How to Handle Plagiarism
I recently wrote about content theft, how my FreelanceSwitch blog posts ended up on another person’s blog without proper credit. Scratch that—there was no credit! My blog post was published and another author was taking credit for it. He claims it was unintentional, but it was against the law — frustrating.
I learned some valuable lessons when this happened, and I thought I would share them with you and how you can handle plagiarism if it happens to you (and I hope it doesn’t).
Lesson 1: The power of social media
A friend of mine alerted me to the fact that someone was publishing my FreelanceSwitch blog posts on his business blog. When I checked it out, I sent the link to the editor of FreelanceSwitch, Sean Hodge, to handle. I wasn’t sure what was appropriate, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of it.
Instead of emailing this man, named Kevin, myself I posted a link to two of my blog posts on my Facebook page, calling him out on it. I figured my friends would be on my side, but some of them actually went on to Kevin’s site and left messages that what he was doing was wrong.
Three hours after my Facebook status update, all of my FreelanceSwitch blog posts (and other blog posts from various FreelanceSwitch authors and other blogs) were taken off his site. He even wrote a post trying to apologize. How’s that for service?
Lesson 2: Copyright law
I had a vague understanding of copyright law, and as a writer and college professor, I am so hyper-aware or plagiarism that the mere thought of using someone else’s work and calling it my own sends shivers down my spine. College kids are expelled for plagiarizing and numerous journalism professionals have been stripped of awards and fired for the same thing.
I found out that even if Kevin had given me credit for the blog post and mentioned FreelanceSwitch, that by him republishing my posts on his own business blog he was breaking the law.
Lesson 3: Some people are dumb
Kevin, who runs a website development and design company, should know better. In his “apology” blog post he writes: “I’ve done some research as to whether or not I was ‘stealing’ content or not. I have not found a definitive answer.”
When you take content and stock photos from someone’s blog post and repost it onto your own blog, it’s stealing. I created that content specifically for my client, FreelanceSwitch, and not for anyone else. If Kevin was a newspaper publisher and copied a story from another paper word for word and published it in his paper under his name he’s be in a boatload of trouble. Online content is no different.
Feigning ignorance is, in my opinion, no excuse.
So what can you do if you find that someone is plagiarizing you? There are several options.
Put it out on social media
I’ll use my own experience as an example. I didn’t have to do anything but update my Facebook status. I didn’t even get into great detail or ask for a call to action! All I did was point out that there was a guy stealing my content and provided a link. The public did the rest. And there were results in three hours.
Email the offending party
Sometimes a simple email pointing out their error will do the trick. I’m pretty sure that if I had sent Kevin an email I would have seen the same result. Most businesspeople don’t want their name raked through the muck and will back down, especially if you alert them that what they are doing is against the law.
Cease and desist
If an email doesn’t work, find their snail mail address and send them a Cease and Desist letter. Ask your lawyer to help you create it. I would also suggest adding delivery confirmation to the envelope at the post office so that you have proof that they received it. It’s easy for someone to say they never got an email or letter in their mailbox, even when it’s not true.
Contact their web host
One of my photographer friends (who has had her images used without her permission plenty of times) searched for Kevin’s web host on www.whois-search.com. She found it immediately.
Send a “Take Down” letter to their host, requesting that the site be taken down immediately under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Here is a template for one (yes, it’s ok to use this). Some hosting companies make this even easier with an online form. —Orbitmedia.com
Alert Google
No one wants to be blacklisted on Google, but if the search engine is alerted that something unlawful is happening on someone’s site, they’ll may on it.
Take them to court
Hopefully this won’t be necessary, but you never know. I would suggest you try everything else you can first and discuss it with your lawyer. It could be an expensive process.
Leave a Comment
I recently discovered an article of mine on goarticles.com that someone plagiarized. The opening paragraph was changed, but 90 % of my text, untouched, was there. I found it when I was randomly researching something the other day about copywriting. I said, “Oh, I found an article on the subject,” but in seconds, I realized, it was my article with someone else’s name on it. I had worked long and hard on this piece so, I know the layout and wording, almost by heart. It had received great reviews at Helium, which I savored for weeks, so I know my work well. I looked the person up on goarticles, and they had several articles attached to their name. I wondered how many of their articles were written by others . . . and just stolen outright unbeknownst to the true authors. Anyway, I will ponder your tips and decide which measure to take. Thanks. Good post.
I wonder if you are being too harsh. It sounds like this person made an honest mistake in trusting an add on that someone else designed and you should blame the add on creator not the user who assumed the add on would not do anything illegal.
