Written by Rook | 10 January 2010

As someone who produces original content on a regular basis, you've probably got a great deal of things to worry about. How often should I update? What should I write about? How can I keep my original content safe? It's incredibly important to be cautious about your website or blog content. Personal website and blog owners are making thousands of dollars off of their original content. The sad part? Draw enough attention to yourself, and other people will try to make money off of your original content as well.

How do you keep your content safe? Well, as with most things in web development: It's not hard, but it's a decent amount of legwork. There are steps you can take to make it easier, and I've laid out a plan of action for you to follow if and when you find yourself ripped off.

Letting them know the rules:

Technically if you don't tell them that they can't take things off of your website, it isn't a big deal. This is why you need to set out a clearly worded statement somewhere on your blog or website.

Post a clear copyright (c) that appears on every page of your website, or use a Creative Commons (cc) license. A copy right prohibits people from using your content or images without your consent and without giving you proper credit. A Creative Commons gives people the ability to use your work for non-profit or limited-profit uses. It also gives them the ability to expand upon your work. You should post this in a footer or a sidebar, where it will show up on every page. This is important.

Even when posting a (c) or (cc), you may want to make a separate section or blog post of your website, explaining under what condition you will allow your work to be displayed, if at all. I find that this clears up any problems in clarity you may have, as well as makes a great legal backing for stopping people from taking your content.

Protecting Individual types of content:

Protecting Images (Such as photography and artwork):

Whether you host a travel blog, a review blog, a personal gallery, a food site/blog, a website where you sell a good or service, or just a personal blog, you should protect your photography. There are a few easy ways to do this:

Only post low-res images. Don't make anything larger than 600 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall. Don't worry about saving them at a high quality. Standard "medium" will do. ("8" on PhotoShop's jpeg scale.) This prevents any of your good photography and/or artwork being used in printed media. However, always save a large, high quality image. If you're asked to contribute to a book or magazine, you will have the content already at hand.

Watermarking your images is a great way to prevent them from being used on other websites. Watermarking is putting text (normally your name, company name, or your website URL) on the image. This is extremely effective, because even if they steal your image and post it elsewhere, it will still be credited to you. This can be done in PhotoShop, Paintshop Pro, or Gimp very easily.

If you think your photography has been stolen, there's a simple and effective way to look for it. It's called TinEye, and it is a free reverse search engine. Basically, it searches for your image and will bring the results to you in a list.

Protecting written content:

Protecting written content is not as easy as protecting photography. You can't post low-resolution text. You can't watermark your writing. For personal bloggers, the chances of you being ripped off are significantly less than someone who blogs for business. However, both should be equally concerned, as it isn't uncommon for you to fall pray to a splogger, or someone who splices up blogs to create their own. (I've also heard them referred to as "spam bloggers.")

Run a Google search for a specific chunk of text from your blog, especially if it is a post that receives a lot of hits. Use quotations around key phrases that you yourself have used.

Google Alerts are a great way to check who is linking back to you, as well as seeing if any of your content has been spliced into someone else's blog. They are incredibly easy to set up, and I highly recommend them.

What to do when you find a stolen image or written content?

Well, there are a variety of steps you can take.

The first, and easiest to do, is look through their blog and make sure that they've actually stolen from you. If you've written similar posts, but it isn't word for word, make sure that you don't just share a point of view. I frequently hear of people complaining that their original content has been ripped off, only to find out that their original content isn't quite as original as one would think!

Secondly, if you're positive that you've been ripped off, scan their site for any contact information. If you can't find it, simply use WHOIS.net to find out who runs the website. (This only works if they own their own domain. If they're using Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, or Livejournal, look up any FAQs on copyright infringement on their websites) There, you'll frequently find their email address, as well as their name. Send them an email and ask them to remove the content. Give them a few days to reply. If they do not reply within a reasonable amount of time, contact their ISP, hosting company, and domain registration company. At this point,you can file a complaint in the form of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (a DMCA). This is often enough to get a website suspended until the content is removed. You must provide as much proof as you can, though, or they can refuse to do anything.

If you notice they're running ads, you can contact whatever ad agency they're using and file a complaint. You must have proof of . Kontera and GoogleAdsense - two of the largest advertising agencies - both have rules that clearly state that you cannot use their ads on sights that infringe any sort of copyright. This is important, because that means they are turning a profit off of YOUR original content! This is quite illegal (and in very poor taste.)

So, theft isn't great. But it happens. However, the difference between letting it make or break you is the stance you take. It is far better to take an active stance and actively seek it out and remove it, rather than spend a lot of time complaining and leaving them nasty comments. I see this happen a lot, when all it really takes is a simple email to their hosting site with a little proof. It hurts them a lot more if you get them suspended, than if you go around posting nasty comments on their website. After all, they'll still get hits if you keep coming back with more people to harass them!

Contributions vs. Publicity

If you're asked to contribute to a book, magazine, or another blog, don't be afraid to ask for money. Especially because there is a great chance that your contribution will be earning them money. You'll have to use your judgment to find what is best. Ask yourself how popular their book/magazine/blog is, how much exposure you're going to get, and how much profit they will probably make. Be flexible, but don't settle for just a text link at the bottom of a website. Even small companies should offer something!

Publicity is another matter entirely. This is your time to shine, and you should not expect to be paid. This is because it is a story about you, and often times it is more a form of free advertisement, rather than a contribution to a larger project. So bask in it! Its your time to ham it up for an audience, after all!