Constant Content

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Here is my article that incidentally sold after 2 views. I can't imagine someone would pay $65 to post to AC, so I think this is stolen. I'm contacting support, but others should check.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tml?cat=15


Edit: whooops, this was not an article that sold after 2 views. I got my sales items screwed up. Nevermind. It's a good problem to have, but nonetheless, I really loathe content thieves.

I can't contact AC, because the article is sold, and I don't think they can view it. Grrrr

Hi Lysis.
Total empathy - I just spent a few weeks cleaning up the results of a content thief who posted one of my unsold articles to ezine and article base, from which several other blogs copied. I've had good responses from the two sites mentioned and also AC for another article. But all of mine were unsold.

What rights did the article sell for? If it sold for full rights it's out of your hands. If the article sold for usage you still have leverage, assuming the AC author was not the purchaser. Help from CC support might be your only chance, if they'll tell you the name of the purchaser. Or what about sending a screen shot of the article on CC with the date of submission (your content page)?

Grrrr...Aggravatin' content thieves.
Hope you win this round.
Em

Well, the thing that has me concerned is that it was purchased on Sunday, I believe. So, it's only been 2 days since the sale. I don't want the buyer to come back pissed off that it's not original content (it was sold for fullrights). If a week or so had gone by, I wouldn't be concerned, but Google alerts just sent me an email on it, so I imagine thief posted it today or yesterday.

The buyer is also someone who regularly purchases from me, so I don't want to burn that bridge, ya know?

I guess it is out of my hands, but this guy is obviously copying CC's content. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he posts someone's content that hasn't sold. That article was on the front page for the weekend, so he must be skimming the front page CC content.

Maybe the AC guy copied it from the customer's site? So far, it only shows up on AC though.

On the other hand, what if the customer is trying different avenues, posting the article on several sites as part of a larger strategy? It is possible, especially since the article was available for only a short time on CC and only had two hits.

I guess that could be it too. I could be jumping to conclusions. The customer has purchased from me several times, but I've never had an alert on his content.

If it were any other site besides AC, I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. LOL

Yeah, I know what you mean. We've had so many content thieves post our stuff there, but it's a legitimate site, too. I can imagine a customer using an article in an ezine and then posting it on revenue share sites as a way to recover some of the money spent and build himself up as an expert in the topic.

It looks like the entire article is on AC. Did you put the entire article in the long summary?
CC Support can back you up if the customer is upset. Do you have a way of sending him a message through CC's system? You might consider a heads-up message, or "is this you?" Or maybe it's best to leave it alone, but if I were the customer I'd appreciate knowing about it and I wouldn't suspect you of foul play.
But then, I'm super nice.
Em

Yeah, I post the full article. I know it leaves me open for stuff like this, but of the 75 articles I posted on here, this is the first time it's happened. Ticks me off, but it's a small percentage for having a higher return on sales. At least, I would imagine having the whole article to view is more attractive to customers. Celeste suggested it, and I've been successful with that theory.

I emailed support. I'll let them decide if it's worth the fight. I do think it's a good idea to monitor that user's account. If it is a content thief, I'm sure he'll do it to someone else...or me again. LOL

Even the people who don't post the whole article fall victim to content theft. Thieves are idiots.

You are right about that, Celeste. I've even had articles stolen from the summary published with the "For the full article, please purchase the rights" statement I use to show that the whole article is not there!

They probably don't know how to read, so the sentence doesn't deter them. They're illiterate idiots More likely automated bots.

Just thought I'd post a followup. I heard from CC's support last night. They contacted AC and this morning the page is gone.

Very nice service CC. Actually protecting the authors ability to earn.

And you don't even bother to steal our articles to publish on a UK site and not pay us. Amazing.

That's why so many authors here are loyal to CC - the site protects us and looks after us as authors. You will not find a better site to write for than CC.

Hayley