The four pieces of mine that were up on that m6n8 site were originally published on Helium (much to my shame), so I emailed them about it as well. Here was their response:
"Greetings ,
Thanks for your ongoing interest in and efforts on the Helium site. This is something you will need to do on your own. You must file a complaint with Google. Here is a url to the web page to do this. "
There was a little bit more, but it was Google links.
You have to love CC. At least they took direct steps to protect their writers.
Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed
-
BarryDavidson
- Posts: 561
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:10 am
-
Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
And how can you not know that CC articles aren't free - especially when there's a big fat button that says, "Do not copy" right next to the purchasing information with dollar signs and a note that says, "Add this article to your cart"? I don't feel sorry for him making his living off his blog by stealing our work - work that we make our living off of after spending the time and effort to create.
Plus, if he bought the stolen content from some other person, how much do you want to bet it was one of those offers of "I'll buy 100 1,000-word articles and am willing to pay a total of $15 for the entire batch" deals. These low ball deals are all over the freelancing sites and there's no way that you'll get decent, well-written original work - you get what you pay for be it artiles by a non-English writer with terrible grammar, software-generated text, or stolen content.
Yes, Barry, CC rocks!
Plus, if he bought the stolen content from some other person, how much do you want to bet it was one of those offers of "I'll buy 100 1,000-word articles and am willing to pay a total of $15 for the entire batch" deals. These low ball deals are all over the freelancing sites and there's no way that you'll get decent, well-written original work - you get what you pay for be it artiles by a non-English writer with terrible grammar, software-generated text, or stolen content.
Yes, Barry, CC rocks!
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Thank you CC for taking care of our lists so quickly. Great support.
That being said, many of our articles are still there. I'm on dial-up and don't have a lot of time today, but just going through a few pages I see many from CC authors. I've only looked in his article section and I'm sure there are more of my own, so I'll have to find some time to go through them all in other sections. URGH!! As for the others, may I suggest again, you send out a general email or perhaps someone here could volunteer to take down titles or send out emails.
The ones I found this morning, I recognize from recent requests -- grief -- parks -- as well as titles I recognize. Since the owner of the site has "owned up," he should bloody well take care of this himself. So unfair and inconsiderate. Robots, my a**. This is theft on a grand scale and whether "it's done all the time" or not, doesn't make it okay. He's so lucky he's not being sued. Stop laughing, I'm tempted. :) He stole at least 50% of my own work.
Lor
OOh, I do get niggled before my second cup of tea. :):)
That being said, many of our articles are still there. I'm on dial-up and don't have a lot of time today, but just going through a few pages I see many from CC authors. I've only looked in his article section and I'm sure there are more of my own, so I'll have to find some time to go through them all in other sections. URGH!! As for the others, may I suggest again, you send out a general email or perhaps someone here could volunteer to take down titles or send out emails.
The ones I found this morning, I recognize from recent requests -- grief -- parks -- as well as titles I recognize. Since the owner of the site has "owned up," he should bloody well take care of this himself. So unfair and inconsiderate. Robots, my a**. This is theft on a grand scale and whether "it's done all the time" or not, doesn't make it okay. He's so lucky he's not being sued. Stop laughing, I'm tempted. :) He stole at least 50% of my own work.
Lor
OOh, I do get niggled before my second cup of tea. :):)
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
"This is theft on a grand scale and whether "it's done all the time" or not, doesn't make it okay."
No, of course not. I just wanted to make sure a certain amount of perspective was being kept. While it is not okay, every author who writes for the web should be aware that there is a potential for this type of thing to happen.
No, of course not. I just wanted to make sure a certain amount of perspective was being kept. While it is not okay, every author who writes for the web should be aware that there is a potential for this type of thing to happen.
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Hey all,
I received another e-mail from Igor about the Acne site and it states as follows:
"all posts from the person who i paid to write for me are deleted.
now i checked manually and i don't have anymore constant content articles on my blog."
I did check the site and there were several articles taken off. Hopefully he got them all. I think everyone should still go there to look in case he missed any.
