If I come across a blog that is republishing content without attribution, I first send a polite email to the blog owner asking him or her to remove the material. This method is extremely effective and works in 99% of the cases.
Sometimes things gets a bit complicated especially in cases when the splog owner doesn’t have too much at stake and hence decides to completely ignore your request.
This is exactly what happened with digital-boom.blogspot.com – a blogger hosted blog that carried a copy of almost every article from Digital Inspiration. The blog was deleted by Blogger DMCA team yesterday though you may still see some content in the Google Cache and Digg.
This hard-working splogger, who identified himself as Anushka Singh, manually edited every post before republishing to ensure that all traces of "labnol" were removed from the links.
After making a copy of the article on his blog, he would religiously Digg those stories under the alias "Manish Jain" (his real name) and digitalboom.
Timeline of Events
September 30: I filed a DMCA complaint with Blogger via Fax as they don’t accept emails.
October 1: Received an acknowledgement from Google saying they have received the DMCA notice and they asked me to provide the specific URLs of the posts where the infringing content is located.
Since the splog in question had reprinted hundreds of articles and it would have taken me several hours to compile a complete list, I picked around 20 infringing URLs and sent that list back to blogger by email.
October 2: Got another mail from Blogger saying they’ll contact again after they’ve finished processing the complaint.
October 7: The splog was finally removed from Blogger and all the content was deleted.
So it took around seven days and quite a bit of effort to get one splog removed from Blogger but still, it was well worth the effort.
Also see: How to Deal with Online Plagiarism
Content Theft on WordPress
Now let’s consider a similar scenario but with WordPress.com. When Arpit stumbled upon a WordPress blog copying his articles, he opened a new thread in the WordPress.com support forums. The staff moderators were quick to react and they deleted the duplicate posts within 15 minutes of the complaint.
This may have been an exceptionally quick response as WordPress.com too requires you to send formal DMCA notices, but the fact that they have a dedicated staff who monitors and responds to such kind of complaints even in public user forms makes things a little easy for content publishers who may be victims of plagiarism.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/content-theft-on-blogger-and-wordpress/4862/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Thanks for sharing..Im also facing this problem..A person has copied my article word to word which I authored on DevilsWorkshop.org on productivity tips for blogging.
I have warned the blog owner but no response and article continues to appear on that blogger blog. If possible can you share the scan of your DMCA complaint here (or email me).. It would be useful to get rid off it..
Written by Manpreet Singh on 10.09.08
While you’re at it, keep an eye on scribd.com. I’ve spotted a few of my articles posted there–they were even attributed to the poster and not to me! I emailed a DMCA notice and the material was removed within a couple hours. Of course, the fact that I identified myself as an attorney probably greased the wheels a bit, though I would like to think they would respond similarly to any copyright owner’s takedown demands. I am aware that scribd has had run-ins with copyright in the recent past, and they now seem very cooperative re: takedowns.
Written by Kevin S. Brady on 10.09.08
I think Google-blogger team should seriously think about the splogs that are mushrooming on it. Most of the problem could be solved if they stop providing Adsense on freshly opened blogspot blogs now. (That is just my suggestion though, I read somewhere that adsense earns about 30% from the splogs alone-so not sure whether it would make any business sense to them)
In reference to above article,I have found the lifecycle of a typical splogger…
Finds out money can be earned online through blogging > How? > Adsense> What is the easiest route with adsense> Opens a blogspot blog > Copies articles from blogs like DI, problogger > Applies to adsense > (Adsense generally approves them) > Puts adsense all across the page. (they make sure that no space is left empty on their ‘blogs’)> After about 2 months the content is noticed by the original content owner(if owner is lucky and splogger is not, might be earlier) > A polite mail is sent by the owner(This solves the problem(generally, for me also it has worked 90% of the time)) > If not, a harsh mail is sent telling them about cyber laws and Google actions(this works rests 9% of the time)> ???? > Now (s)he realizes that blogging means ‘original-content’, tries to convert himself into a problogger > effort dies out when (s)he don’t see any returns> Quits Blogging.
I have left some questions I think that should be about 1% and that is exactly the stage a splogger has put me into now for one of the blogs of mine…today I have sent a blogger-DMCA notice and I hope I too will get speedy justice from them.
A point regarding adsense-no offense- but how they judge the content and the site is out of my understanding. This time a sad incident occurred with us. One of my friends don’t know anything about making money online but is quite passionate about her blog and what she puts into it. When I saw the good response to her blog, I asked her to apply to adsense which she reluctantly did … to mine and her amazement and embarrassment,adsense team replied saying ‘content is not original’ , that was the heights…I, for sure can say that each and every word that has gone into it is her own.Anyways.
She is now no more interested in my advise (and making -money stuff) and gone back to her blogging :)
It seems Google is relying heavily on bots which comes up with such funny results, probably time for them to do a clean up act now!
Written by ROW on 10.09.08
You need to fire on more DMCA client as this blog link is copying your content.
Even he copied this post(what a moron!!)
Written by shitu on 10.09.08
Amit Sir , You should thank the members @ Forum for notifying you about that blog :) link
Written by ArpitNext on 10.09.08
great ..if uread the india tech blog rss we will se how quickly they replicate posts
Written by haider_up32 on 10.09.08
link copied everything, including spelling and grammer mistakes :D.
anyways…you know what Amit, the css you are using is not good. In comments part, it is really difficult to recg. any link. Simple text and anchor color both are same.
Written by rakesh juyal on 10.09.08
Sigh! No one copies my stuff.
I guess I am not good enough for copying.
Written by G Vishwanath on 10.09.08
DMCA is a double-edged sword. Sad part is that most web hosts don’t allow the owner of the site / blog against whom the complaint has been made to respond before taking it down. Yes, in most cases the person against whom the complaint has been made IS at fault, but there might be times when the DMCA notice could be disputed under fair use polices and current DMCA takedown procedure generally doesn’t account for that.
Written by Ankur Banerjee on 10.10.08
Can you please elaborate on the DMCA complaint. Or possibly a post on - Procedure to File a DMCA Complaint Against a Website?
PS - Do we need to pay any fee while filing the complaint?
This would help may original bloggers. Thanks
Written by Gaurav Dua on 10.10.08
The DMCA complaint is a plain text document with your physical signature that you have to fax to the DMCA department at Google Inc.
There’re no associated fees though you may have to spend some amount for sending an international fax.
As I mentioned in the post, here’s a sample DMCA template- link - just replace the relevant text and fax to Google. Nothing much.
Written by labnol on 10.10.08
First off, I am glad that these cases were resolved. However, a few minor points.
There IS a way to send a DMCA notice to Google via email. It requires some trickery, but it can be done. You can read my guide on it link
In short, you have to locate their email address, which they do a good job of keeping hidden, and email them a PDF with a scanned signature, a bit of a pain but much faster than a fax.
Second, I would double check the compliance of your DMCA notice. I’ve never had Google shoot me down in what is likely over 50 notices. It may be that you need to reformat what you’re sending just to make it easier on them to read. I had that issue in the beginning.
Finally, I agree wholeheartedly that WP is much better than Blogger in this area but it is worth noting that they also do have a formal DMCA email address if you wish. I find that it works just as well and it keeps the whole process official.
Hope that helps and please let me know if there is anything that I can do to assist in the future!
Written by Jonathan Bailey on 10.10.08
Thanks to the information about DMCA complaint and all. As a new comer this information is quite useful.
Written by JK on 10.10.08
Not a problem, just drop me a line if I can help!
Written by Jonathan Bailey on 10.11.08