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If you are into blogging and content creation, it's only a matter of time before you come across plagiarism. One fine morning you may find that your entire blog or content has been copied and pasted elsewhere on the internet. What would you do? Would you even come to know that your content has been copied? How prepared would you be to handle the situation? Surprising as it is, it would be sometime before you'd come up with a plan to address the situation; unless you've read about it before and know your options. Here's how I'd go about it.
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How to check if you are a target of plagiarism
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Search your content on Google
This is not quite the same as searching Google. When you are searching for your content on Google you are actually looking for the exact phrases and formation of words. Select about 5-6 consecutive words of a sentence in your content, put them within double quotes and Google it. Google will give you results containing those words in the exact same format and sequence as you entered. You may want to select these words which are not too generic but specific to your content.
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Try Copyscape
Copyscape is a service that automatically works out the process described in the earlier point.
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How to counter plagiarism
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Write to the infringer
Send them an email notice about your objections. Tell them that they should be aware of what they have done and it's outcomes. Be firm and contain the word of warning. The way you play with words will determine what effect your email will have. The cheaters will either be dumb that they do what they do or they are too smart and have to courage to run the risks.
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Write to the hosting provider
Most of the web hosting providers have policies defined in their terms and conditions pertaining to use of their services. If you write to them with substantial proof of ownership of your content and the proof that your copyrights are being infringed upon, they may take appropriate action. Include a screenshot of the infringing blog in a lossless format or perhaps a link to Google's cache of that site. The snapshot may not stand as a proof since it can even be forged but Google's cache comes as a significant proof.
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Write to their sponsor
Perhaps the prime and the only reason your content is being copied is because the cheaters want to monitize the content. Advertisers will not want to advertise on duplicate content and may as well advertise on the original. If the advertisers can be taken out it will defy the purpose of the existance of the cheater's blog.
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File a compliant under DMRC
The authorities saw it coming and put a process in place to address such cases. You can file a compliant under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which is a US law to help protect the intellectual property rights of the creator.
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Make their act public
Making the cheater's act public may cause ridicule and shame them. This is another way to retaliate.
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Second thoughts
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Do nothing
Good search engines have established algorithms to make out duplicates from the original. Thus your search rankings on these engines will always be higher. Some search engines also penalize the rankings of duplicate content.
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Go OpenSource
This is not a way to retaliate or react to plagiarism. But perhaps another way to pursue blogging. There are several examples of bloggers around who have choosen to go opensource. When people are free to use your content, there will be way too much competition for the cheaters here. In fact you can't technically call them cheaters anymore since your content is free to use. You are contributing and sharing with the community. Anyone with malicious intent will not be able to stand for long.
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Photo by Patrick Powers
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