How to deal with content plagiarism on your site

Plagiarism is a very serious issue that plagues many website and blog creators on a regular basis. This serious offense is when someone basically copies content from someone else’s site and tries to pass it off as their own. It is very frustrating to find that someone has taken the content that you worked and slaved over and has passed it off as their own and is now using it to further their own goals. With the new advances in technology, plagiarism is easier to pass off, but there have also been great advances in what you can do to deal with plagiarism when it does occur:

Run content through a plagiarism checker: There are many sites online that can help you check the content to make sure it has not been plagiarized. This is especially helpful if you have multiple people writing content for you. Each time someone sends in content you can run it through the checker to see if there is any plagiarized content. You do not want to post plagiarized content on your site so you need to make sure your writers are getting copied content from your writers.

Call someone who has plagiarized your content: If you find that someone has plagiarized content from your site, see if you can find a phone number for the owner of the site. Call the owner and let them know of your concern regarding the copied content and ask them what they will do to correct the situation. Often times, all it takes is a mild confrontation and they will apologize and take down the copied content from their site.

“Cease and Desist” letters: This can be the first step in potential legal processes if it comes to that. The cost to have a lawyer draft an official cease and desist letter is low and it lets the owner of the site know that you take the plagiarism seriously. This type of action will generally yield a response from the offending party. They may be apologetic, standoffish, or rude, butchances are they will end up removing the content from their site. A note to remember here is that once you have sent the letter make sure you check back to ensure they have removed the copied content. It can also be a good idea to check back regularly and make sure there are no repeat offenses.

Write a negative review online: This is the digital age and when it comes to dealing with people who plagiarize and have no intent of removing the copied content, this can be a viable option. You have the right to let others know to be wary of the site or business that is stealing your content. Writing negative reviews can do more to get someone; attention because reviews and word of mouth is the most powerful advertising for any site- and negative reviews are no different. One can also

Types of plagiarism content:

CLONE: This type of plagiarism means someone has basically copied your content word for word and has put it up on their site as their own. This is the most blatant type of plagiarism and is the easiest type to detect and remedy. One can also take help from anti scraping services like Scrapesentry or Distil.

COPY PASTE: This occurs when a significant amount of text is copied from your site without alterations. The copied parts will be stuck into new or original content but the majority of the page or article will be copied content.

FIND &REPLACE: This plagiarism trick involves changing key words and phrases but keeping the rest of the content the same and the same general premise and focus.

RE-SPUN: Paraphrases are used and mixed from multiple sources with very little original content. The copied sources are fitted together to flow and sound like an original article, but it all comes from several copied sources.

NEW HYBRID: This is a unique type of plagiarism that is difficult to catch in many instances. It combines properly cited and quoted material with content that is directly plagiarized.

404 ERROR: Another difficult plagiarism method, this type occurs when someone gives citations that are false or that are non-existent, thus leading to error messages when tying to view the cited sources.

COMBINATION: Includes sources that have the correct citations but the paper contains little to no original work at all.

Plagiarism is a very serious issue that haunts many online writers on a regular basis. This grave offense involves someone copying content from your site and then trying to pass it off as their own. In the digital age, it is easier than ever to plagiarize content, but it is also easier to catch and guard against plagiarism when you know what to look for!

Sources:-

http://www.blogherald.com/2013/11/26/how-to-protect-your-content-from-plagiarism/

 https://chronicle.com/article/A-Positive-Solution-for/134498/

http://www.scrapesentry.com/news/web-scraping-definition-detection-prevention/

http://write.oid.ucla.edu/6-plagiarism/handling-plagiarism