The Internet is a great publicity vehicle because it makes your content freely available. By the same token, the openness of the Web makes it easy for people to steal your work. An unscrupulous blogger or Webmaster can copy and paste your most valuable material onto his site within minutes without asking permission.
Every month or so, you should search the Web for some of the text from several of your pages. A Google search for a string of six to eight words within quotation marks should turn up any sites that have copied your content.
A stern message to the owner of the site--or, failing that, the company that hosts the site--usually results in deletion of the stolen material. Here's an example of a cease-and-desist notice you can send via e-mail:
Dear John Doe,
It's come to my attention that you are republishing my original content from MySite.com on your Web site, YourSite.com. For example, page [ADDRESS] on your site includes the following paragraphs: [TEXT].
Your unauthorized use of my original material violates U.S. and international copyright laws. If the offending material remains available on your site 72 hours from now, I will have no choice but to pursue legal action against you.
Please comply with my request, so that we can remedy this situation without unnecessary difficulty.
Sincerely,
Jane Doe
MySite.com
If no contact information appears on the offending Web site, enter the site's domain name in the search box at:
#www.Register.com/retail/ whois.rcmx#
This will return the name and contact information of the person or company who registered the domain or the site's hosting company. Also try sending your message to webmaster@[domain name] and abuse@[domain name].
Another source of contact information for Web sites is: