Associated Content and Stolen Articles

[Constant]

Hi Folks!
I know that there has been concern about some of our authors seeing articles that have been stolen from our site and posted on Associatedcontent.com. We have been persistent in our communication with AC and have found a friend in their General Consul. He assures us that they have a vested interest in helping us keep stolen content off of their site. He has deleted all the content that was pilfered from CC as well as deleted the profile and all associated files of Josh Paul, one of the culprits we have been tracking.

We had already mentioned here on the forum that we want you to contact support@constant-content.com if you find any of your articles on the site, and that still is our suggestion. Before you contact us though, make sure that: the article is just the long summary (a good indication of whether the article was stolen or not), if the article had ever been sold or not and for what kind of license it was sold for. All of this will help us to make sure that we are going after the right people.

There will always be people trying to steal content on the internet, and the harder they try the more difficult we are and will make it for them to be successful.

As always if you have any questions let us know.

David Kool

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Thanks Dave.

I checked all of my recent titles and found another thief. http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/4 ... hnson.html

I sent you a message via Contact Us, sent a message to the author on AC, and posted a comment on MY article that this content is stolen, with a link to my profile page here in case someone reads it, they are directed to the correct place to purchase it.

[beconrad]

Ack - I found 3 of my articles there as well. I suggest everyone go take a look. I have submitted the details to support.

Cheers,
Bonnie

[Celeste Stewart]

Same here. Creeps. They just don't get it.

[HayleyWriter]

Since this seems to be an ongoing problem, I was wondering if CC could set up an automatic sweep of AC on a daily basis, as new content is added. Run a program to review the recently added content and cross-check against the approved CC articles. Flag any that match for a real live person to cross-check and make sure it is not stolen from CC. Then, CC could initiate the process to get AC to pull down the stolen work and lock out the offending author straight away. It may even stop authors stealing more than one article. It would certainly prevent the stolen articles being on AC for too long. Quick action from CC could get the message out to at least some of the thieves to STOP stealing from CC. It wouldn't be worthwhile to steal the articles if AC locks the author out after one article submission that was stolen, especially if action was taken within 24 hours of the article going up on the site.

I hope something like this is possible. AC has RSS feeds, so it shouldn't be too difficult to set up feeds for all the recent articles.

The other option is for CC to sue the offending authors as well as getting them locked from AC. Strong action could also prevent similar thefts.

Hayley

[BarryDavidson]

I have an idea. I may not be workable in programming terms, but I can't see how it wouldn't be. Either, A) Only allow logged in, verified customers and authors view the long summaries, or, B) Allow authors to check a box which will hide all but the title and short summary to non-logged in customers. In the latter case, I'd have the system automatically default to hiding all but the title, by-line, and short summary automatically. Let the authors pick which articles they'd like viewable from the web in general (long summaries). Perhaps three little check boxes under the line, "Make my long summary viewable by:" [authors] [customers] [web] and allow multiple boxes to be checked.

This isn't a perfect answer by any stretch, but if only verified members can see the long summaries it will help curb "drive-by" automated and manual thefts. One of the writer's websites I'm a member of only allows members to read any content if they're members. In order to become members the people have to give a real name, address, etc. They don't have to use their real name as a screen name, but none of the content on the site is indexed (viewable) from the web unless logged in.

As Mr. Kool has stated, we also need to be careful. In most of the cases so far the content reported was indeed stolen or "phished" from the site. Keep in mind that if you see the full article somewhere (or several somewheres) with someone else's name, and the article has sold for full rights, it is the right of the buyer to post and resell it anywhere they wish. Once it becomes their full property, it is their responsibility to track down any thefts.

[Jon]

I just spotted one of my articles over there too (History of the Barbie Doll). I sent a message to support with links to the article less than two hours ago and I just checked out the Associated Content site and the article has been removed. If its removal is down to those at Constant Content I feel this is extremely efficient and that you all deserve a rapturous round of applause.

[Constant]

All the ideas are good one's guys and we are in talks right now with AC to make sure that we are all moving in the right direction. Please keep vigilant and keep sending me the emails with content that you have found to be stolen.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Yeah I have noticed there is often a pattern with the thefts. In this case, there may not have been, but previously it was just a whole group of articles "approved" here that were stolen entirely. No rhyme or reason to the subject matter, just grabbed the first articles they saw so to speak.

I think the log in to view the full summary is the best solution to help stem the tide, so that authors can post the full summary for buyers, and C-C increases their mailing list. More registered buyers should mean more sales.

Another idea is just submit our titles and perhaps first few sentences. It doesn't appear the thieves make ANY effort to change the title or anything in the article. If we could just give them a database of titles that should stop quite a bit.

[JKALLEN]

Sorry for what may seem like a stoopid question, but how exactly are you checking AC for your stolen content? They have a database of 12 gazillion articles, surely we can't cross check all against our own portfolios.

Thankee in advance,

Jenn

[BarryDavidson]

Jenn,

You can sometimes search for the title in parentheses, some of the text, and programs like copyscape work as well. All it takes is one person to notice their work, see a title that sounds familiar, and post here in the forums.

[kywrite]

Always check for text at AC, not titles. AC's editors do change titles for searchability -- one of the few things they seem to do.