Stolen article

[Lysis]

I guess I'll go look. I won't even wait though. If I catch this joke of a content stealing site with my stuff, my DMCA is going out within a day. This stuff really angers me. I had to file a DMCA last week because some joker stole my article and his server was hosted in China. This stuff really irks me. If AC gets yanked from google, I hope to see them on the google webmaster forums which is the ONLY place for support.

[Lysis]

So how do they get the whole article? Was yours posted in its entirety or just the 1/3 you put up on here? If they nabbed the whole thing, how the heck did they manage it? Is there a security issue here to be concerned with?

A lot of people post the whole article. It sells better.

[cashwriter]

I did a whois search (the owner of the domain is in Russia) and wrote this letter to arkipal@gmail.com:

Alexey M. Arkhipov,

I am writing to you because I found an article I wrote on your website http://femalecare.net. As I am the original author of this content, I want you to remove it immediately. You have not paid for the use of my material. If you do not remove it by midnight on August 25, 2009, I will be contacting your web host provider. The original article is at this address:

http://femalecare.net/womens-reproducti ... -planning/

I understand that some other of your articles are also stolen from other writers on the website we use to sell our work. Please remove all stolen content immediately.

Eileen G. Martinez

[cashwriter]

So how do they get the whole article? Was yours posted in its entirety or just the 1/3 you put up on here? If they nabbed the whole thing, how the heck did they manage it? Is there a security issue here to be concerned with?

A lot of people post the whole article. It sells better.

I know this. My point was, I didn't post the whole article and CC is the only place I've posted it (since I was offering Full Rights). I put all of those articles into a specific folder so they don't get used on sites that accept non-exclusive content. I'm just really confused about how this could have happened.

[Lysis]

So how do they get the whole article? Was yours posted in its entirety or just the 1/3 you put up on here? If they nabbed the whole thing, how the heck did they manage it? Is there a security issue here to be concerned with?

A lot of people post the whole article. It sells better.

I know this. My point was, I didn't post the whole article and CC is the only place I've posted it (since I was offering Full Rights). I put all of those articles into a specific folder so they don't get used on sites that accept non-exclusive content. I'm just really confused about how this could have happened.

Sorry, misunderstood. Another writer had this happen too. One of the popular writers on the forum. Was it Hayley? I can't remember.

btw, good luck hearing back from a russian server webmaster with a gmail account. Any server in India, Pakistan, Russia, or China gets a DMCA straight to google from me. When they no longer get any traffic, maybe they'll learn.

[cashwriter]

What's a DCMA?

Also, how does an article being stolen affect our ability to sell the article for Exclusive or Full Rights?

[Lysis]

What's a DCMA?

Also, how does an article being stolen affect our ability to sell the article for Exclusive or Full Rights?

You need a fax machine, or you need to snail mail it. The info is here: http://www.google.com/dmca.html

Read it carefully, because there are phrases you need to include in the complaint. Google tells you exactly what you need to say.

Google will notify the owner of the website, but ultimately (since it's your content), the website gets banned from Google, and I get to enjoy the plagiarizer's complaints in the webmaster forums. It's the only vindication I have, because this stuff reeeeeally irks me.

[Amy W]

Hey, cashwriter, I feel your pain! I was the other writer who had the whole article stolen from CC, when I'd only posted about 3/4 of it. I never did find out how they got the entire article. Now I just post the whole article in the long summary. If thieves have access to the entire article, I figured buyers should be able to see it all, too.

And I wouldn't worry about filing a DCMA. Just write to Support, include your username, the name of the article, a link to the site that stole it, and a link to the article itself on CC. Support handles stolen content all the time, and I know they've filed DCMAs in the past. They'll take care of it for you.

And don't worry, you can still sell stolen articles for Full Rights - I've had many articles stolen, and they are all still up here for full rights.

[cashwriter]

Well, this is crazy, but I've done what I can. I emailed CC support, emailed the perpetrator, and there's not much more I can do. I HATE, HATE, HATE content stealers. Makes me want to give someone a beat-down.

[Lysis]

"I HATE, HATE, HATE content stealers"

I hear ya. I give hell to at least one content thief a day on the google webmaster forums. 90% of the time, it's some blogger. India and Pakistan are probably the top two countries I see doing it. China being the next. I quit asking for it to be removed from any of these servers. I write on suite101, and it's horrrrrible. There are entire sites with all of our content used. It really ticks me off too.

[Zabrina]

Grrr! I was just settling down when I got a Google alert about another article...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/6 ... squez.html

Off to raise merry hell.

[Lysis]

If it makes y'all feel better, this his what happens when you file a DMCA: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/W ... 3bc9&hl=en

4,000 visitors to 100...boooyaaaah

[Amy W]

Hey, Zabrina, I just clicked on the link and the AC author is now inactive. So whatever merry hell you raised, it worked - your article is taken down!

[Zabrina]

Hey, that DMCA link does make me feel better.

Amy, that's surprising but relieving! I sent an email to AC and then support here on CC, but it was already taken down by the time Support checked it out!

My email template (it's kind of sad that I have one now) is below. You guys can use it if you want -- it seems to get a fast response from AC! Maybe because they're worried the email will get sent to Google (see above)...

To: designated_agent (at) associatedcontent (dot) com

Subject line: Plagiarism

Dear Sir or Madam,

The article found here: (put the AC link here) is plagiarized from an article that I listed for sale on Constant Content on (date your article was listed on CC), located here: (link to your CC article).

Here is my contact information.

Telephone: (number)
Email address: (email you're sending the message from)
Address:
(your street address)

I am sure that I did not authorize this use of my intellectual property, as I have never sold the article.

The above information is accurate, and I am the copyright/intellectual property owner.

If you need any further information, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
(name)

[cashwriter]

And another one. Once again, I've had an entire article stolen from Constant Content when I only posted a portion. I pulled the article from Constant Content before realizing it had been stolen, so I'm guessing I can't get help getting it taken down from CC's end. This is so unbelievably frustrating. Here's the article, in case anyone wants to check for their content as well:

http://wlxs.org/articles/how-to-lose-we ... -for-good/

Grrr....