Deanna
I received another e-mail from Igor about the Acne site and it states as follows:
"all posts from the person who i paid to write for me are deleted.
now i checked manually and i don't have anymore constant content articles on my blog."
I did check the site and there were several articles taken off. Hopefully he got them all. I think everyone should still go there to look in case he missed any.
Deanna
-
audrabianca
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:39 pm
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
What is the status of CC's action with brucegreat and his blatant theft of our articles, he apologized but he is not taking our articles down.
I just entered www.m6n8.com and my article was in bold on the top of the main web page. It was not purchased from CC.
The Internet Brings Closet Entrepreneurs Out of Hiding
I just entered www.m6n8.com and my article was in bold on the top of the main web page. It was not purchased from CC.
The Internet Brings Closet Entrepreneurs Out of Hiding
-
BarryDavidson
- Posts: 561
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:10 am
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
From what I've seen, he removed all the articles which were stripped from the site on November 18th.
Make a list of your articles, where they are, and send them to CC support. They did contact the site's administrator/owner, and he took off other articles. If he doesn't take down the rest, then there are other avenues to take including having his hosting company manually remove each one which violates the DCMA. With hundreds of articles being stripped from CC in one day, it will take some time. Especially is CC has to do it alone.
Support did tell me that they're working on a way to automate the process of searching for articles by CC authors, but first they have to address this issue. Without our help this could take months considering the volume of articles this guy has up on that site. Imagine searching that site, and then searching for those titles in the CC database. For now, it's a one for one search process. Sixty-plus pages with ten or more articles on each, and then the single pages when clicked is not an easy job.
In short terms: We help ourselves by helping CC.
Make a list of your articles, where they are, and send them to CC support. They did contact the site's administrator/owner, and he took off other articles. If he doesn't take down the rest, then there are other avenues to take including having his hosting company manually remove each one which violates the DCMA. With hundreds of articles being stripped from CC in one day, it will take some time. Especially is CC has to do it alone.
Support did tell me that they're working on a way to automate the process of searching for articles by CC authors, but first they have to address this issue. Without our help this could take months considering the volume of articles this guy has up on that site. Imagine searching that site, and then searching for those titles in the CC database. For now, it's a one for one search process. Sixty-plus pages with ten or more articles on each, and then the single pages when clicked is not an easy job.
In short terms: We help ourselves by helping CC.
-
Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
What if we could put "invisible" text into the long summary -but not the attached document... The invisible text would be something unique for each writer along the lines of "This article is property of [author's name] and is being used without author's permission." The text would be hidden and virtually unviewable. However, Google and other search engines would index it. So, if someone or a robot steals the content and posts it elsewhere, each of us would have a unique search phrase that we can search to see if unauthorized copies are out there. Legitimate customers wouldn't be copying and pasting anyway - they'd be using the document files.
On the writer's end, it would be a simple matter of making a habit of searching the phrase every few weeks and reporting any findings. On CC's end, they'd need to give us a way to enter "hidden" text in the long summary. Maybe a form box that says "apply hidden text" along with a custom phrase we can enter.
On the writer's end, it would be a simple matter of making a habit of searching the phrase every few weeks and reporting any findings. On CC's end, they'd need to give us a way to enter "hidden" text in the long summary. Maybe a form box that says "apply hidden text" along with a custom phrase we can enter.
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Intriguing idea. Let me pass it on and see if this is possible.
-
Celeste Stewart
- Posts: 3528
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
- Location: California
- Contact:
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Also, I suppose that authors could then set up the unique phrase using Google Alerts - and then receive a Google Alert when a hit comes up...
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Update:
The owner of this site will get another cease and desist letter, and DMCA documentation is being prepared.
In addition, Celeste's idea of integrating invisible text is now in place. You can set your Google alerts to notify you if the invisible text appears on someone's website. This may not foil everyone, but it will be one way to identify stolen content - especially if that content has been taken from robots.
Long summaries will not be in the HTML Source Code, which will *help* prevent their being copy+pasted by bots. I would just like to reiterate that no precaution taken will guarantee content is not stolen.
