Take Action Against Copyright Infringement

This week, Swapna from S. Krishna’s Books and I have tackled fair use versus copyright infringement and ways to find out when your content has been stolen. Today, in our last installment, we’re both discussing what you can do once you’ve discovered that your blog has become victim to copyright infringement.

This theme was the brainchild of Swapna.  I’m so glad she let me tag along because I’ve learned a lot. You can read Swapna’s post about different ways to take action against copyright infringement here.

From what I’ve found researching for this post (thanks to everyone who has commented or sent me an email – you’ve all been very helpful!), the approach to take with you discover an illegal use of your content depends upon the type of site in violation.

Another Blogger

If the site that has stolen your content is owned and operated by another blogger, the best first approach is to send a personal email informing them that they are in violation with a request to remove your content. How you approach such an email is up to you and it may also depend on how much of a relationship you have with the blogger in question. I would imagine (or at least hope) that another blogger wouldn’t intentionally commit a copyright violation, so I would probably approach such an email from a “you may not realize” perspective. That way they are given the opportunity to save face while, at the same time, your content is removed. Of those people who have told me about sending such emails, they were 100% effective in taking care of the situation.

Spam Blogs

When it comes to spam blogs, those that steal content from others solely to have content to use to generate income from ads, there hasn’t been nearly as much success.  Often, it’s difficult to determine who owns the blog itself. If you can’t identify the owner, it’s difficult to send them a Take Down email or to send them a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Notice. One of the bloggers I’ve been in contact with this week eventually sent the notice to the blog’s web host. Although the site in questi0n was eventually taken down, but nothing happened that seemed directly related to her DMCA Notice.

DMCA Take Down Notices

While the experiences from bloggers I’ve discussed this with have not made sending a DMCA Notice seem very forceful or even useful, should you decide to pursue it, the notice can make the violator liable.  Wikipedia has a long and detailed article about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that provides its history and even some analysis.  Should you decide to write a notice, Plagiarism Today has a really great article about writing and effective DMCA Notice that you won’t want to miss.

It would be nice  if we didn’t have to worry about the integrity of others, but copyright infringement has been an issue long before the advent of blogging. The good news is that knowledge is power. You can take control of your content and defend it against all types of malfeasance. You are your own best security department/private investigator/police officer.

Thank you so much for joining Swapna and me this week.  As always, we’d appreciate your feedback. Please know that if you ever find yourself in this type of situation, the blogging community will always be here to support you and back up.

Have a great weekend!