More and more frequently I am finding myself on the offensive having to defend my work. Whether through ignorance of copyright law, the belief they won’t get caught or by simply disregarding the laws; more and more people are stealing the work of others and posting it on their own sites.
Some put up ridiculous disclaimers. Some call the material presented a “preview”. Some link to the original source. Some do none of those and simply claim the work as their own.
Regardless of how the information is presented and regardless of whether or not they identify the original source, they are stealing! They are infringing upon the copyrights of others. They are attempting to make money off of the work of others without regard for the income they may be stealing from the actual owner.
There’s a wonderful feature in Adsense that everyone should take advantage of – Allowed Sites. When you login to your account, click on the Adsense Setup tab and look to the far right. There it is – Allowed Sites. The first thing you should do is select the radio button that says “Only allow certain sites to show ads for my account”. The second thing you should do is add your sites to the allowed sites list.
While this does absolutely nothing to stop the content thieves, it does provide another way to find them. Once you find them, send them and/or their webhost a DMCA notice to get them to remove your work from their site.
Protect yourself and stop being a willing accomplice by allowing these creeps to get away with stealing from you.