Writing Online - How to find out if your Article’s been Stolen
72Recently I did a few checks to see if some articles were being copied and sadly I found a few. Some writers submit work that is not theirs and some just come to a site to copy someone else’s hard work, and share their Adsense earnings.
I believe there is software for this, but I will quickly show you the quickest way to do it.
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How to find out.
1) Select a long sentence or two of the article you want to check.
2) Copy it.
3) Go to Google (google.co.uk) and click on “Advanced Search” (just outside the search box)
4) Copy the selected text into the box that states "this exact wording or phrase".
5) Click on Search. (See below for illustration).
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After the Search...
a) If only one article comes up, then that must be yours and no one has copied it.
b) If several come up, take a deep breath, don’t shout at the computer . ٩(•̮̮̃•̃)۶ Open up the links to double check the whole article was copied word for word.
Note below, the article has been copied. On research, the article was published by someone in 2006 and someone copied it and published it on another website in January 2011 – Word for Word. Also, someone copied and published it to Ezinearticles.
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Search Results...
c) Next, make note of who stole/copied your article. (name/website)
d) Inform Google and fill in complaint form: http://www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html.
e) Inform the website of where it was published so they remove it.
f) Count from 1,000 backwards to avoid getting too angry.
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☆•* All is still well with the Universe – It Happens.
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Nice tip. I had an article on the Dalia Lama's tips for living which was everywhere on the net. Was I copying? I thought the tips were so prevalent that I surely could not be duplicating content; just spreading the Dalia Lama's spiritual teachings! Surely this was an exception, I thought but you know what I deleted the work.
Psychicdog - actually you can use someonoe else's material as long as you are 1) honest 2) use the quote marks things 3) add other comments. make sure that your quotes are no more than 8% of the whole length IMHO and then say how you could impliment them, what you think of them, what others might say etc.. In other words debate them.
Second up, I put a link to where my article will appear at the foot of the article as a hard html link. So, in wordpress, I will use the permalink for that page and copy it to the bottom of my post with the word 'permalink' before it, then I highlight the link, clikc the link button and copy the link in too. Since most of the stolen information is from scapers they don't seem to remove links, and where they do my html original is still there. So as google crawls over that scraper site they find attribution to me. so if I get an article scraped many times I get many links. and at worse, if someone reads that article they have a good chance of tracking my site.
Excellent tip.
Unfortunately people will steal others work and as such I try really hard to protect my photographs from illegal copying, however, there is only so much I can do.
The best we can do is report those who we discover is stealing our work.
Thanks for sharing.
This is a great way to check. Thanks so much for writing this. Guess I will go and check some of mine now.
I found a couple,thanks Lady_E.;)
Thanks Lena :0)
Very good information, had never though of doing that...so guess what I,m of to do :0)
Later
Mike :0)
Thanks so much for your comments everyone. I appreciate you stopping by and I am glad you found it useful.
@Mentalist Acer - Sorry to know you found a few, but at least you are now aware and can complain to Google.
Take Care...
Great article, Lady_E.
Over time, I have used that same method to find that some of my content was copied (stolen) word for word - with my links stripped from them. But for the most part they are usually left intact.
You feel like blasting someone for doing that, or reporting it as you suggested, but I have heard a lot of people say that it really isn't worth the hassle. Anyone who is too lazy to even re-write articles they steal from others (let alone write their own) probably won't be around long enough to do that much damage anyway.
Jo Ann
Wow! I did know that it is so simple. Thanks for the useful hub.
Good information Elena. Thank you.
Cheers
Great information, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this very informative hub. I'm getting started right now. Thanks so much! rated up.
Good looking out, Lady E. Thanks.
Thank you for the helpful guide as to how one may learn if their online writing is being stolen. How sad others do such things. I appreciate your tools of defense. Thanks so much.
My Mom is doing okay, working hard to get better everyday. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers. :) Katie
Great hub and useful. I will use your suggestion above to make sure non of my work has been stolen too. thanks.
Thanks again everyone for commenting. Don't you just wish you could sue the pants off them....
@Jo Ann Thanks for confirming it's a tool you have been using and find it useful.
Hello elena thanks for the advice it sounds useful and I hope that does not happen to me.
Thanks Lady E - just found someone who copied my poem on emotional abuse. Must Is it necessary to report to Google or should I give the person a chance to remove the porm from the website?
Thanks LadyE, you are so helpful. I will have to check if any of my articles have been copied. Thanks a bunch!
Thank you for such easy and useful help.
Thanks everyone for your kind comments
@Laura - they won't take it down unless you send a message or comment on it. (then they might). I personally think it's best reporting them to the site because chances are that they have copied from a lot of people - which will not look good for the website.
Sometimes, when stuff is copied, our article can be flagged as duplicate content when the fault isn't ours. So, it's best to cover yourself by informing Google. They could disable their Adsense too.
You again!
Let's get plagiarists off our back...
Nice article once again
Informative indeed!!!
Great Hub Lady_E!
An early Spartan sage(think the movie 300!) named Chilon once said " Know thyself " . This saying was applied to those whose boasts exceeded who they were.
Anyone who blatantly takes words from others and claims them as their own is a very sad example of that today!
"Quidquid bene dictum est ab ullo, meum est." ~Seneca.
Basically 'anything good said by others, is mine'. I think Seneca said it best, but gracious, who would think it was quite so literal. (LOL) Awesome advise.
Thanks everyone. Glad you found it useful and thanks for your kind comments.
@Guyana lol. I like Seneca.
Great investigation. I never thought to check this.
Wow great advice Lady_E, thanks for sharing. Some people have no scruples and we need to do something about it if we can! Vote up and useful.
