Pulling the plug on unauthorized copycats – an update
A month ago I wrote about how you can effectively remove unauthorized content from web sites, under the threat of a DMCA notice.
The process is simple, straightforward and as long as you provide the necessary information to the legal department of the host providing the server space, it will work regardless of content.
The idea, however, is not to shut down an offending web site, unless they do not comply with the notification delivered by their host. Often, it’s not even necessary to notify the offending web site to take your content down – you can go directly to their web host and complain.
Such content-scraping web sites can sprout like mushrooms all over the place.
The main problem is not the scrapers but rather, the specialized web sites that portray themselves as magazines or portals in the same niche market that you are. These, are the ones worthy of a DMCA notice and in the past week there have been two such instances I dealt with, both successfully.
The bottom line is this: nobody should be copying your content due to lack of writing skills or in order to benefit from material you wrote. Publishing content on the Internet gives you the copyright and the offending copycats can be effectively taken down.
Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/acroplex
