NIMBY – getting ready for content thieves
3 strikes in 3 days and I need a drink.
Monday
Someone asked where I got my popular 12-step apostrophe programme. That I wrote it myself surprised him.
Tuesday
Researching. Though bored beyond all proportion, I came back to life when…yes, that phrase there…I could have sworn I’d read the same top 10 list just a minute ago.
Calling up my browsing history, I put the 2 pages side by side. The 2nd one was completely stolen – 100% copied and pasted. Nothing on the original article invited interested parties to help themselves and the thief even had the audacity to respond to complimentary comments on the article’s helpfulness.
Wednesday
Someone, a girl I knew in high school, has lifted my entire Facebook profile. My activities, interests – even favourite quotes. If I’d known we had so much in common, we might have been better friends!
The problem?
If you’ve got good web content, it’s almost inevitable it will be stolen. A lot of people are a lot less scrupulous than yourself – and the internet provides such a handy cloak of anonymity.
Like pretty much every website out there, you’ve got a copyright at the footer of every web page. Right? Perhaps you’ve even kindly prepared articles and PDFs for duplication – with the reasonable request that your byline is duplicated when the article’s used elsewhere. Right.
It’s sad to avoid putting out your best work, only to defend your intellectual property. Consider the carmakers crying into their beers after visiting April’s Shanghai Auto Show.
If (when?) it happens, there are resources a-plenty to go Jack Bauer on their thieving skins:
- SEOChat recommends taking a screenshot and a few further steps
- Website Law helps with what to do next
- SEOMoz soothes with 4 ways to enforce your copyright
- IdeaLady offers a few new weapons
Today?
Take the blinders off and stand guard. Set up your Google Alerts before lunch. Make a folder in your Google Reader or a folder in your inbox- ‘my best bits’. Create alerts for a few random phrases throughout. I’ve done so for my most popular posts and a few articles. Then go out and buy a cookie as a reward for a boring task.
Greedy? Why not bake cookies! Learn about the competitive world of copywriting + cookie recipes.
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