I published the article below in January of 2009 for CubicYard.us, who also had it published in TheRepReport hoping that it would deter people from copying my website content. 

To date, my website has been plagiarized 50+ MORE times, increasing the instances of piracy to nearly 80. 

I have sent a "request to remove content" to all of the companies that have used my website to build their own.  Very few have heeded the warnings about copyright infringement laws and the fines and penalties that are assessed when complaints are filed. 

I am filing my first complaint today [2/25/10] and intend to continue filing complaints against business owners who do not take my "request to remove content" to heart. 

This particular industry has brought out so many fly-by-nights and dishonest people that it literally makes me sick to be associated with them. 

For this reason, I'm re-posting my article as a warning to those who are tempted. 

All I ask is tht you be honest and promote yourself and your business in a way that best represents you. 

If your website was built by someone other than you, be sure they do not plagiarize mine.  I'm not heartless and am a very fair person so, if this has happened to you, simply let me know and we'll resolve the situation together.

 

Stop, Thief!  Come Back With My Website!

By:  Linda Hall, All REO Preservation Services

 

If you’ve ever had your house or car broken into or had a supervisor take your ideas and claim them as their own, or have another student copy your homework or test papers, you already understand the feeling of being violated.

 

When someone takes something from you, whether it’s personal property or ideas, they are, in effect, invading your personal space.  Until you give someone permission to take it or use it, you OWN that space, whether it’s your house, your car, something you wrote on a sheet of paper, or just a place in your mind that generates original ideas.

 

I discovered recently that website content theft is on the rise and was appalled at the number of websites that had copied and pasted original content THAT I WROTE for my own website into theirs.

 

How did I find out my site had been plagiarized?

 

I have a visitor counter at the bottom of my main page that has a statistics link beneath it.  I regularly check this to see where my visitors are coming from.  My original intent for this link was to find out what search terms people are using, then change or modify my key words as needed so that my website could be found in the searches as well.

 

At the bottom of my website, I have a notice that says, “Copyright © 2008 Linda Hall. All Rights Reserved.  Ad Buttons, Logos, Slogans, and other such materials contained in this site may NOT be used without express permission of All REO Preservation Services.”

 

I thought that was enough to protect my website.  Never in a million years would I dream that I’d end up following a search term that would uncover MANY other websites using my original content!

 

Immediately, I visited all the sites that had plagiarized mine and added them to a new folder so that I could locate them once I found out what to do about the problem.  The first search turned up 12 to 15 sites that had copied VERBATIM what I’d written. 

 

A few of these sites even copied my MISSION STATEMENT which, to me, is very personal because it’s the one place that I get to tell people about my ethics and how I like to work with my clients.

 

Then I looked up copyright infringement and found out that plagiarism carries some pretty stiff penalties, including banishment from the internet of websites that contain stolen content when owners don’t remove it as requested.  Plagiarizing websites falls under the same copyright infringement laws that govern products, ideas, videos, etc., and any other media that is copied and either black-marketed or passed off as being original.

 

I then e-mailed every owner of every site and requested that they remove my content immediately.  I also let them know I would be printing each page of their site on a daily basis until the requested changes had been made.  This way I could find out whether my requests were being taken seriously or ignored. 

 

Then I found a program to “police” my website so that I didn’t have to.  At first I thought a weekly update from this service would be sufficient.  Apparently, I was wrong.  I now have my sites checked on a daily basis.

 

Shortly after I set up this “police” protection, I found out that I can also set up Google Alerts.  So I went through all my sites and profiles and added about 30 key phrases to Google Alerts that were unique to the content I had taken the time to write.

 

Wow!  I immediately started receiving alerts and found out there were another 8 to 10 websites who had stolen my content as well.  So another round of e-mails has been sent and I added this note to my original copyright notice, “Copying this website, or any portion thereof, is considered plagiarism and will not be tolerated.”

 

So why does all this bother me anyway?  Isn’t imitation supposed to be the most sincere form of flattery?

 

No, it’s not.  At least, not under these circumstances.  If someone wants to emulate the way I walk, I don’t have a problem with that.  If they want to mimic the way I talk or laugh the same way I do, I don’t have a problem with that either.

 

What bothers me the most is that I’ve taken the time to format and write the content for my website, my advertising, and my profiles that best represents me and my business, what we do, and how we operate.

 

When someone copies what I’ve written and passes it off as their own, it’s apparent they have no desire to take the time to promote themselves in their own words and in a truly unique way that will get them the attention they deserve for doing it on their own.

 

It also tells me these companies have NO ETHICS.  If they steal my content, what will they steal from their clients?  What will they take from the unwitting people who perform services for them?

 

So how many new companies are piggy-backing from YOUR website and stealing your content, your ideas?  If it’s happening to me, it’s probably happening to you.   You can check by going to http://copyscape.com.  Then, search Google Alerts and set up unique phrases from your website and profiles to search for “as-it-happens”.  I can almost guarantee you’ll be as surprised as I was.

 

Oh, yeah.  I almost forgot to mention that there’s another term for stealing content and it’s called PIRACY.  And the next one who steals mine will be WALKING THE PLANK.  Aaaarrrrgh!