I was checking some of my keywords on Google recently when I came across an excerpt from my book “The Eye of the Dragon, Stalking Castaneda” which had been copied almost word for word without giving me credit. A few words had been clumsily changed (to try to hide the fact that it was plagiarized, I presume), but the only result of the changes was the distortion of the meaning of some sentences; it is obviously plagiarism.
After having tried to contact the support team of the website to no avail, I was wondering how to proceed when I came across Glenn Hefley who has been a free lance writer for years and has experience with these Internet thieves. Not only he explained to me how to proceed, but he also sent me a link to an article he had published on the subject of what to do about plagiarism. Since this is greatly needed information for all of us, I am including it all here for your convenience:
Freelance Writer Tip #2 : What to do about Plagiarism
By Glenn Hefley
So, you were out there on the web, engaging in a little harmless narcissism by searching for your name, or some favorite phrase of yours, and you come across someone who is publishing your articles, on their web site, without credit to you, or a how-dee-doo … no nothing – Just blatantly using your work for their profit. Well how about that?
What to do. First, read this page on Responding to Plagiarism, and follow the instructions.
Next : People who do this type of stuff, generally have ads on their pages, which means, they are making money on your work, without paying you. If there is a Google Adsense ad on there, there will be a link at the bottom of the ad you can click on, which will take you to a Google Adsense Report page. At the bottom of this page, is a form you can fill out, to make a DMCA complaint against the owner of that web site.
Google is famous for not messing around with this type of thing. Someone stealing content, will generally have their Adsense account closed in 48 hours. They will not be able to get it back once it is closed. There are far too many people and companies out there on the Internet willing to run ads on their web site, for Google to risk the possibility of being pulled into a DMCA related law suite. They remove the account.
Most other ad companies, affiliate programs, and the like — do exactly the same thing. If you can find out which ad/affiliate companies the bad-man-site is using, then send them off an email as well.
It is a simple thing to ask permission to use an article. People ask me all the time. If it is an article which is on one of my web sites, I generally say yes, as long as I get a link back. Why not? It is even a little flattering. In fact you will find on most of my web sites I have a function which allows for exactly this type of co-sharing.
However, most of the time this occurs with my work, it is an article that I’ve sold to a client.
Clients don’t like the value of their investments undermined like this, and they will appreciate your effort in keeping their investment in good health. This doesn’t mean you are obligated to play watch-dog for their content (it is thier content once they have purchased it), but if you see this happening, let the client know, at the very least, and send them the information in this article, so they can respond in the most efficient manner.
– you have my permission to do so…
You might even pick up a few more projects from the client that way.
Happy writing.
To contact Glenn or get more information please visit: www.glennhefley.com
“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us…Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”– Mother Teresa
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Filed under: Plagiarism and Google | Tagged: Glenn Hefley, Mother Teresa, Plagiarism, Stalking Castaneda, The Eye of the Dragon | Comments Off on Plagiarism, what to do? | Glenn Hefley | The Eye of the Dragon