12 replies to this topic

[santa]

Hi all

Sorry in advance if im asking a simple question, just new to this.

Whats the best ways to go about protecting the content on my website?

I'm finding that people are copying our content or changing it slightly and using it on their site.

any help and advice is appreciated.

[copywriter]

You really can't stop them. There's not an effective piece of code or software I've seen yet that works without causing some other problem on the back end. Only thing you can go is follow the instructions for filing DMCA complaints to have the pages/sites taken offline by their hosts.

Instructions are here.

[Mikl]

As I mentioned in another thread (http://www.highranki...topic=46035&hl=), I've had some success with filing DCMA requests, following the advice given in Jill's newsletter and elsewhere (but that only works if the target site is in the USA).

I've filed about a dozen in the last couple of weeks, and have had a 50 percent success rate in getting the offending material removed.

Whether it is worth the effort is another matter. In pure business terms, maybe it's not. But I get annoyed when I (or one of my co-workers) put effort into creating a useful and interesting page, only to see it getting ripped off by copyright thieves. If nothing else, I want to at least try to stop them getting away with it.

[imagine]

I think there is another way of saving your content from directly getting cut and copied. I have seen few websites which do not allow their content or write-up to be copied form the website. If somebody is looking to duplicate your content then there are probable chances that they would go for the cut and copy method. In any case it at least some elimination of content copying.

[Mikl]

Imagine,

Are you thinking of those sites that use Javascript to disable a right-click in the browser window, to prevent the user selecting Copy from the context menu?

I tend to be against that, partly because it incoveniences users who have a legitimate reason for using the context menu, and partly because it's easy to circumvent: just use the Edit menu to copy the text.

[copywriter]

It doesn't stop anyone who has a strong interest in swiping your copy so they can use it on their site(s).

[WebsiteMaster]

Didn't matt cutts say to not to worry about it? I'm not sure but I wouldn't worry about it.

[Mikl]

Didn't matt cutts say to not to worry about it? I'm not sure but I wouldn't worry about it.

What has Matt Cutts got to do with the ownership of my intellectual property, and the actions of people who steal it?

[marcus-miller]

Hey Mikl

Have you ever used copyscape.com? this is a service designed to help you locate and stop plagiarism of your website content. The also have a more pro active system called copysentry that will actively monitor your content and the web at large and report back to you when it finds new instances of your copy.

I would caution about worrying about this too much as scraping is just part of the web and always will be but if you want to be vigilent, then copyscape and copysentry are certainly worth a look.

Marcus

[Mikl]

Marcus,

Yes, I have used CopyScape. It does a good job of detecting copies, but it certainly does not "stop plagiarism". It is up to the legitimate owner of the IP to do that. But you're right - it's a useful tool.

My current policy is only to take action where the infringemet appears to be doing my sites some definite harm. Usually, that means where it is competiting with it for SERPS placements - and therefore potentially causing financial loss.

In other cases, I tend not to bother. But that's not to say I condone the plagiarism.

[torka]

A company swiped one of my company's product mini-sites whole. Lifted the entire thing, changed the product name to match what they were offering and went live. Same basic layout, same images, same text (except for the product name... and they even missed a few instances of that!)

I filed a DMCA takedown request with Google. I wanted Big G to know this wasn't sanctioned by us, and I didn't want their pages to show up in the SERPs alongside our legitimate site. (Not that they would have, most likely -- but I didn't want to take any chances.)

I filed the request one afternoon. By the time I got in the next morning, I had a reply from Google saying they'd removed the offending pages from their results. Now, instead of listings for those pages in Google, you see:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 14 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

I may not be able to stop them from copying, but I can stop them from showing up in Google (which tends to make the copying a lot less attractive, I would think...)



--Torka

[Mikl]

Torka,

In addition to filing the take-down request with Google, you should file one with the site itself - or, if that fails, with its hosting company. After all, not even Google can remove the site.

[torka]

Oh, yeah, we contacted the site owner directly, too. But he's taking his time about removing the infringing materials. In the meantime, though, he's getting called out every day on Google and ChillingEffects.org.

--Torka