Stolen content

[jwm]

I have an affiliate site which has had a 2,000 word review article stolen a day after it was published and republished in full by a Canadian owned website. They haven't bothered to change anything about the review, it is identical, but have obviously inserted their own affiliate links into it.

I have never had this happen before so can anyone advise about what I can do about this?

 

[WigWam]

Report them to google for copying your content.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en

add a copyscape badge to your site + mention in your t&c's that all content is copyright and that it is not to be republished or rewritten.

WigWam

 

[RSK3000]

I have had some success with just emailing them and asking them to remove the content - no threats, all low key. Its a bit counter intuitive but there are a lot of complete idiots out there.

Say you will check in 7 days to confirm 'they were able to remove the content'. Most times offenders have been embarrased and the low key 'friendly' email is not what they are expecting. If they have not responded / removed the content after 7 days you can still follow the advice the others suggest.

 

[Frog]

If its an affiliate site, tell them they can use a 400 word chunk of the article as long as they link to the source... no problems with duplicate content and you get a link out of it.

But if the site is complete garbage then the link is bordering on worthless, I'd just use a DMCA complaint to have it taken down. Quick and easy.

 

[jwm]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I have issued a DMCA complaint to their host so will wait and see what happens

 

[Blossom]

In the mean time you could take a look into this: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/12/handling-legitimate-cross-domain.html

As a disclaimer I've never actually tried this myself for duplicate content, but I have heard of other people who have. If you do try it, proceed with caution...

 

[jwm]

Just an update on this for anyone interested or for anyone who may come across the same issue. The DMCA complaint worked and the site has removed the article from their site.