PSA: A Recipe Site is stealing content

Thanks to a Google alert, I just discovered that A Recipe Site is lifting my posts, word for word, including photographs. I'm sure I'm not the only food blogger being ripped off, so I'm writing here to suggest you click through and look for your own work. If you find anything, here's the contact info per Register.com:

Administrative Contact:
Searsville Land Company
tom lodato (tlodato@aol.com)
+1.6502076063
Fax: +1.6503650673
846 Portola Road suite J
Portola Valley, CA 94028
US

This Post was written by Debbie from Words to Eat By.

A really good conclusion to a plagiarism case

My last couple of posts here were about someone who seems to have no sense of wrong about copying recipes and so on, even after receiving complaints. That person is still posting copied recipes, though greatly stripped down now, and still getting tons of Twitter followers thanking her for her great recipes and so on. Really a downer. But today I had a very positive experience with another person, so I thought I'd relate it to show that sometimes these exchanges can end on a positive note.

So, someone had copied 4 of my posts and a couple of the photos that accompanied them, back in October or so. I didn't realize it because the person who copied them was smart enough to not link to me directly, but a reader alerted me to the copies yesterday. Not the first time this has happened by any means. Last night I pulled out the standard 'please stop that, copyright, etc.' email and sent it off, not expecting a response anytime soon.

This morning, I got a contrite message from that person, who apologized and said he had taken down the offending posts. But he also said this (edited a bit to protect his identity)

Your message has given me a new perspective [on my blog]. You see, I copied [the articles] back when I was in my gangster stage of life; I was lazy and if i could trick the people around me it was all fine, but now I'm different. I found [programming], which allows me to make things without copying from others. What I did before was bad, but now I'm different, and your message has given me the idea to completely redesign my site! All the suspect articles have been removed and I am in the process of rebuilding [my site].

I am guessing that he's pretty young...and if this incident has really helped to change his thinking, it's a really great! (And yes his site is indeed down at the moment.)

Anyway, his response really made my day, and it made up for all the other, less positive similar situations.

What to to when your content is taken

Since it's come up quite a bit on FoodBlogS'cool and I've personally had to deal with it a half a dozen times, I thought I'd share a bit about what to do when you find that your blog (in part or in whole) is ending up somewhere else on the web. (See more about Scraping at Wikipedia)

First, establish what is being taken and why. If someone is reposting a single post as a way to share it with others on their otherwise original blog, it's usually not an issue. They may have gone beyond the bounds of "fair use" but a simple email or comment on their blog to request that they use excerpts should suffice.

If you find that your entire blog content is being taken as you post it, then it's time to take action.

1. Look at the site and determine what they're doing. Are they taking your entire feed and reposting it on their site. Are they taking more than one blog's content? Are they using an automated script to post excerpts based on search results? Are they hotlinking to your images? Are they linking back to your site? Are they reposting under a different copyright or CC license? Is the site monetized (ads or affiliate links)?
2. Once you've figured out what they're doing with your content, take action immediately. If there is an email address displayed on the site, send them a note asking to be taken off of their site immediately. Give them 48 hours and check back. If there is no change, be prepared for further work.
3. If the site is monetized, send a note to the "abuse" email addresses for whomever is the ad agency. Adsense, Adbrite and most other big ad companies have easy ways for reporting abuse.
4. If the site is hosted at a site such as blogspot, livejournal, wordpress or other blog service, contact them to report the reposting of your content. You will need to provided links with a 1 to 1 comparison of content. Make it as EASY as possible for them to see that your information has been taken without your permission.
5. If the site is self-hosted under a unique domain, go to DomainTools.com to find out who registered the domain. Send an email requesting the removal of your material to the registrar.
6. Through DomainTools you can also find out who hosts the site. Don't wait until step 5 works, go ahead and send a DMCA notice to the host. Usually you can do it via email, but be double-diligent and print out your email and either snail mail it or FAX it to them.
7. Follow up on ALL of the above if nothing happens.

Now, it looks like this is a step-by-step process, but after you email the site owner, I say do everything else at the same time. Don't wait for the site to be de-monetized, go ahead and send the DMCA letter to the host.

Other helpful hints:

If you notice that your content is not the only site being scraped, see if you can figure out who else's is being stolen. Contact those bloggers and share your information. They may have other tactics to share and of course multiple emails from people complaining about DMCA violations to hosts are taken much more seriously.

Here are some great articles everyone should read:

What to do when someone is stealing your content
How long should a plagiarism case take?
DMCA Primer
Dealing with Website Plagiarism
How to Write an Effective DMCA Notice
Is Someone Stealing Your Content? The DMCA is Your Friend (Thanks for the pointer on that one Elise!)

So, who has an experience to share and other tips?

This Post was written by Cybele from Candy Blog

How to Use a Header or Footer to Prevent Plagiarism

Preventing Plagiarism has a great post about the merits of using a header/footer in your posts. I for one intend to add a footer.

Alanna from A Veggie Venture & Kitchen Parade