New Theft - Garden Article

[LindaM]

Just found one of my gardening articles on this blog - http://www.click-to-grow-tomatoes.com/.

The blogger stole the sample content, then added both his name and mine for bylines (huh?). How nice of him to give me credit, maybe he thought that was compensation enough without payment.

Garden writers may want to check this blog for more stolen content. I've written the publisher twice in the last 2 days and he hasn't responded yet.

Linda

[J. A. Young]

Do to you post the entire article in the long summary? Is that how they got the article or had it sold for usuage rights and they stole it from there? JA

[Evelyn]

Thanks for the heads-up. None of my tomato articles are on there, thank heavens. Funny enough, I have an article on ezine articles (and here) that's had 13,802 views in about a year. Yet, that one isn't on this website... hmm. He needs to look at popularity as well as keywords, and boy does he need some lessons on how to monetize a blog!

Good luck with this problem. We're all behind you.

[LindaM]

Hi J.A.

I used to post whole articles, but I had so much theft this past year that I now post only a portion. The garden blog thief stole the sample and it was available for full rights. I have had article samples stolen before, but can't see how I can reduce content further without jeopardizing sales. I would love to know what other writers are doing about this. There has been plenty of discussion in other threads and I know Celeste has mentioned that sales are stronger when complete content is provided.

Linda

[J. A. Young]

Sorry to hear that Linda. What a headache. In my case, I absolutely NEVER post the entire article in the long summary unless it's a private request. I'll give them a sample of a paragraph and use elipses to indicate that there is more. Then I skip to another section and do the same thing. In this way, the customer gets a decent taste of my writing and can very well understand where the article goes and what it covers. This method isn't thief-proof, of course, but it makes me feel content I wrote far more public content in years past (took a year off writing during pregnancy) and in that time I sold pretty well. I never felt that my long summary prevented a sale.

I'm soooo busy or I'd start searching around to check out if anything has been stolen lately from my repertoire. I'm slightly afraid to look! It's truly hard to countenance this stuff. Thievery & the arts...it'd make a good book (don't anybody steal my idea!) But seriously, how many writers and artists have suffered for the mediocre ethical standards of people who just can't do the work themselves?!!!

[hknunzio]

I just had my first encounter with stolen content too. Because the article was already sold for usage, I sort of had my hands tied. My solution was to comment on the content thief's blog, "This article is stolen content. I am the original author of this article, and request that it be removed immediately." And it was!

How frustrating that people think it's okay to steal our work after the time and effort we put into it

[LindaM]

Here is an update on how I finally got that content removed:

1. I sent the publisher / thief 3 notices via the 'contact us' sections and directly on the 'comments' sections. He did not respond.
2. I then went into a site called http://www.dawhois.com, where I found all the domain info including the ISP
3. I called the customer service number listed on the ISP and they quickly directed me to an area of their site where I could file a DMCA claim.
4. 3 days later the content was removed and I received an apology letter from the publisher/ thief.

Linda