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AC Article Thief

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:55 pm
by eek
Pen name Mark Battle. He only has a few articles posted, but mine is one, so others may be stolen as well.
Here's his profile & portfolio: http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/6 ... attle.html

Oh - and I mentioned in another post that I might rethink posting the entire article content in the long summary, but this guy posted the truncated version and didn't even attempt to patch the gaping hole. Wouldn't that be a huge tip-off for AC? Do they even review their authors' uploaded content? This is the 3rd article I've found today, so it's a bit maddening. It comes with the territory, I know, but I have better things to do. I've emailed support and I know they have better things to do as well. (Just the same, I do hope you can help, Support. Please!)

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 5:25 pm
by HayleyWriter
Grrr, I hate article thieves too! Thanks for letting us know Emma. None of mine, thank goodness, but I still better things to do than to chase article theives. I've had a few of mine printed with obvious gaps and even the words "...more" indicating the gap, so you would think SOMEBODY would notice! Hopefully, Support will be able to get these ones down quickly for you.

Kind regards,

Hayley

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 5:47 pm
by Debbi
Ugh, there's another of my articles that sold for full rights two months ago. The AC page shows it was posted on Sept. 30th but the article did not sell until October 10. so should I do something about it or let the buyer pursue it if they want to?

All article thieves should have their computers confiscated and their Internet access turned off!

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:50 am
by jadedragon
I would appreciate hearing what the policy and practice is for posting article previews. I see the rule of providing at least 1/3 of the content (I judge by word count on the excerpt vs the total) but is there a rule or practice on which third?

So far I've been pasting in about the first 1/2 of my article. I would prefer to paste in portions of each paragraphs so that article thieves will have a tougher time. Is it ok to put in something like "article clipped for preview purposes"?

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:37 pm
by Elizabeth Ann West
You know, I'm beginning to wonder if the "thieves" aren't just signing up as a customer. When logged in as a customer, are there also protections against copying and pasting the text? Or do those go away once logged in?

I too found one of my articles stolen and it is on AC. Just FYI, AC allows you to upload anything for performance payment only once you've had 3 articles approved. AND, while it would be nice to fault their reviewers, they are hampered by the fact that our work is not indexed by Google. Hence, it is invisible to many of the plagiarism checkers.

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:11 am
by eek
That's interesting, Elizabeth, because this guy only had 3 articles total, including the article stolen from me. But I get why AC might not know it was from CC. Mark Battle's profile is still there. Is it okay to contact AC about this myself - does anyone know? I'd love to hear from support.

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:53 pm
by LindaM
Whenever I find my stolen content, I always contact AC myself and copy CC on the correspondence. I've had good luck with this route and they usually pull things off within 1 day's notice. Just go into AC's FAQ section and you'll find the contact e-mail and instructions.

Good Luck!

Linda

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:24 am
by eek
Thanks, Linda. I'll do that.

Re: AC Article Thief

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:23 am
by jrichards
Elizabeth Ann West wrote:You know, I'm beginning to wonder if the "thieves" aren't just signing up as a customer. When logged in as a customer, are there also protections against copying and pasting the text? Or do those go away once logged in?

I too found one of my articles stolen and it is on AC. Just FYI, AC allows you to upload anything for performance payment only once you've had 3 articles approved. AND, while it would be nice to fault their reviewers, they are hampered by the fact that our work is not indexed by Google. Hence, it is invisible to many of the plagiarism checkers.
Just to clarify the anti copying technology is in place whether a visitor is signed in as a customer or not. And as you said, we have made it a little bit tough for associated content by not allowing them or any of the search engines to index the articles that you write. We're always on the look out for new ideas regarding how to foil content thieves so please keep sharing any ideas that you have.

-jrichards
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