In addition, resource materials are being prepared in order to help authors address the theft of content. It is my understanding this information will be placed on the site for use by all authors with clear instructions.
Thanks,
Ed
The owner of this site will get another cease and desist letter, and DMCA documentation is being prepared.
In addition, Celeste's idea of integrating invisible text is now in place. You can set your Google alerts to notify you if the invisible text appears on someone's website. This may not foil everyone, but it will be one way to identify stolen content - especially if that content has been taken from robots.
Long summaries will not be in the HTML Source Code, which will *help* prevent their being copy+pasted by bots. I would just like to reiterate that no precaution taken will guarantee content is not stolen.
In addition, resource materials are being prepared in order to help authors address the theft of content. It is my understanding this information will be placed on the site for use by all authors with clear instructions.
Thanks,
Ed
-
BarryDavidson
- Posts: 561
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:10 am
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Ooooooo...
Perhaps ask for a form which can be filled in and printed out from the site?
The law requires a real signature of the authorized agent or person owning the rights.
Perhaps ask for a form which can be filled in and printed out from the site?
The law requires a real signature of the authorized agent or person owning the rights.
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
I think this is what we're going for. The goal is for it to be useable and understandable.
-
JulianeAnders
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:47 pm
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
You are going after this the wrong way. Simply get his google adsense account banned.
This is very simple to do. Chinese, no surprise. Most of the Chinese economy deals in piracy and poison.
This is very simple to do. Chinese, no surprise. Most of the Chinese economy deals in piracy and poison.
Re: Copyright Violations: Attention All CC Authors
Re: "Update:
The owner of this site will get another cease and desist letter, and DMCA documentation is being prepared.
In addition, Celeste's idea of integrating invisible text is now in place. You can set your Google alerts to notify you if the invisible text appears on someone's website. This may not foil everyone, but it will be one way to identify stolen content - especially if that content has been taken from robots.
Long summaries will not be in the HTML Source Code, which will *help* prevent their being copy+pasted by bots. I would just like to reiterate that no precaution taken will guarantee content is not stolen.
In addition, resource materials are being prepared in order to help authors address the theft of content. It is my understanding this information will be placed on the site for use by all authors with clear instructions.
Thanks,
Ed"
I'm sure your efforts are appreciated by every author here, thanks for going a step or two beyond what some sites would do. While it is true that this is not unusual and not isolated to Constant Content and that the fault is not CC's or that of the authors, it also needs to be looked at with a dose of reality. Posting content to any site with limited security and then being shocked that it is stolen is akin to leaving your car running with the doors open overnight in a bad section of town and then being surprised when in the morning it is gone. Yes, it is still the fault of the thief, but its a risk you take in choosing to park your vehicle that way. Authors need to be more aware of what content theft possibilities there are in relation to any site they use and then only use sites where... where... where... they're allowed to park their cars inside a garage (just following through).
The owner of this site will get another cease and desist letter, and DMCA documentation is being prepared.
In addition, Celeste's idea of integrating invisible text is now in place. You can set your Google alerts to notify you if the invisible text appears on someone's website. This may not foil everyone, but it will be one way to identify stolen content - especially if that content has been taken from robots.
Long summaries will not be in the HTML Source Code, which will *help* prevent their being copy+pasted by bots. I would just like to reiterate that no precaution taken will guarantee content is not stolen.
In addition, resource materials are being prepared in order to help authors address the theft of content. It is my understanding this information will be placed on the site for use by all authors with clear instructions.
Thanks,
Ed"
I'm sure your efforts are appreciated by every author here, thanks for going a step or two beyond what some sites would do. While it is true that this is not unusual and not isolated to Constant Content and that the fault is not CC's or that of the authors, it also needs to be looked at with a dose of reality. Posting content to any site with limited security and then being shocked that it is stolen is akin to leaving your car running with the doors open overnight in a bad section of town and then being surprised when in the morning it is gone. Yes, it is still the fault of the thief, but its a risk you take in choosing to park your vehicle that way. Authors need to be more aware of what content theft possibilities there are in relation to any site they use and then only use sites where... where... where... they're allowed to park their cars inside a garage (just following through).