some trust between authors and customers...it is just an observational question, please don't shoot me for being a paranoid newbie!

[jadedragon]

As I understand the process, the client gets an email informing them of a new article submitted to their request. They log in and see the article the same way any other customer (or author) does. The only difference is that requests are exclusive view for the three days. Any customer (or anyone with an account) that can defeat the various security measures could steal articles.

[dmgray]

Does that mean they just see the extented summary where you have to add 1/3 of the article? Or do they see the whole piece? Sorry, I am just curious!

[Nessiee]

As far as I know, they only see what you include in your long summary just like any other customer. The only difference is, they are the only ones that can view your long summary for the first three days. After the payment has been made, the file with the full article is then provided.

[dmgray]

Ah ok, thanks for clearing that up

[KinsleyRoyale]

I had read here to put in the entire piece as it would more likely be purchased. At first I was ok with that because I know I am able to rewrite my articles or break them into new ones easily.

Maybe it was the "stealer" that wrote the advice about submitting the full piece, because I was doing that and had one of my articles recently stolen by reuterspost.com with no way except a lengthy form filling out process to get it off. What fried me that time is I had an offer on that article and then the offer disappeared. We all spend a fair amount of time writing and editing and our time is worth anyone else's time. What fried me was I lost the sale and bascially lost any income, while this reuters dude probably has another job for his income, which includes making money off our articles in his payclick advertising!!

I've begun to only submit part. It may work against me who knows.

Support advised me they are trying to shut down Reuterspost. In the meantime you can fill out the legal work to google to have it revoked.

[eek]

Kinsley - A few of us have had partial articles stolen and posted online as is. Just another reason to dislike content thieves. They either aren't clever enough to notice or they don't care about posting articles that come to a jarring halt. I've flip-flopped on the amount of content I post, but for public requests, I figure it's better to give the customer the benefit of the doubt and let him see the whole package. It's a personal issue, and thankfully CC gives authors a choice.

[Celeste Stewart]

The people recommending posting full text are CC writers sharing their experiences, not content stealers. I've been burned by content thieves, including the ReuetersPost guy, but I still prefer to show potential customers what they're buying. Like Eek says, the thieves even steal excerpts. Hopefully CC is continuing to develop better ways to secure the store.