- 10
- Oct
Many search marketers at some point in time will utter the words; “someone stole my content.” Taking steps to protect your content from unlawful usage may help ease the burden of removing your property from a “scraper’s” site.
Grant Crowell of Grantastic Designs provides great insight on how to copyright and protect your online content (i.e. copy, video, podcast, website in general) from those who wish to steal and profit from your authoritative work. Crowell explains that online work can be registered through the federal government at the U.S. Copyright Office by submitting a TX form, paying a $45 fee, and including the requested materials on a CD or removable media format. By completing this procedure one can further protect themselves and their website, especially in the event that they would have to pursue legal action against a copyright abuser to obtain punitive damages.
In most cases legal action is the last alternative for removing copied work from a site. Usually the first step is a Cease and Desist letter warning the offender to take down your copyrighted content. Crowell explains that this method usually remedies the problem but content will still be visible in the search indices until re-crawled.
If the Cease and Desist letter does not work then use of the Digital Millenium Copyright act is the next step in the process. The DMCA request form can be found through web hosts and search engines such as Google. The act allows online service providers the legal ability to pull copyright infringed material from sites. Crowell explains that while this process is inexpensive, quick, and easy there are a few downsides to this procedure. The DMCA does not have jurisdiction outside of the U.S. and does not allow the ability to collect for monetary damages. This is why it is important that you purchase a copyright from the government as stated above.
Copyright law is an important element for all search marketers to understand because many in the online world still think they can take as they please.