In the past couple of months, Words You Want had an interesting issue arise in that two other companies tried to impersonate our entire business. One company set up a website that used our exact web content only they changed the name of the business to their own, RollingPens.com. Another set up an Elance profile and used our exact content including my name!
Fortunately, these issues were easily cleared up with a lengthy cease and desist letter, but it was a reminder at just how sneaky and lazy people can be. Instead of creating a successful business on their own, they try to ride the coat tails of others and blatantly steal from them. Unfortunately this isn’t only limited to actual web content, but articles, blogs, eBooks and even photos. I thought that the start of the New Year is a good opportunity to remind everyone about copyright and exactly what you should be doing to avoid any issues with your own business as well as ensure that you’re not breaking any copyright laws yourself.
How Copyright Really Works
There’s a misconception that when you create something that you’re automatically the copyright holder and that if anyone steals your work you are automatically due any monetary damage caused by the theft and that you don’t have to actually register anything with the U.S. Copyright office.
Unfortunately, this is only partially true. You are the automatic copyright holder, however, if someone steals your work, whether an article, a photo or a design, you are not due any remuneration if your work is not registered. If you want to have a leg to stand on in court, you have to register your work. Simply placing a copyright symbol on your pages doesn’t guarantee that you are due any money from the theft; it simply shows you are the creator and that you can request them to stop using it.
To be on the safe side and to protect yourself, you need to register your content and products with the U.S. Copyright office (or the copyright agency in your country). Registering with the U.S. Copyright office is relatively simple. It can all be done online now and you are able to register anything that you can upload within an hour for $35. Visit the Copyright.gov for more information on the process. I will admit though that their system is not the easiest to navigate and is not very user-friendly.
Uniqueness and Originality
There’s really no “new” content on the web today, particularly if you are writing over many of the niches that people have deemed to be “hot” or good product topics. However, that doesn’t mean that this same information can’t be repurposed into something new and interesting. At Words You Want, we deal with this on a regular basis and we strive to make even topics that have been beaten to death interesting and original.
The problem we’re seeing today though is that all of these “tools” for creating content have been generated, such as article spinners, and this has resulted in a bunch of content that is nothing more than trash. The same article spun into 100 different iterations is not unique and original content. Words You Want doesn’t engage in such activities because it’s worthless to our clients. Yet, there are still those people out there that not only hire people to do this for them, they are often stealing content from websites and then spinning it to make it appear new and unique, but it’s not.
The other issue is PLR content that people then want to spin and reuse, but the problem here is that this content may have been purchased by hundreds of other people as well, so no matter how much you spin and rewrite it, it’s never really going to be unique and original. Google has become very adept at filtering this trash out, but unfortunately, it’s still an issue that we have to deal with because it can affect your SEO negatively, as well as your overall online reputation.
Buy Stock Photos!
Another area we have issues with is that we often have clients request that we get images for their eBooks or articles, but then they balk when we have to charge for them. There’s a misconception that images on Flickr and other photo sharing sites are free for the taking, but that’s simply not true. These photos are not free to be used however you wish. Some may be creative commons, but even creative commons licenses have stipulations that must be met.
The best way to ensure that you’re not breaking copyright law and using images illegally is to buy them from a stock photography website like iStockphoto.com. iStock is a great micro stock site and there are a variety of other sites to choose from as well. Plus, you’re helping a photographer make a living by purchasing their work rather than stealing it.
Check Your Own Content and Images for Originality
As writers, we use Copyscape to ensure that what we write is original and unique. You can check your own website’s content for theft by running it through Copyscape as well and making sure that nobody is stealing your content or impersonating your business. In fact, this is how we found out that our web content was being stolen.
For images, you can use Google Image Search to check that images you have taken yourself for your website or blog haven’t been stolen. Google Chrome has a plug-in that allows you to right click on your image and it then runs a search for images that look like yours. It’s an amazing little tool.
Conclusion
Far too many people think that they can hide behind their computers, steal content and images and not have to worry about getting caught. Fortunately, this isn’t the case. You can find out if people have been stealing your content and you can put a stop to it, but you have to be prepared for the fight.
