Estimated reading time: 8 – 14 minutes

Free, Easy Ways to Detect and Prevent Content Theft

1. Set up an alert system.

Most of the copyright violations I?ve uncovered have been sent directly to my inbox by Google Alerts. There are other sites you can try, as well (such as FairShare, TYNT Tracer, or Copyscape) if you are specifically interested in monitoring the use of your work online.

Google Alerts are free and easy to set up. You can create multiple alerts. Just go to http://www.google.com/alerts:

Enter your search terms. First, enter the most common variants of your name and public user IDs/email addresses. Enter phrases in quotation marks. For example, if your name is Jane Doe, you won?t want an alert sent to your inbox every time ?Jane? or ?Doe? are mentioned. Try a search like this:

“jane doe”|”jdoe?|?jane e. doe? |?janedoe87?

Choose the type of alert you want to create:

I like Comprehensive, because it includes all the others. However, if you only want to be alerted when your name is mentioned on someone?s blog, you can narrow the search here.

Next, tell Google how often you?d like to receive your alerts:

Lastly, tell Google how you?d like them delivered ? in your email inbox, or in Google Reader:

You can manage your alerts (change the search terms, the type, the frequency, the delivery method):

What other types of alerts are good to have? Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

?<your book title>? AND ?review?

?<your blog title>?

You can use Boolean logic to refine your search terms. The following is an alert that I set up to follow developments around the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and its impact on books:

(cpsia OR “consumer product safety improvement act of 2008″) AND (books OR “holly jahangiri” OR “4RV Publishing”)

This means, ?Send me an alert if the content has either cpsia or the phrase ?consumer product safety improvement act of 2008? and at least ONE of the following words or phrases: books, ?holly jahangiri?, or ?4RV publishing?.? The alerts are not case-sensitive, so you?ll get alerted to cpsia or CPSIA, and so on.

2. Give Notice

Put a copyright notice or Creative Commons notice on your Web site and blog. This is not necessary under current copyright law, and the presumption is that you intend to retain all rights, absent notice to the contrary. However, it provides others with guidance as to how they may use your work. It is both a courtesy and a warning. Many people are honored to have their work ?stolen? ? they see it as a compliment and free exposure or free advertising. And that?s fine, but it would be nice if those folks would clearly label the material that is up for grabs, along with any conditions on using the work (e.g., ?provided you give a link back to my site,? or ?so long as you don?t change anything,? or ?do whatever you want to it, I don?t care?). Don?t embed others? work on your site within an inline frame unless they have clearly consented to that.

Given the very nature of the World Wide Web, it is not reasonable to say, ?Don?t link to my site.? As a courtesy, particularly if your own site has significant traffic, you probably should not link directly to others? graphics (it can chew up bandwidth, and they may be on a bandwidth-limited Web hosting service). You should never copy others? images to your own server, though, without their consent. Consent may be surprisingly easy to obtain, given the nature of the Web. Try asking. Barring that, there are a number of reputable sources for free images on the Web, and the free stock images available are getting better all the time. Or, if you have a friend who enjoys photography, maybe you can work out a deal. For that matter, try taking the photos, yourself. It?s fun!

The Fair Use Doctrine allows for quotations and excerpts (with proper attribution) for education, criticism, or parody. It doesn?t allow you to copy whole blog posts, poems, short stories, or comments and use them on your own site without the author?s permission. But the good news is, there are lots of sites that provide good, free content if you?ve run out of things to say. Try Ezinearticles.com.

3. Take ?em Down!

I know what I said about people thinking it?s cool to be ripped off. I understand the initial reaction ? you?re flattered. Someone liked your stuff enough to steal it. Would you feel that way about your grandmother?s pearl ring? Most copyright violation is the result of automatic content scripting (?scraping? of snippets of content from around the Internet to build a keyword-stuffed page that will display targeted Google Adsense ads and generate search engine traffic that may lead to making a few bucks the lazy, dishonest, unethical way) or deliberate stealing of work by people who don?t have an original thought in their pointy little heads. Don?t be flattered. Nice people either write about you and your content and provide a link back to your site, or they ask if they can use your content on their site. Or they ask you to write something original for them ? a guest post, perhaps. Allowing these folks to get by with stealing from you just encourages them ? and encourages others to imitate them. It?s a bad thing for all of us. But how do you go after them? Half of them aren?t even in the same country!

PlagiarismToday provides extensive resources for fighting back against copyright violations. First, you need to identify the infringer, if possible, and his/her Web host. To identify the host, use a whois lookup tool like http://whois.domaintools.com/. Record the registrant?s contact information, administrative contact information, and legal contact information, if available. Record the name servers, as well ? this is the domain?s web host. You can easily find contact info on most Web hosts? sites, but if not, you can do a whois lookup on them, as well. Next, compose a letter requesting that the infringing material be removed. If you believe that a good faith mistake has been made, you can try to contact the infringer directly. But if you think you?re most likely dealing with someone who committed infringement deliberately, you can proceed straight to the Web host with a DMCA take-down request.

As Jonathan Bailey points out, in his article ?Top 5 DMCA Mistakes,? it?s not always easy. But it?s not always hard, either. I?ve had to file three this week, and response was swift and satisfactory. One was in the Netherlands, so don?t assume that just because the Web host is based overseas and is not subject to U.S. laws like the DMCA, that it can?t be done.

Also, while it is true that you cannot copyright a name, you CAN fight back when your name is used inappropriately and without authorization. I?m not talking about libel here, or an unfavorable review ? I?m talking about sploggers and scrapers that pick up personally identifying information and use it as keywords and meta tags and randomly throw it about on their sites.

This is the response I received from the Abuse department of a Web host where my name appeared on a splog. I had written to them explaining that while I understood this use of my name wasn?t libelous, nor did it constitute a copyright infringement, it was, nonetheless, placed in an inappropriate context that was wholly unauthorized by me:

We define personal Identifying Information as providing a persons First and Last name in conjunction with each other, a phone number, email address, physical address, Social Security Number, etc.? If the material you are requesting to be removed is one or more of the listed items, please fill out the following form.

1. Identification of the material that you are claiming needs to be removed, with information about its location, reasonably specific to permit us to locate the material.

Description of Infringement:

Location of Infringement (Infringing URL or Web Address):

2. Please fill in the following statement:
I _______________________________, have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by me.

3. Please fill in the following statement:
I _______________________________, swear under penalty of perjury, that the above information in this notification is accurate.

4. The infringement reporter or authorized persons:
Name:
Addresses:
Telephone Number:
Email Address:

5. The electronic/typed or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or the person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

6. Please attach a scan of a Government Issued ID.

I filled out all the requested info, emailed it back to them, and within a few hours ? poof! The information was gone. The account was suspended.

If all else fails, and you find yourself dealing with an unresponsive host in a country that doesn?t give a rat?s whiskers about copyright or privacy, you can get creative and have a little fun at their expense, as I did over one repeat offender with my ?Ten Secrets to Hugely Successful Article Writing (Humor)? (I finally figured out that while HE was not in the U.S., his Web hosts were, and they could and did shut him down ? three times!) One thing sploggers should be aware of: If you run someone else?s work through machine translation or some sort of automated text mangling software, and it?s still recognizable, it?s a ?derivative work.? That means it?s STILL protected under copyright law, no matter what your teachers taught you about paraphrasing.