| You're cruising the 'net checking out your rankings, or | | | | your duplicate content is posted. |
| seeing what your competition is putting up on their | | | | - Check the domain's "whois" entry for contact |
| websites when it happens. You notice something | | | | information. |
| familiar on someone else's web site. You look at it a | | | | 3. Contact the owner of the web site. |
| bit more closely and lo and behold -- someone has | | | | Your first contact with the owner of the web site |
| stolen your content and put it on their web site. | | | | that duplicates your content should be a polite but |
| They have posted your exact content on their web | | | | firm email informing them of the copyright |
| site without your permission, and what's worse, they | | | | infringement and requesting that they remove the |
| may be profiting from money that should be coming | | | | infringing material from their site. |
| into your pocket. Stolen content that's posted as | | | | - Be specific and be sure to detail the infringements. |
| duplicate content on someone else's site can hurt you | | | | - Explain what you want done about the situation. |
| in a number of ways -- stealing web site traffic, | | | | - Detail what steps you will take if they do not |
| diverting sales -- even get your web site banned | | | | comply with your request. |
| from search engines for hosting duplicate content. | | | | - Be polite. Keep in mind that the owner of the web |
| How frustrating would it be to have your web site | | | | site may not know that the material was stolen, or |
| penalized for hosting your own content? | | | | that they were not aware they were doing anything |
| Stealing content from web sites, and sometimes | | | | wrong. Often, this letter from you will be enough for |
| entire web sites, is more common than most people | | | | them to immediately remove the stolen content. |
| suspect. It's called copyright infringement, and there | | | | 4. If the content is not removed, contact the web |
| are steps that you can take to force the owner of | | | | site's hosting company. |
| the other web site to remove your content from | | | | - Hosting companies are aware that they may also |
| their site. | | | | be held liable if one of their customers posts illegally |
| 1. Find duplicated content from your site on other | | | | obtained content on their web sites, and will often be |
| people's web site. | | | | cooperative in removing the offending content. |
| - Copyscape allows you to enter your site URL and | | | | - Provide the same details to the hosting company |
| will return other pages that contain content with | | | | that you did to the web site owner and point to the |
| significant matches of words. | | | | violation in the Terms of Service agreement. In many |
| - Enter a few sentences from the beginning of your | | | | cases, the hosting company will remove not only the |
| page into a search engine in quotes. It will return your | | | | offending content, but the entire web site. |
| own pages, and any other sites where those | | | | 5. File a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) |
| sentences are copied. | | | | infringement complaint with Google. |
| - Use Google image search to locate stolen | | | | - Google penalizes copyright infringers by removing or |
| photographs or image files. | | | | blocking access to the material on the offending site |
| 2. Determine who owns the website on which your | | | | -- in other words, removing them from their listings. |
| content is posted. | | | | They may also share your complaint with a third |
| - Get contact information from the website where | | | | party who posts about content thieves. |