Copyright questions for public submissions

[canadianBill2010]

Hello

OK I understand that articles get rejected unless they are full articles and not samples of work. But if one is responding to a public request for content, which the customer wants to read, what is to prevent the customer from copying that work and using it instead of paying for it?

Thanks for your help.

Kind regards
Bill

[michaelsmoker]

My understanding is that the customer reads only the sample, which is at least 1/3rd of your article but not the whole thing. If I'm wrong perhaps I can be corrected.

Michael

[aprilk10]

I believe the client does only see what is in your long summary. However, this could be anywhere from 1/3 of the article to the complete article, depending upon what the author chooses to post. I have found that posting only part of your article does not stop content thieves from attempting to steal your work. In my own opinion, clients are more likely to purchase a piece if they can read it in its entirety. But, that is a matter of what the author chooses to make available. Just a couple of weeks ago I discovered that a content thief had stolen my article and posted it (and many others stolen from CC) on a revenue sharing site (thanks to Cosmo for finding these). This particular piece only contained parts of the article, but it was stolen anyway. If you will search through the threads here, you will see that content theft is common and runs rampant on the Internet. I think it is rare that an actual client will steal the article. Content thieves usually just steal them right from the site. Generally, if you find an article you have written has been stolen, a simple note to the poster is all that is necessary. In some cases though, further action may be necessary. In short, you hold the copywrite to any article that you post on CC until you sell it for full rights. When you post it, it is automatically copywrited, as CC has all information regarding the date it was posted.

[michaelsmoker]

I had an article from another writing site stolen on Sunday. Since I couldn't find contact information for the site owner, I filed a DMCA complaint with Google. They have yet to take action on it. If others have had experience with DMCA complaints to Google, please let me know whether it's worth it.

Michael