Has your website ever been plagiarized?

[MichaelCorfman]

There is nothing more frustrating than seeing your hard work show up on another site without permission. How serious a problem has this been for you?

[big fish]

it happens every now and then and you are right, it is very frustrating. i usually email them first and ask them to take our content down. if they do not then i usually contact the affiliate programs that they are promoting as well as the search engines to get them removed. this usally works great so if anyone is having problems i would suggest contacting the aff programs. they tend to pull some weight...

[CCJ]

Hi All,

Our websites have been copied many times. It's to the point now unfortunately, that we are used to it and it seems a part of our business.

Because it is so time consuming, we now pick and choose our battles. We follow our procedures to have our content removed whether its through Affiliate Managers, the hosting company or directly with the operator of the site. We find the best method is through the Affiliate Managers.

We use Copyscape as a paid service. Every week they send us reports and every week we find various degrees of copying. That being said, you need to make sure that the content is 100% copied before you begin your battle.

As a matter of fact, this morning I was notified of the site below using our strategy card. It still has our watermark (Blackjack-Strategycard.com) going diagonally through the chart. With this case, we have not done anything yet as we have others that are more pressing.

Our site:
http://www.blackjack-strategycard.co...multi_deck.htm

Their site:
http://www.freelottocasino.com/black...egy_sample.asp

If you have paid writers, you need to make sure that their content is also original and for your company's sole use. Make sure you have e-mails and receipts stating that the content they are writing for you is original.

The bottom line is this, I do not like webmasters using our hard work or content that our company has paid for. We will do our best stop them, no matter how long it takes, one at a time.

I'd like to thank the GPWA for acknowledging this concern that we have in our industry. Hopefully we will have less of it.

[aksana]

May be I'm looking for very bad, but I don't see any copies of my site

[Doolally]

I find using Copyscape a chore and was wondering if there were any good scripts or programs out there that can run an automated check. Does anyone know of any?

If not, some talented programmer could make a bit of cash with a monthly licence or selling of the software. Anyone fancy the challenge?

[matted]

This poll is eye opening so far... I've only seen my articles a time or two (scraper sites) but it sounds like an overwhelming number of webmasters face this problem.

[pgaming]

I have not seen actual content being stolen from my site. I see more blackhat/seo techinques being used.

greek39

[worthy]

This year two of my sites were copied. Whole content, design. Even link pages.

[mojo]

Yes, one particular moron copied my entire site. The problem was he copied my tracker code also. Imagine my surprise when I saw all his hits on my tracker. I went to his site and it was a mirror of my own. I would think the basics of Thievery 101 would teach you to remove the tracker from your victims codes.

I did angrily write him with a few choice words and he removed everything immediately. I know who he is to keep an eye on.

Mojo

[casinoranking]

I've had my websites copied word for word and with all of the images. Other times they only copy an article or two.

I feel that life is too short to waste my time chasing these guys down. Usualy if they have to copy a website they aren't very good at marketing it anyway.

The only time that I took action it backfired. I was listed in Dmoz and so was a website that had copied me, I contacted Dmoz to inform them of the other website and I gave them proof. The end result is they took both our websites out of dmoz. I can only imagine the search engine boost I would have had by now.

But again... life is too short, and if the worst thing that is happening at the moment is someone stealing your website content then I think things are going pretty good.

One little last comment... at one time I had someone who forgot to change over the tracking codes and I was getting an average of 5 new players a month at casinocoins from it. At that point I felt the guy earned my website design, this went on for months.

[Badlands]

Yes, I have been copied several times. The worst was when the webmaster copied a blackjack table from my site and pasted it on his. He even used the same color, same font type, same font size, etc. The problem was that the table looked out of place on his site because of the color coordination. Plus, he couldn't center it properly on his page. This was on an old site of mine. I had "written" permission from a casino to use the table as long as I provided a text link back to the casino site, which I did. This putz didn't even cite the original source. By the way, the table is still on his site, and he is a GPWA member too.

[CityGuard]

Badlands, if you PM me details about the member that is copying the content that you are using with permission, I will contact that person and make sure the material is removed. I will need your URL with material, original source URL if available, URL of unauthorized copy, and GPWA username of the person in question.

BTW - In your post when you say GPWA member, do you mean a private member or simply someone with a GPWA account?

