Today I was hunting down all the automated blogs that would copy my articles/content without permission. I either reported the blog to its hosting/domain provider, or contacted the owner of the blog which is very rare, since these blogs are automated and have no contact page/email.
Anyway, one of these blogs is a free blog from blogger.com, so I went on and reported it. The response was very fast so I think its an auto responder for copyright infringement cases.
- …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Hi there,
- Thank you for your note. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website: http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/ and other applicable intellectual property laws, which may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity.To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when you in fact do not. Indeed, in a recent case (please see http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. This must include identification of specific posts, as opposed to entire sites. Posts must be referenced by either the dates in which they appear or the permalink of the post. For example,
http://example.blogspot.com/archives/2003_01_21_example_archive.html#2104575
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above.
YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH POST BY PERMALINK OR DATE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS INFRINGING MATERIAL. The permalink for a post is usually found by clicking on the timestamp of the post.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Blogger to contact you (email address is preferred).
4. Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.”
5. Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
6. Sign the paper.
7. Send the written communication to the following address:
Google, Inc.
Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043
OR Fax to:
(650) 618-2680, Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team
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I don’t know but it seems exaggerated that we have to go through all this to report copyright infringement at blogger.com. The guy copied all my articles and he placed a linkback at the bottom of each article, to this blog as the original resource. So its very clear that the content was copied from here without permission. Even if he’s linking back to my blog, that doesn’t give him the right to copy my articles. I guess I’m going to have to fax them what they need and hope things won’t get more complicated!
I also hope I won’t end up faxing them, each time a blogger at their site copies my articles!
Popularity: 26% [?]
December 8th, 2007 at 7:09 am
How many articles do you estimate were copied from your site(s)? Do you plan on continuing to track these infringements? It seems like a big waste of time. Is there an automated system that can do it for you? I hope you are able to gain some ground on all this illegal activity. More power to you.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Well, almost everything written in this blog has been copied by automated blogs. Im tring my best not to waste too much time tracking/reporting these blogs but its a major problem that all bloggers are facing now adays.
I currently have to ways to find out who copied my content, its not perfect but its better than nothing:
1) Since im using wordpress, Technorati is always showing me blogs “Admin Dashboard”, that are linking to my blog. So, I would check these blogs. Most of the time its these automated blogs that would copy your content and linkback to you at the buttom of the article.
2) I search my articles “titles” in google. Most of the time, my article page would show up in google results and if someone else has copied the article, it would also show up in the results.
January 27th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Some guy from blogger ripped huge parts of my site, and claim he wrote it himself, Ive had so many problems sometimes I just want to give up, I write a site about someone who says he has attained enlightnement, anyway so many people rip off his teachings saying that it is theirs, they all want to say that have got enlightenment as well, now some r’sole using a blogger account ripped about 200 words and now I have to go through all this fax or post nonsense wasting my time and money on an international fax, all the other sites have a contact for copyright,
I am going to email them and threaten blogger, I shouldnt have to post or fax things, its just a way for them to cut back on admin costs as half the people wont bother
January 25th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Hello! How did the story finish? How quick was Google to answer and what was their answer? We are a group of science bloggers from Romania and we have just the same problem ourselves right now, with one blogger blog that copies articles from us (and other science blog). We would hope that Google bans his account if they are convinced that he is copying illegally our content. Even if he mentions the source and puts a link to us, he still does not have the right to use our material. Thanks, for your answers. Adrian Buzatu, http://www.StiintaAzi.ro (Romania).
March 5th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Jeff, I am sad to read about your challenges and trials and of those of people like Enlightenment who are not getting the much deserved credit for the content that you have created. Being a blogger is tough. I feel for you. If you have a blog or run a content-heavy web site there is no doubt that you have invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears into creating your content. The real issue is the fact that your content IS leaving your site and being used elsewhere such as on another blog, in an email, in a Word doc or another web site. So, when it does, why not make sure it does something beneficial for you?
I work at a company called Tynt and we have created a way to help you get the credit that you deserve for the content that you have created. Presently, we are beta testing a service which will track when and what content people copy from your site and it will automatically add an attribution tag at the end of the copied section when it is pasted into an email, website or doc. This way YOU get the credit for YOUR work. In our tests so far we have found that this can drive more traffic to your site, increase your search engine rankings, and give you insight into what content users are engaging with and what content they take off your site. Another benefit is that it will make it easier to prove that you created the content.
The best news is that right now since we are doing beta testing you can try it for free. Just go to tynt.com.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:02 am
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October 1st, 2009 at 4:21 am
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November 11th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Ya, I must say that the its a damn waste of time chasing after these copycats who will stop at nothing to copy blog posts and the expense of the originating blogs.
And they refuse to stop inspite of my repeated warnings knowing that the whole thing about copyright infringement is a very complex issue.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 pm
how ironic.
“3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Blogger to contact you (email address is preferred).”
yet they don’t have an email for you to contact with. Somehow I think blogger (google) did this to make it as painful as possible so not everyone tries to report copyright infringement.