How Can You Tell if Your Content Has Been Ripped Off?
August 22, 2007 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
As you’re no doubt already aware, my biggest pet peeve is content theft. I think there’s nothing worse than lazy website owners or bloggers who feel it’s ok to steal someone’s work, especially if they’re hoping to profit. Every time I blog about content theft, I receive a flurry of emails and comments asking how I find my stolen content. The world wide web is a big place. Surely it’s like finding a needle in a haystack, isn’t it?
Actually it’s not too difficult to know if someone is ripping off your content. It requires a little time on your part, but if you want to keep your words off of other people’s websites, you’ll find it worth the trouble.
Copyscape: Copyscape allows you to enter the URL of your post or webpage and then scans the web for duplicate copy. Keep in mind you can only use the free service several times per month, after that you’ll have to pay.
Technorati, pingbacks and trackbacks – This is the reason you should always link to a past post or article. Technorati will list all of the blogs linking to you. If there’s a link to your blog inside an article and someone rips it off, it’ll appear in the sites that link to you. Also, if you request pingbacks for your blog, you’ll get one when someone steals something you wrote that links back to a past piece of content.
Google: Google your title or a few choice sentences and see what comes up. Make sure to put it between quotes so a search will only yield those that are an exact match.
It’s a shame we have to troll the Internet to find out if our content is stolen. Until this isn’t a problem anymore, we really don’t have too much of a choice. At least there are simple ways to check for our content on other blogs and websites. Don’t take content theft lightly, let the people who steal your words know you’re going to do everything within your power to have the situation rectified. They may think twice about stealing again.
Discuss…
- Deb
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interiew PROFESSIONAL sports figures????? singers, record company execs??? with what kind of writers and their experience did this LCP, and HOPE think were being dealt with??? they had NO clue whatsoever of our abilities to take on such HEAVY handed work.. if we could, we surely would NOT be doing it for 50 bucks a pop!! to interview REAL stars of screen and music and stage??? and get …huh… $50.00 when in the real world, that work would get the lucky ones thousands!!! gimme a break.. that should have been the RED FLAG OF ALL RED FLAGS. you cant get out from that one o ‘defenders of hope and such’. because it would be insane to even try and explain it!
just want to say ‘thank you’ for being one of the best resources for freelance writers everywhere.
how sad this entire LCP-Hope Hunt and all others involved in this apparent twisted scam, how shameful a deceit this has become. within days and even before, the now infamous letter of denial was received and circulated, there were already intenet boards and blogs filling up with heated debates surrounding this. what a disgrace to all this has become. all we can do, is protect our personal information from getting into the wrong hands. check check and recheck those we may be interested in working with. SEARCH THE BOARDS AND FORUMS; thanks to some great ones, we know better now and will serve to help others
oy, vey, I got duped by Hope Hunt and LCP, as well. Better Business Bureau has “LCP Productions” listed as a business in So. California that offers data entry and transcription services. BBB has little info, but notes one unanswered complaint. Wish I’d been smart enough to go to BBB before I worked for LCP — they owe me $250.
Anyway, just for fun, I answered Hope’s email to me with the “not gon’na pay” form letter that we all received. Here is the answer Shadra Bruce sent me:
LCP used right of first refusal to return all rights to all articles to the writers in light of the delay in launching the publications. If you are still interested, please submit the work and I will see that it gets to the assigned editor.
Yeah, right, fool me once…
I apologize for anything I said while under contract with LCP. I, too, am one of the many “fools” who worked diligently for this company under the assumption that we were creating something fabulous. At this point, not only have I not been paid, but I have received threats from Roger Owens/Quincy Carr that I will be sued by his “company” for telling people the truth on the blogs–that I never received payment and that I discourage anyone from working for this company without full knowledge of the risk they take. The company owes me at least $7000 that I know I will never see — but I am sorry I didn’t catch on sooner and help more people. Most of us have filed complaints with the FBI and I encourage any of you to do the same. An email address has been set up as well, victimsoflcp@gmail.com, where you can send copies of your contracts and other information to be provided to the authorities. At this point, I am still trying to get an attorney to follow up on behalf of all of us…but since there’s likely no money to be recovered, most attorneys are not willing to help. My words to the writers remain true — LCP DID exercise right of first refusal by sending you that letter, and you can seek publication elsewhere and you DO maintain copyright of your work…I have been able to get two of my features published elsewhere, and I am confident (having edited for six of the magazines) that most of this work is publishable. Should any writer want a copy of their edited article, and wrote for Centerstage, Certified, Urban Wedding, Urban Bride, Urban Flair, or Popular Travel, I will gladly provide you with a free copy of your edited work, which may give you an edge to getting published. I can be reached at desertchild71@yahoo.com.