It is quite possible this person does not visit their own site very often and so had no idea.
In terms of the legality I would say it is a grey area if you are fully responsible for the actions of every price of software you use. What if you bought and installed a web plugin that without your knoweledge was using your website to steal credit cards? Could you be considered legally liable for that? If he really had no idea that this was happening I don’t think you can say HE was stealing your content, just that his site was, which I think you should extend some grace for as we have all made stupid mistakes that were partially but not completly our fault.
Another strategy is to be proactive. I have contributed to an online magazine and seen those articles republished on blogs around the world. It’s beyond both the scope of my available time and my damages to do much about that. Sometimes, it’s also beyond the reach of law.
A defensive policy might be to include the authorial credit right in the article’s lead, which frustrates the use of RSS for a quick plagiarism. AListApart.com employs this tactic.
And shaming works to an extent, too, but I really hope this is the last “Kevin” post for a while.
That reminds me of an online book review blog involving plagiarism that was highlighted earlier this year via SBTB: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/plagiarism-and-the-story-siren
Hey Melanie,
Why do you care if you are being plagiarized?
That may sound like a stupid question, but what negative impact does it have on you/your business? Or is it simple a matter of principle?
Ultimately we write professionally, so the business worth of expending time and energy on situations like this should be considered.
Cheers,
Tom
@Tom, Ethical issues aside, when sites take your content it can negatively effect your Google rankings. This can impact traffic to your blog from search engines, which can hurt your bottom line.
When someone holds himself out as the author of your successful work product, they become associated with your work product. If a prospective customer sees your work after having seen “theirs,” you may be deemed by the prospective customer to be the plagiarist and then everything you do from that point on can become suspect. And it gets worse after she alerts her 500 Twitter followers and 350 FB friends).
It takes time to build trust in the business community (online and offline). The last thing you need (especially freelancers who can’t afford PR damage control) is for people to start questioning your integrity. This is just one of many things that could happen.
And, to boot, I don’t want my work shared (virally) under some else’s name, etc. My work product is my signature, and it is what I use to generate business and income. These are MY credentials, evidence of MY qualifications. Let them earn their own credentials! Let them build their reputation own on their merit, not mine!
That’s what negative impact it has on my business.
Thanks, Tom–you make a good point. The actual and opportunity cost expended pursuing someone who engages in this kind of plagiarism can be very expensive. And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery–if your stuff is good enough to be copied, it’s good enough. In this case it’s also not hard, from context, to figure out who the original author might be, and that reflects both poorly on the plagiarist and creditably on the rightful author.
It’s worth an email when you catch someone in flagrante delicto ripping you off, but it’s honestly not worth much more than that unless the damage to you rises to a level commensurate with the time it takes to pursue justice.
@Sean – Google would argue that they are very good at spotting where duplicate content first originated, and relegating copies accordingly (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/demystifying-duplicate-content-penalty.html). In theory, plagiarism shouldn’t affect your rankings.
@Stacey – you make a fair point, but surely it is a stretch to worry that a prospective client sees the plagiarized version, then your version, then decides that you are the plagiarist? If this has happened, fair enough!
@Sully – you’ve used the phrase that I should have – “opportunity cost”. I would react in the same way to you under such circumstances.
That’s a nice post.
I support your actions and I completely agree that such actions should be taken in case of plagiarism!
People should respect the effort of others and not just steal their work without even giving credit to them.Period.
I had a situation a few years back when I had to deal with plagiarism.
I’m from Argentina and the company I’d been running before Origami was published in a directory of Peru offering pretty much the same services.
All the information was exactly the same, except they changed the e-mail and phone number.
I inmediatly got in touch with the administrators of the online directory (a very well-known for latin american people) and they deleted the information the same day.
So, it was a happy ending, although it wasn’t a big deal, the result was better that doing nothing.
Thanks for the great article!
In terms of the legality I would say it is a grey area if you are fully responsible for the actions of every price of software you use. What if you bought and installed a web plugin that without your knoweledge was using your website to steal credit cards? Could you be considered legally liable for that? If he really had no idea that this was happening I don’t think you can say HE was stealing your content, just that his site was, which I think you should extend some grace for as we have all made stupid mistakes that were partially but not completly our fault.
Jean,
Very funny.
I assume you meant to be ironic re-posting part of my comment as your own.
Keith
Yes, it will be a great idea to get adapted to a software that can check duplicate content with accuracy and speed. It will certainly help getting rid of plagiarism issues.