Very helpful. Thanks much.
I just found two of my hubs have copied in part and posted at other sites where I did not recieve credits as author. It is kind of irritating somehow but I am not going to take any action. In a way, it is flattering. lol. Thanks. You sleuth method is quick and easy.
@ Wrath Warbone - Aaaawh, sorry to hear that. I have to admit a large percentage of our articles are copied. I'm sure mine have been too. I think it was last year, an alarm was raised because lots of HP articles were found on another site - HP helped intervene. (Maddie). I saw mine there too.
Ps. You will notice poems on my poem blog are getting shorter. I've done that because of people who copy.
Thanks for stopping.
Take care. :)
I have written quite a lot of articles in German language in the past and i noticed that this is a very common problem in the english language. Maybe it is due to the fact that there are a lot of programs available on the market which automaticaly change words with synonyms or spin paragraphs.
I hope we can soon get rid of such problems.
Thank you for that article.
Very useful article. I'm a photographer and your article inspired me to look for ways to see if my images have been stolen. Just in case any of your readers add images and want to know, I've started using www.tineye.com for reverse image searching.
Thanks again.
** Filou - Thanks for stopping.
** Urban Blink - Thanks for the kind comments and shared link. Best Wishes.
Wonderful hub, and it is very useful. Thank You very much precious heart. God Bless You.
That is great advice, thanks for sharing!
** Stars439 - Glad you found it useful. Regards.
** Nicole - Thanks. Glad you stopped by. G/Luck.
Very useful information...your honesty , as a writer , shines through. Thanks
Thanks so much Globehouse. :)
Hi! What's the name of your poem blog? Would love to visit it.
I just launched my blog on June 1st with a free ebook titled 'The Secret Behind the Ticking Clock'... You must love it *no jokes*... you know where to find it
Longest time... Missed you
Hi Mark, Nice to hear from you again. I thought you were busy running for Presidency in Nigeria.
My poem blog is; http://goldenpenuk.wordpress.com/
Good luck with the book. I must check it out.
Stay blessed. :)
Lol... Say what?
I'm not a political animal yet. :-)
Thanks to you for the well wish.
My blog is hhtp://www.aboutmyway.com and the book is on the resources page.
Very well written hub with great information. You have a nice writing style as well. Glad I came across your hubs - looking forward to reading more.
Thanks so much Kims3003.
Good luck with writing online.
Hi Lady_E,
Thanks for sharing this. I have experienced a couple of my hubs being copied and published somewhere else. Luckily, I found about this early and had them removed by Google immediately. I had found out about the duplicate contents by just Googling my username. I still don't know how I found out about the plagiarism by just Googling my name as one of the offenders didn't even include a byline. I will try your tips, as we know that not all duplicate contents use the same title with the original article, and of course my name in the byline.
Concise yet helpful hub. Voted up and rated useful.
Hi Serious nuts - I am glad you found out and took action. I think this is why Google takes months to give people Adsense accounts these days.
Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.
Good luck with writing online.
Thanks to the other Hubbers who have done a wonderful job.
Hello Trepurt.
I took your advice and checked and was suprised to find some of my content had been stolen. I have contacted the website and am now waiting for a response. I found this website incredibly helpful to add to your advice: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-yo
Thanks for the informative hub!
Hi Textured Ideas - I missed this comment.
Sorry to read about what happened but I am glad you reported it. You can also inform Google - I think they have started deactivating adsense accounts of such people.
Good Luck.
Thankyou Lady_E. I emailed the website and they took it down after my request. Good info about informing Google I will try that if it happens again, but does that apply just to HubPages or any external website? Many thanks.
never thought that I could actually check if someone is copying my articles then beeing able to do anything against him.. thanks for the information.
** Hi Textured ideas - Thanks for the feedback. Regarding if it applies to external websites...f they have no Google Ads then, no need to report to Google. You could just report to the website.
** Thanks icciev - Glad you found it useful and good luck with Writing Online.
This is much easier than the Software. I found many of my copied articles this way too. Anyways, Thanks for sharing!
Cheers Anamika - such a pity you found your articles copied. Hope you reported them and they have taken them off the sites. Take care...
Lady_E,
Greetings from MAKUSR. Thanks for very informative article.
Lots of Love,
MAKUSR
Thanks Makusr
I am glad you found it useful.
Best Wishes, Elena :)
Good tip Lady_E. I`m going to check some of mine out now. Not sure there is anything worth stealing - but then who knows what people like.
Thanks!
Thanks Duchess - I am glad you found it interesting but deep down, hoping you don't find any stolen articles.
Best Wishes.
Good hub, Lady_E! I will bookmark this one just in case I need to check as well. Thanks! :-)
Thanks easylearningweb
I'm glad you will bookmark it. It's cheaper than buying the software to check.
Take care.
I wanted to do a check so will try this out. Thanks for the info :)
Cheers Emma
I hope you find it useful.
Thanks for stopping. :-)
Thanks for the info. I'll do this now. Voted up and thanks for SHARING.
Now that was helpful. I should give it a try to test some of my hubs. Good work. Keep up with it Lady_E.
@Thelma Alberts ~ Thanks for stopping. Best Wishes.
@Anjili - Hi Anjili, it's a useful tool but I hope you don't find too many of your articles out there.
How about Joining me at TRIOND. Double your Adsense and Traffic. If you write to earn, then it's definitely worth your while.
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The A - Z of making money Online Writing. I hope you find this very useful as I have written from experience and what I have also learnt from others.
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Freya Cesare Level 4 Commenter 14 months ago
Wow! That's really helpful. Thank you very much! ^^