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This Site is Not Secure - Theft is Mounting

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:29 am
by LMills
I have loved writing for constant-content for the last two years and have sold the majority of the articles that I have posted for sale here. Unfortunately, I must move away from this site until the theft problem is addressed by this administration.

I have always experienced the occasional stolen article but, recently, things have really gotten out of control. I just finished filing DMCA claims and removed 6 thefts last week, only to find 2 more today. These were some of my best remaining articles, and this is just too disheartening to continue at this time. Since May, I have had a total of 12 articles stolen, and some of these were posted so many times that I cannot even sell them for usage now.

I encourage all writers here to join copyscape, if you haven't already. For a few pennies a search, it is well worth it.

Though I know some writers here have had success posting just a portion of their text, this has not worked well for me in the past. I have always posted the full article in good faith, and my sales were much stronger for this.

I truly have enjoyed this site and have always found the editors to be fair and concise. Constant-content attracts some of the best, brightest writers on the web, and I will sorely miss being a part of this esteemed group.

I will leave all stolen content on here for verification and remove any articles that still have potential for sale elsewhere. I hope, in time, to return, and I will continue to check the forum for updates on this issue.

Linda

Re: This Site is Not Secure - Theft is Mounting

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:47 pm
by Evelyn
Linda, we will miss you. We're all affected by this thievery, and I understand why you must protect yourself. Good luck to you, and many blessings.

Re: This Site is Not Secure - Theft is Mounting

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 5:44 pm
by jadedragon
Where can one go where article thrift is not an issue? what is wrong with posting portions of the article to cut down on stealing?

Re: This Site is Not Secure - Theft is Mounting

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:07 am
by StephanieLemieux
Unfortunately, only posting partial long summaries doesn't necessarily help. I just received a message from a potential buyer that my long summary (about 45% of the entire article) is printed on various websites. It's disappointing...but I also think that it's the nature of web publishing. I can't imagine that this is a problem that is unique to Constant Content. I'm not sure what the solution is!

Re: This Site is Not Secure - Theft is Mounting

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:29 pm
by carpenjoyce
Eric from cc recently posted an update about a security fix on cc.--it was probably in the author updates file, but I don't have the title of the post right now. This was just posted a couple days ago.

I think the best thing to do is take off part of every paragraph, using ellipses to indicate there's more. I think this was Jade Dragon's idea.(?) Shortening the article won't work, because they'll still steal what they can see. But having to finish every paragraph is much harder. Hopefully, the security fix will help prevent whole file theft.

Sometimes it's not what you think, either. I recently had a situation where I thought that my whole file had been stolen, but it turned out the thief stole the article from my customer and backdated when he posted it. (at least that's what I think happened, because he posted it under the customer's name)