STOP Thief ! .... Stolen Content
Copyright 2006 by Robert Wardrick All Rights Resered
Thousands of articles are published daily and immediately become shareware for those who enjoy the privileges of using them as content on their websites, in e-zines, blogs etc.
The downside for some authors is that many such articles are stolen and re-published under the thieves own names and copyright notices.
Often entire articles including the original title are infringed. In other cases it may be a single sentence or paragraph.
In the print world it can be easier to track down an infringer by following a paper trail but the vastness of the world wide web poses a more difficult task.
- - How to help protect authors rights - - (1) The best way of protecting you works is to registered it with the U.S. Copyright Office, Registration gives an author legal means of pursuing an infringement. Copyright forms are free for the asking and the fee for a single copyright is $30.00. Collections of multiple articles can also be copyrighted for one fee.
There is a practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself and sometimes called a "poor man's copyright. "There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.
www.copyright.gov Copyright Office The Library of Congress 101 Independence Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20559-6000 202) 707-3000
(2.) Use the Search engines such as Google or Yahoo and type in the title of one or more of you articles and see what comes up. This can give you feedback of other articles that may closely resemble your own works.
(3.) Join others and become an article writers vigilante, thus if you come across the same content with two different authors shoot off a note too both and maybe the bad guy will repent and the good guy will benefit.
This above is not intended as legal advice but rather as an insight into copyright infringement. For expert assistance consult an attorney.
