Last week we talked about when your ideas are stolen. It’s a tricky topic, as ideas are not copyrightable, but there are some instance in which you, freelance writer, might have some legal ground to stand on.
With your writing, however, you have plenty of ammunition. In fact, here’s your guide to what’s protected: Copyright Law of the United States
Back in 2011, I was alerted by some of you (more than one) that my posts were being repeated — let me rephrase, rewritten — on another blog. This is a blogger you all probably know.
It’s also a blogger who, from my quick research back then, was doing the exact same thing to other bloggers in the writing community. It’s someone who built a career — and course offerings — using this kind of lifted material.
No, I won’t tell you who it is. Just know that Karma, when it hits, is going to feel like an eight-mile-long freight train. I hope to be there to see it.
At the time, some writers told me they left comments like “Wow, this is exactly like what Lori wrote last week/last month!” but since comments were moderated, guess where those went?
At the time, I did nothing. What do you do when someone you know — someone you thought had an ethical code — does this? If it had been a total stranger, the gloves would have come off.
The gloves certainly came off when one particular blogger — who know touts himself as a writer and, apparently, a guru of all things having to do with whatever he likes to talk about — didn’t just steal the content, but all my traffic. He had a website up that “showcased” all these writing websites on his site.
This was all happening without my knowledge or permission.
Stolen traffic.
When I sent him a stern cease-and-desist email, he got testy with me. Clearly I did not understand copyright laws as he was “well within Fair Use” laws to share that. I repeated my cease-and-desist language along with a screenshot of what Fair Use laws actually include.
If he meant attribution, the “attribution” was the fact that my name was on every post. The problem was you had to click three or four times to go to my site to read them. Only you didn’t need to because you could read them verbatim on his site without bothering.
He responded by telling me I needed to read copyright laws (you know, the ones I’d just sent him) that he obviously hadn’t read). He teaches copyright, he said, and he implied that I couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag when it came to copyright.
I responded by repeating again my original cease-and-desist demand. He reneged, saying he had no obligation to do so, but he simply didn’t have time to argue with me.
What you do in that case:
What I did. Just keep repeating your demand and don’t engage with an asshole.
But what about the first instance? I didn’t handle it the way I should have, and I do regret it. Maybe the biggest regret is that I still see people — newer writers in particular — plunking down good money for this blogger’s courses and ebooks. And I’ve no confidence that she’s written a word of it. She may have, but I know how she built that reputation. On the backs of writers like us.
Here’s what I would have done if I’d had today’s wisdom back then:
A mailed cease-and-desist letter.
Not an emailed one, but one that showed up in her mailbox at home. And it would have been sent by an attorney (I happen to be related to an attorney). That letter would have demanded all content derived from my original posts be removed from the site within 48 hours of her receiving that letter. And the letter would have been sent by certified mail, receipt required.
Back then I was naïve. I thought relationships should be preserved no matter what. I didn’t want online wars. I didn’t want potential clients seeing that. I thought letting it go would be the best approach. I even mulled over making this a password-protected blog just to keep it from happening again.
It wasn’t. I still think about it, and I see the damage it’s doing to people who still buy what’s being sold.
And I still wonder if that blogger is stealing other people’s material. And selling it as her own.
I know this: that blog is on my watch list. If I see it happening with my stuff again (tiger doesn’t change its stripes), I’m not hesitating for a second.
Instead, I’m lawyering up.
Writers, have you had your work stolen, either online or in print?
How did you handle it?
5 responses to “Stolen Work: Theft in Freelancing”
One of the things that made me happy in the conference I’m teaching is that they sent out a specific email stating that attendees could not copy or share or post anything from presenters without express permission.
AMEN.
I know a woman whose entire book was copied and put it up on …. a content mill. Yes, the guy made five bucks an article stealing her material. And he claimed he didn’t realize she’d written it as he’d received it as a handout at a Celtic festival.
I. Think. Not.
And even so, why would you think it’s okay to steal that material anyway? Someone else still wrote it. It’s not yours, dude.
Literally, she wrote the book on kilt making, and this guy was just posting bits of it online for a buck.
I wish I didn’t know who you were talking about in these examples. But I was hit by both of them too.
It’s a damn shame how many newer freelancers get sucked in by the first still, not realizing so much of their reputation was built on others’ backs rather than from legitimate knowledge and experience. This is the one I still frequently hear about because the writers taking their courses, webinars and such come looking for someone else to clean up the mess she makes with so much BS advice and then dismissing them when she can’t milk them for more money. It’s disgusting. And the day karma catches up to that one will be beautiful. Note to writers: “rewriting” is the creation of a derivative work. And you can only legally create a derivative work with permission of the original copyright holder. Changing enough words to pass crappy online tools like Copyscape doesn’t make it legal.
The second I think I only found out about because he hit you first. Later I found him pulling the entire feed from All Freelance Writing. I wasn’t nice about it (never am with theft). 48 hour takedown notice. I don’t send repeats. They fail to do it, I usually have their site offline in a week or two, their advertiser accounts canceled, and at least some of their site de-indexed from search engines. In his case, I believe he pulled it down quickly, probably because it was right after fighting it out with you. All I remember is him acting like I should have been grateful he was stealing my content.
