If you find out that somebody has been stealing and reuploading your blog posts or YouTube videos without permission, don’t fret!
Although this can be incredibly alarming to see, it isn’t necessarily a big deal.
So, what should you do?
First, determine whether or not this is actually a problem. If the website or video isn’t ranking above or near yours, chances are you aren’t actually losing any traffic to this person. Google is pretty good at filtering out duplicate / stolen content, so most of the time it shouldn’t matter as long as your content is being properly indexed.
The truth is, most notable sites have their content scraped and reuploaded automatically. Your content has probably already been reuploaded dozens of times, you just haven’t noticed it.
If you’re not losing traffic, just ignore it.
IF it is having a business impact however, I recommend taking the following set of actions:
- Contact the website owner. Notify them that they’ve plagiarized your content, and kindly ask them to remove it. Sometimes, this may have been done without them even knowing it (for example, by a new writer who tried to scam the employer by claiming the content they published was original.)”
- Report copyright infringement to Google through this form here. It’s a little lengthy to fill out, but a real person from Google will review it and potentially deindex the other website from Google search results. Note that the other party has the opportunity to file a DMCA counter-notice.
- File a DMCA notice with their webhost. You can find out their web host by visiting hostingchecker.com. Again, they have the opportunity to file a DMCA counter notice. When this happens, you have to immediately file suit against them. A lot of people know you won’t bother getting legally involved, so the content gets restored. Additionally, some web hosts, especially those based in certain countries in Europe, do not honor DMCA requests, which is why piracy is so rampant on the internet.
If filing a DMCA didn’t work, and the person also hotlinked your images – meaning they are loading them from your server, you can change these on your local server if you wish.
I’ve heard of people changing the pictures to giant banners stating that the website stole your content. This can be done by uploading a new picture with the same name in your servers files, and then renaming the one you actually use in your blog posts.
Of course, if you’ve already filed a DMCA, they’ll already be on to you, and might look out for antics like this.
If you’ve filed a DMCA and it wasn’t honored or they filed a DMCA counter notice, there isn’t much you can do outside of hiring a specialist or actually file suit.
Personally, I find it a better use of your time to continue building yourself up, instead of focusing on competitors – even scummy thieves.
– James McAllister