Some months ago I noticed the content of my blog copied by a site and I promptly filed a copyright notice using the Google DMCA dashboard. Prompt action was taken and all those URL's were taken down. So do not hesitate to file a notice if you happen to come across copyright infringement!
So, I researched about how to prevent content stealing, what to do if copyright infringement occurs, and thought about sharing what I have gathered by writing this post.
- How to find our content copied on other web pages without our knowledge?
- First, let us discuss what we can do to prevent content scraping by thieves.
- Copyright symbol, copyright statement, and copyright attribution. Always add these on the blog. © Also put this on the pictures as a watermark with the name of the blog or website.
Please add a copyright statement somewhere on the blog. Search google for free samples of copyright statement and policy. Add copyright to all your content including the RSS feeds and pictures.
The attribution widget will be present at the very bottom of the Home page. Open it, add the copyright symbol, year and the name. Please update it every year manually. There are some automatic ways to update the year, but I won’t recommend them. This is very important, and it is always better to update it manually every year.
Always add a watermark with the copyright symbol and the blog name on all the pictures. Even if the picture doesn’t look very attractive it is something much better than viewing them on some unknown person’s website. If some large-scale content theft occurs, we can easily spot our pictures with our copyright symbols. It would be very evident then that they were copied from our site because people will find our blog’s URL on them. I am now putting all these things on the pictures. Also, I decided to re-upload most of my pictures from my old posts with a logo of my blogs, URL, and copyright symbol. It was a tedious task, though!
Always name the pictures with the blog post title and the URL of the blog before uploading them on to the post. So, when we search for our pictures they will easily get identified by Google.
Periodically do an image and duplicate content search.
Also, do not upload very high-resolution images. First of all, it will take away our valuable free blog storage space. Even a very low-resolution image will look good on a blog, no problems at all! Moreover, editing such a low-resolution image will be of no use for somebody who is planning to use it for their own benefit. Always remember, viewers nowadays use their hand-held devices like mobiles and tablets to browse so there is no need for high-pixels!
Sign into Gmail, search Google for the DMCA dashboard and file a copyright notice.
Also, browse the DMCA website for more details. DMCA website has a lot of information about the Takedown notice.
Note: Please read the DISCLAIMER attached to this blog.
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The attribution widget will be present at the very bottom of the Home page. Open it, add the copyright symbol, year and the name. Please update it every year manually. There are some automatic ways to update the year, but I won’t recommend them. This is very important, and it is always better to update it manually every year.
- Add a disclaimer
- What to do with the pictures?
Always add a watermark with the copyright symbol and the blog name on all the pictures. Even if the picture doesn’t look very attractive it is something much better than viewing them on some unknown person’s website. If some large-scale content theft occurs, we can easily spot our pictures with our copyright symbols. It would be very evident then that they were copied from our site because people will find our blog’s URL on them. I am now putting all these things on the pictures. Also, I decided to re-upload most of my pictures from my old posts with a logo of my blogs, URL, and copyright symbol. It was a tedious task, though!
Always name the pictures with the blog post title and the URL of the blog before uploading them on to the post. So, when we search for our pictures they will easily get identified by Google.
Periodically do an image and duplicate content search.
- Internal Linking
- DMCA badge
- Can a Photoshop expert remove the identification we made on our pictures?
Also, do not upload very high-resolution images. First of all, it will take away our valuable free blog storage space. Even a very low-resolution image will look good on a blog, no problems at all! Moreover, editing such a low-resolution image will be of no use for somebody who is planning to use it for their own benefit. Always remember, viewers nowadays use their hand-held devices like mobiles and tablets to browse so there is no need for high-pixels!
- Disable right-clicks
- Be vigilant!
- Finally, what to do when copyright infringement is detected?
Complain asap!
Write an email to the owner of the website/blog about the concern pointing out the objection from our part. If no response within a reasonable timeframe:Sign into Gmail, search Google for the DMCA dashboard and file a copyright notice.
Also, browse the DMCA website for more details. DMCA website has a lot of information about the Takedown notice.
Note: Please read the DISCLAIMER attached to this blog.