Copied Content

Chris Ralano · #1 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 10:18 AM

Hi All,

While I was looking at my Google analytics info today I noticed that there was one referral from a site that I hadn't seen before and so I decided to visit it.

When I got to the web page I noticed that there was a link to my site. At first I was happy about it, but then I noticed that underneath the link the person had copied almost an entire article from my site.

They did give me credit for it and they did give me a link, but I never gave them permission to copy an article from my site like that.

It was a Web site from a radio station.

I e-mailed the person in charge of the site and I heard back from her. She said she removed the content and the link and she acted like there was something wrong with me for contacting her about it. She said that since she credited me for the info that it was okay for her to have copied the article.

Now, am I nuts or something? I don't think that people are supposed to do that are they?

If so, then anyone could just copy any article they wanted and then link back to the original site.

I wouldn't have cared, except that I didn't want my content duplicated.

Please, someone let me know if I'm just being too nit-picky here and if I should've just let it go.

I did hate to lose the link, but I really didn't want my article copied.

Bingo · #2 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:01 PM

Nope you did right and I would have done the same. She is wrong to say that it was ok to copy the article and link back, unless your article is part of a creative commons license.

What you could do is write up a unique article for their site and offer it to them in exchange for the link back. Just explain that you didn't want your work duplicated on the net for various reasons.

Govindji_Patel · #3 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:06 PM

As long as you getting a credit for article than I think it should be good for you as this is called article marketing as with your resource links they are linking back to your website.

Say for example your article is put on 100 websites with your links on them and the search engine finds your article on their website than what search engine will do is come and crawl your website as your article on that website has your link and the more places you have link the better.

If that person just copied your article and not giving you credit than it will be duplicate content since she has your link on the website it will benefit you.

If I was reading that article on her website and found interesting than what do you think i will do click on that link and see what else you have on your website.

There is writers writing articles for ezine articles and many article directory's to just get some one to put the article on website or newletter and give them the credit

check for yourself http://www.ezinearticles.com/

Chris Ralano · #4 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:18 PM

Thanks for the feedback. And no, my site isn't part of any creative commons. In fact, I state on the site that my content isn't to be copied or used.

Yes, I'm familiar with ezine articles. However, if I were to write an article for others to use I wouldn't use an article that is on my site. I used to do that and I have a site that now shares lots of content with a free article site and my site gets less than 10 visitors per day!

I don't know for sure that it is due to duplicate content or not, but it might be.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Nblufire12 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:24 PM

wow that sucks

like ur new and barely get any visitors

while another site that gets many visitors steals ur content

that makes me sick

Chris Ralano · #6 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:29 PM

Hi,

It wasn't the pitifully low traffic site that had it's content stolen (although none of my sites do too well in the traffic area, despite great effort on my part).

Nblufire12 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:42 PM

haha oh my bad

Govindji_Patel · #8 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:49 PM

I am sorry I did not know that you had it on your website that they can not copy the article

Nblufire12 · #9 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 01:01 PM

To Chris Ralano : Some of your sites register under Pornography and are blocked by my filter lolol

Chris Ralano · #10 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 07:26 PM

Hi Govindji,

I sort of agree with you that I may have done the wrong thing and that the link back to my site may have been worth having them use the copied article.

The only reason that I didn't just let it go was because I was afraid that if I did that then other people might start thinking that it was okay to copy content as long as they link back to the site.

For example, there are tons of excellent articles on the web. What if I decided to just start using them all on my site and put a link back? I don't think the owners of the sites would be too happy about that.

What I couldn't believe was that it was someone who works in the media who copied the content (it was a radio station website). It seems like they would know better.

I've had a few other sites do something similar. They've used about a paragraph of my content and then linked back. I've just let that go, but this was about 5-6 paragraphs of copied content.

Although I do wonder if I wouldn't have been better off to have just let it go
and kept the link back to my site.

As for the last post from Nblufire12 - I do discuss fish reproduction on one of my sites and maybe that is what is triggering your porn filter.

Govindji_Patel · #11 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 08:11 PM

You know what article marketing is and good article will be read on many websites and just imagine what viral effect it could have when its found with your link on websites.

adminranger · #12 (**permalink**) 09-10-2008, 01:22 AM

I know this is a older post but Lisa may want to look into this one.
Did not spend a bunch of time on this site to check the links but I knew that this site looked familiar.
http:// startyourwebsitenow.com/
extra space inserted to avoid the outgoing link.

Chris Ralano · #13 (**permalink**) 09-10-2008, 06:00 AM

Wow! It is good that you found this site. It looks like they copied her entire site!

They even have all of her videos on there. I noticed that the forum link brings you back here. Perhaps they couldn't figure out a way to copy the forum.

I'm sure Lisa will appreciate you finding this.

Believe it or not, the webmaster even has his name at the bottom of the homepage.

lisa · #14 (**permalink**) 09-10-2008, 08:46 AM

I stopped fighting these battles. There are so many sites out there who have done this and if they are lazy and ignorant enough not to realize that duplicating a site is not the way to get traffic then they deserve to waste their time copying someone's entire site to try to make money.

Maybe I should email the owner and tell him that I've updated my design so he/she can change it.

James · #15 (**permalink**) 09-10-2008, 09:46 AM

I just got into this thread and decided to check it out. As of now the domain is not even found any more, not the mention Lisa's content.

Maybe the host company shut them down? Who knows. Anyway, it looks like they probably didn't profit much from the misadventure.

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