Second note for writers: A site having an RSS feed is not a license for you to republish their content in-full. RSS feeds are for the convenience of readers so they can subscribe via their favorite feed readers. It doesn’t grant anyone the permission to feed that content into another online publication, monetized or not, unless the site’s terms expressly say so. Some sites have outright RSS rules in their TOS that make it clear you can’t use the feed to republish their material. I suggest bloggers include that just to minimize the BS arguments from people who think having the word “syndication” in a feature name means publication is authorized. Only you have a say over who is, and isn’t, authorized to syndicate your content (and whether or not you’ll charge them to do so).
There’s a newer blogger in the freelance writing community who’s gained quite a bit of visibility in similar ways — building a false reputation by exploiting more experienced colleagues and creating unauthorized derivative works based on their most successful content. This was a natural problem given them entering blogging right around the time marketers were pushing things like “skyscraper content” which basically amounts to writing longer, supposedly “better,” versions of other people’s most successful posts. With people as naturally lazy as they are, this frequently turns into rewriting with minor changes for SEO. And it’s still a copyright violation.
Another example is one of the bigger copywriting resources. I’d bet most, if not all, your readers have visited the site and consider it a trustworthy source. But that’s because they weren’t there when it was built on things like plagiarism. I caught one of bloggers early on plagiarizing a very expensive ad copywriting book that most of their readers would never have access to. They quickly became the top source, both on Google and via linking throughout the blogging community, on a particular hot topic. But their content wasn’t their own.
These things sadly aren’t out of the ordinary. It’s what happens when so many bloggers get their advice from shady internet marketing types who care about short-term numbers over building an ethical and sustainable long-term business. It’s why newer writers often see freelancing and blogging as stepping stones rather than careers — just something to bring in some quick money until they can start more directly exploiting the readers they attract with things like ebooks and courses they aren’t qualified to teach. It’s a shame, because while I saw it occasionally when I was getting started with online freelance writing and blogging, it’s become so much more rampant with newer folks because it’s what they’re being taught from Day One. Some don’t know any better. And some don’t care. And it’s not about how it affects the ones doing it, or their peers, but the negative impact I see them having on even newer folks they consistently use or lie to. It’s infuriating.
Jenn, these new “experts” are probably taking a course taught by another new “expert” on how to become rich teaching others and selling e-books. Bet they fail to tell them that credibility gets you farther.
Yep, same two people. I remember talking with you about the second on in particular. He had stolen from other writers, one of whom alerted me to the issue. And he was cocky about it when I sent my cease-and-desist. He argued with one of the other writers, too. Seems he thought he could just bluster his way out of trouble. Fat damn chance.
The first one — not sure why that one has any credibility at this point. It was blatant, and if I bothered to look anymore, it probably still is. Maybe not my stuff anymore (once someone threatens to call you out, it might actually wake you up a bit), but I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of lifted info still circulating because once a thief, always a thief.
I know of one blogger who asked me to write for their blog. I did, not realizing that later on, that same blogger would ask me to contribute to a book they would be getting money for. I wouldn’t get a dime, mind you, but they’d make money — openly — on my hard work.
You can guess what I said to that.
I don’t know the copywriting source (I think I do), and if it’s the one I’m thinking of, I can say I never really went there. But I suspect I know which one it is.
I’ve not seen too many newbies entering into freelancing with the same type of approach. I hope it’s because they’ve realized the legal ramifications of stealing. When I do come across one, I make sure to watch their site. No way I’m letting theft go unanswered again.
Yep. Most of them came out of the same online course / membership program, run by another unethical schmuck who learned it from an internet marketer who was involved with the “writer” I caught plagiarizing years ago… It’s like if trickle-down economics actually worked, but for sleazy marketers and frauds.
The one you mention who kept hitting you up to do their job for them is the same newer one I mentioned. They tried with me too. Two weeks after getting a guest post, they were asking for more. They hit you. Sharon. And undoubtedly others. Instead of the usual ego-bait, it was the most blatant “let me build a name on your reputation” scheme I’d ever seen. Were you the one they basically said “well golly gee, other actual professionals seem fine with it” to? I know she said it to one of you, and it was complete BS b/c I’d just told her I wasn’t ok with it myself. You’d think eventually these people would learn that their colleagues talk to each other and word gets around. But apparently not.
Suffice to say, if you see your more experienced colleagues aren’t falling all over themselves to cite, link to, and promote the sites or people you think are credible because they’re simply visible, it’s probably because we know something about how they came up that you don’t. We’ve seen the derivative works, the outright theft, the circle-jerk fraudulent promotion among groups of friends (who usually start together under the same internet marketing programs), the lies, the exploitation or abuse of colleague relationships, the black hat techniques they’ve used to build that visibility (like using fake commenters and fake forum members to make people think they were more popular than they were, engaging in link schemes like dofollow link exchanges and buying dofollow links), etc. We’ve seen it all.
I understand how new folks fall for it. They weren’t there to see these things happen, and most people seem to mistake visibility and popularity for credibility and authority. But I’ve lost so much respect for some colleagues who were there to see it all and stayed willfully blind because they could make a buck off it too. Seeing them continue to promote these people — leading to even more new writers getting screwed over and coming to the rest of us to help bail them out — is inexcusable at this point. Promoting thieves and choosing to lend them credibility via association makes them just as bad.