How to deal with a wordpress content thief?

adarnasf · Member · Jun 18, 2011 at 8:05 pm
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Hi all,

I just deleted a pingback from another wordpress site. This wordpress site just took my whole article without permission and added a bunch of irrelevant metatags to it. This site did link back to my original post, which is keeping me from charging full-speed ahead with the pitchfork, but really this site is 100% stolen material from other blogs. Do I just let it go because google would rank ’em lower, or should I report this site to wordpress?

Thanks,
Frida

The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
timethief · Member · Jun 18, 2011 at 8:07 pm
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Staff have prepared a specific support documentation entry on this topic. http://en.support.wordpress.com/content-theft-what-to-do/
thesacredpath · Member · Jun 18, 2011 at 8:20 pm
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Definitely go after them. There is always the chance they would at some point outrank you and the others since they are cherry picking posts by others.

WordPress takes this stuff seriously, and so should everyone else.
raincoaster · Member · Jun 18, 2011 at 8:55 pm
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Remember, there are 2 kinds of WordPress. If the theiving blog is on WordPress.COM you can just go to it, click under Blog Info on your admin bar and click Report As Spam, then add all the details. Poof, your content will be removed or the blog will be deleted by staff.

If it’s hosted elsewhere, it’s a more involved process. Step 1: if they have Google Ads, report them to Google by clicking the “ads by google” link on the ad. Fill out the whole thing and Google will take away their Adsense account, which hits them where they live. Step 2: report them to their web host, who has no legal option but to insist they remove the copyrighted material.

It’s VERY satisfying when their whole blog goes down, then they scream and yell and finally agree to remove the content they stole, then they get the blog back up usually at a new host and THEN they find they can’t run ads on it. Wonderful.
adarnasf · Member · Jun 28, 2011 at 12:18 am
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Thanks everyone. I reported the one on wordpress.com as spam and it’s now gone (thanks WordPress!) but I’m still having problems with ones on their own web host. I can’t find any contact information and I can’t even comment on their posts to leave behind a cease and desist message. One of them even has a hilarious copyright notice on the site. I don’t see any ads on their sites, so I have no idea how they make money. Any advice on these guys? Should I just file a DMCA complaint with Google? Thanks!
auxclass · Member · Jun 28, 2011 at 12:23 am
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Do a whis search on the domain name – that will give you the host and go to the host.

http://www.dnsstuff.com/?ptype=free
lizabif · Member · Jun 28, 2011 at 2:26 am
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How do you know when another blog has stolen your content. There must be millions of blogs out there.

Sorry, I’m just not net savvy.
timethief · Member · Jun 28, 2011 at 3:28 am
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@elizabethre
One way you use to determine if your content has been stolen is to use copyscape to search for copies of your page on the web. See here > http://copyscape.com/

Another way is to publish a post and then search for a sentence in it using Google search.

You cam also use plagium to search by pasting or typing your original text of up to 24,857 characters: http://www.plagium.com/
timethief · Member · Jun 28, 2011 at 3:37 am
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@fridafantastic
These two are in addition to the site auxclass suggests above. For finding the web host I use Domain Tools. http://www.domaintools.com/ Just type in the domain of the site you want to check.
Or you can use WhoIsHostingThis (WiHT). http://www.whoishostingthis.com/ Just type in the domain of the site you want to check.

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