Copy Cats - How to Report Copyright Violators

Stealing copy isn't a crime, meaning that the thief won't go to jail for their crime, but it can cause damage for those whose job it is to create new content - copy and images. And you can sue them for Copyright Infringement if you have actual damages such as loss of financial gains. For starters, people who produce original work spend a lot of time doing the work for which they may have been paid by a client. Clients would not take too kindly to their hard earned money being just stolen for someone else's use (wow! this makes me think of the government and taxes!). Second, using someone else's work robs that person of the credit they need to build on their portfolio, traffic to their own website/blog, and even the ability to make money online via Adsense Ads or image sales. Furthermore, the originators credibility can come into question because the Copycat may have more traffic and resources to self-promote which could make people think that the Copycat actually produced the work first.

What a headache! If you can demonstrate actual financial damages, and it's worth it to you to proceed down a legal path, then it's best to consult an attorney dealing with such acts. But if you would prefer to handle the situation by taking steps to notify the Copycat to stop the infringement, then you may want to follow these guidelines to inform those who copy your work without your permission:
  1. Report the infringement to the webpage's author if provided. Oftentimes authors will include a contact link with the article submitted on a website. If there is no author listed, go to step 2. 
  2. Report the infringement to the website owner using the contact page or a corporate email address. Chances are the website owner might not even be aware of the infringement if they allow outsiders to post on their site, like an association website or industry professional website. Even social media networks have a problem with this. If you cannot find the contact information, you could try going to NetworkSolutions.com and doing a WHOIS lookup to see if the site has been registered publically. If so, then contact the website's owner that way.
  3. Report the infringement to the website hosting company - a WHOIS lookup would provide that information.
  4. Report the infringement to the Registrar - if a private domain name registration prevents you from getting the website owner and website hosting company, then the registrar who holds the domain name registration (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, RegisterIt, etc) can contact the domain name owner.
  5. Report the infringement to search engines (Google, Yahoo, BING, etc) if they are displaying this web page in their results. To find out how to file this complaint, type Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, in each search engine's search field to find the corresponding pages on how to file a complaint.
One word of advice:
While discovering that your content or image has been stolen may make you extremely hostile, we recommend that you remain calm and professional when dealing with this problem. Some people suggest that you retaliate by blogging about this Copycat and the like, but this could create an even BIGGER headache for you in the long run - that person could have some malicious computer hacking skills that you just don't want to mess with.
Follow the guideline provided in this article to handle the situation civilly. If there's still a problem or you have real financial damages worth suing over, then do contact an attorney that is experienced in handling this sort of legal matter. Some cases have resulted in financial damages that included attorney fees.
For more information on Copyright Infringement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, visit their website at http://www.copyright.gov/.
How can you tell if your content is being copied?
Read "Copycats - How to Check if your Copy is being Scraped"
 

 

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