The most annoying and depressing practice in the online world is to have spent hours upon hours producing quality content for your blog or website, and someone else without your permission coming along to easily copy and paste them on his platform. If you are lucky, you will get a lousy credit.
As much as many people do not value people’s content/articles or images online, the original writers or photographers forever remain the true copy right owners.
Unless someone has been given permission to use these materials by the copyright owners, or it is being used under the principle of fair use, it is against copyright law for someone to lift the content and use them any how they wish-including publishing them somewhere else (either online or offline).
Online content thievery is getting out of hands with several blogs and websites being launched each day mainly to run on people’s content.
With the help of RSS Feed, your content can be posted automatically on someone’s websites/blogs just minutes after you have published them.
Stopping thieves from stealing anything from you is very difficult. Unlike offline where you can effectively safeguard your properties with padlocks and high security, it is basically unachievable to totally protect your intellectual properties such as content and photos from online thieves.
However, not all hope is lost since each day, the real good guys find a way to combat those lazy content thieves.
Protecting Your Website/Blog From Copy & Paste
If you run a wordpress blog/website, there are number of good plugins out there which you can install to disable right click on your entire website or specific pages/posts. When right click is disabled, it makes it very difficult for the lazy content thieves to steal your images.
Also, the same plugin can protect your text (Articles). When activated, it makes it impossible to highlight text and copy them.
Thought there are other technical long ways by which a thief can go through to still copy your content, these plugins safeguard your content from the lazy thieves who do not want to spend time tweaking things just to copy a photo/image or content.
Among the several plugins out there performing this function, I have tried this one (Text & Image Protector) and it works like magic…CLICK HERE FOR IT.
Reporting Content Thieves To Their Host/DMCA Notice
It is always good to try and contact content thieves and politely ask them to stop stealing your stuff without permission because it is against the law. However, I find this step pretty useless since most of the thieves I have contacted write back to ‘abuse’ you. Imagine how annoying it is for someone who is stealing from you to write back with insults.
If a content thief does not stop stealing from you after you have expressed your displeasure, the way forward for you as the copyright owner of the content is to report the thief to his/her website/blog hosting company and also to his/her advertising partner(s) (like Google Adsense) which are helping him/her monetize those stolen content.
Most web hosting companies will comply and act swiftly on your request or notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Though the DMCA allows copyright owners to notify hosts, billing companies and others providing services to websites displaying stolen content, of the infringement and request that the infringing content be disabled, removed or discontinued by the service provider. You must remember to send the notice (DMCA Notice) in a proper or acceptable format.
If the DMCA Notification you send meets all the legal requirements, the hosting company will ask the thief to quickly remove the reported materials or delete those materials themselves.
DMCA Enforcement with Notices are “the single most efficient and cost effective way to pursue copyright infringers, without the necessity and expense of legal proceedings or often ineffective “Cease & Desist” notices.
Why pay huge amounts to chase a thief when you can easily hit the infringers where it hurts by taken away his/her hosting or billing services.
Almost all the web hosting companies accept DMCA Notice via email. However, certain companies like Google which hosts Blogger, Blogspot and serves Adsense requires that you send your DMCA Notice with your signature via the post or fax.
Since DMCA Notice must follow a format, below is a sample which you can freely lift, make some few changes to, and use anything there is the need.
Do not let the infringers get away with their acts. Stop them today…It is very simple!
Dear Sir/Madam
I am the copyright owner of the below articles being infringed on at (put links of your articles which are published on the other site here)
Original Articles on my site can be found here;
(Put the links to the corresponding articles on your site)
This letter is official notification under the provisions of Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) to effect removal of the above-reported infringements. I request that you immediately issue a cancellation message as specified in RFC 1036 for the specified postings and prevent the infringer, who is identified by its Web address, from posting the infringing articles to your servers in the future.
Please be advised that law requires you, as a service provider, to “expeditiously remove or disable access to” the infringing articles upon receiving this notice.
Noncompliance may result in a loss of immunity for liability under the DMCA.
I have a good faith belief that the use of the materials in the manner complained of here is not authorized by me, the copyright holder, or the law.
The information provided here is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I swear under penalty of perjury that I am the copyright holder.
Please send me at the address noted below a prompt response indicating the actions you have taken to resolve this matter.
Sincerely,
Your Name Here
Email: Your email here
Photo Credit: Google Images
Thanks a lot Vincent for this tips. As a Web Developer and Coder myself, I know we can make it a bit harder for people ready to steal content from our site but not impossible.