I have been encouraging people to write more content for their website.  It could be by adding new pages or by making blog posts or whatever.  What is important is to keep adding content as often and as much as possible.  You can even get others to write some of it for you with a well-promoted blog or forum.  But what do you do when you find out other websites are copying your content and putting it on their site?

Step One - Decide.  Is it really a problem?

Having your web content copied may not be worth worrying about.  In fact, if it mentions your company, it might actually benefit you.   If the content has links to your website, it might even benefit you.  It is possible that stolen content does more good for you than it does for the thief.  Or, at worst, it might be fairly harmless to you.   If the content is a critical violation to you and you want it stopped, it is possible. 

Before The Plagiarism Occurs

There is a special bit of javascript you can add to every page that makes it difficult to copy/paste the text on the page.  This stops human plagiarists.  The javascript will not stop programmed scripts that steal content.  This can slow down the individuals who might copy/paste your content somewhere else.  This also encourages those people to come back to your site whenever they need to review the material.

The next level of defense is a service called CopyScape.com. CopyScape.com is a website service that scans the internet for copies of your content.  You can do limited scans for free, or pay them for more capabilities such as automated scans.  CopyScape.com gives you a banner that you can place on your website that warns thieves that you are watching out for them. 

Copyrights and trademarks are essential tools for protecting your most important intellectual property.  Because this is such a touch legal arena, this is where you call your attorney and give them small piles of your hard-earned cash in order to avoid giving them much larger piles of cash in the future.

After the Plagiarism Occurs

The first step is always to try to contact the webmaster with an email, fax, or phone call and ask them to remove the content.  In most cases, they will do it immediately without any issue.  Many people wrongly believe it is okay to copy from other sites.  They will back down right away once confronted.

The next step is to send them a certified letter to the address of registration for the domain name.  This is rarely required.

Then finally, you have the option of having your attorney take over the process.