[Badlands]

I have sent two separate PMs with all documentation. Thanks.

[wagerlover]

Hi guys!
Once I was unfairly accused for copying content by the webmaster of the portal http://www.gambling-pro.com/.
Not only the accusation was fake, later I knew this guy was playing a vendetta against me because I took some time in removing a link to his site from one of my own.

Since it took a long time for me to remove the link -due to a vacation period I was enjoying-, this guy started a campaign everywhere -including GPWA- to put me out of business. Later, GPWA emailed me to let me know about the situation and it was certainly painful, since the portal believed him at first. But the people responsible were very understanding and realized the accusation had no backup.

In his vendetta, this person also emailed every affiliate program in the world in order to destroy my reputation. Luckily, I had earned it via hard work from the very bottom and by that time I was bringing amazing results to my clients from the US, Europe and Israel, which told me not to worry, since they knew me very well and knew of other personal vendettas started out by envious webmasters.

The problem is that this guy eventually did something or maybe he contacted google, because not later than this, my rankings fell hard. I was not sure whether he had something to do with this or not, but I wanted to depict a scape that has always happened among webmasters. There are many examples of professional jealosy that move some people to destroy the work of others, just because they are doing better in their business. And this is something the envy cannot stand.

However, I don't resent his behavior. I hope it ll come a time when all the people from our business will realize we are all as one, working in order to pursue the very same goals.

Matias Ruiz
Webmaster
www.wagerlover.com

[helpyou]

I am not copyed.
I am very worried for the future when my website'll be more famous.
I think it is important that we help between us : to have a person of us that look for our website.

[chalkoutline]

Yep, I have had plenty of content stolen over the years. It is an unfortunate fact of life and is something that is very tough to keep under control. Not cool! :P

[Badlands]

This doesn't simply apply to web site information. It also applies to the blatant copying of copyrighted articles that have been published on ezine directory sites. I am not at liberty of identifying this person, but someone who owns an ezine directory has removed the "resource box" from hundreds of articles submitted to his/her directory and has resubmitted them to dozens of the less known ezine directories. (However, he/she is wise enough not to submit the stolen articles to the more respected ezine directories in the industry, such as www.EzineArticles.com or www.Buzzle.com. The well-known ezine directories have human editors and stricter standards) This person also claims to be an oncologist, a podiatrist, and a dermatologist, based on some of the stolen articles. However, "Losers will be Losers," as one ezine directory owner told me in an email last week.

[ogpaper]

I dont think we have had any content stollen - I see webmasters using our articles, but they will place a link back to us.

I think most of the webmasters are wising up - you can feel free to copy our content without a link back - but you will end up getting banned for the duplicate. Google has been very good about this.

And contrary on the popular belief - the more "famous" your website is - less you have to worry about content theft - your popularity guarantees you the right to the content and the other website will suffer a penalty, which in my opinion is good enough punishment, and saves me hours trying to deal with a richard-head.

The best way is to write your own content, might be time consuming, but it's best in the long term. We used to outsorce, but stop doing that as many of the "content writers" started taking the shortcut.

[nautikitten]

This person also claims to be an oncologist, a podiatrist, and a dermatologist, based on some of the stolen articles.

Why the hell would they be wasting there time running a website. You would think at the very least with all these degrees behind their belt that they would at the very least have someone running their sites. Interesting, very interesting.

[donnajyc]

I would suggest blocking the View Source option on your web pages. While this does not offer full protection, and the source can still be viewed by anyone smart enough to follow the correct steps, it may deter a few morons too lazy to create their own content. This can be done in several ways. First is buy purchasing a View Source Blocker Program, which I don't suggest as it will cost you money and is not guaranteed. It is in fact easy to get around. Instead, there are javascripts and html codes that can prevent opening a new browser from within your web site, which will stop the notepad from opening. Again, it is still possible to view the source by other means, but it may at least slow the plagerizing problem for those of you who are experiencing it to a higher degree. The 'no new browser' option can be a problem, however, if your web site needs to be able to open new browsers, for instance upon banner click. Try searching for ways to "block view source" and find a code that best fits you and your web site's situation.

I have personally never experienced this problem, but as an affiliate and article writer, I'm sure I will have similar complaints forthcoming. Thank you for the long list of ways, and most effective options, to deal with the problem