There are many thefts roaming around the internet community. You will never know that the next time you’ll see your blog post, it is no longer yours but instead it is being owned by another site.
Your posts are product of your hardwork and intelligence. It is always unfair that other people will just steal it and worse makes money out of it. To combat this problem, here are some tips on how to catch this thieves and how to file a complaint against them.
Tip number 1, do a vanity check on your articles using a search engine. You do this by getting a unique sentence from your article and paste it on the search engine search box. The most important part of this step, never forget to place a quotation mark before and after the line or the sentence. You may use Google Alerts and other tools that can aid you find the websites who are using your article.
Tip number 2, once you’ve found out that somebody is using your post on his blog site, contact the person or group of people concern. Being angry would be an acceptable reaction but it is better to approach them in a straightforward and professional manner. For example,
“Good day, my name is Ms. _____. I am glad that you find my article entitled “the lazy people” useful in your website. But I am sorry to say that this article just like all the articles over the internet is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In line with this, you may hire me as a writer for your website. If you don’t have any vacancies but you still want to keep the article it is a pleasure to sell it to you for $__. Otherwise, this content must be removed from your site within 24 hours.”
This is an example of a short but precise letter in a more professional approach. This is better than replying with rage and bombarding them with curses that would make your image dirty. Responding this way will also help you make money. You are asking them to hire you or you are selling your article for some dollars.
Tip number 3. If they do not respond to you then you can file a DMCA complaint through the search engine. As for google users, there is a form that you have to fill out asking google to remove a specific content. You may also send a letter to the authority containing the details of your complain but that would really go a longer process and it will cost you some amount too.
To prevent thieves from stealing your articles, persistently post copyright notices on your website. Stealing is punishable by law so never tolerate these people who just settle for something illegal.
