Are You The Bootleggers Next Victim?

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January 23, 2008 by James
Filed under: Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves, Strategic Content 

Ensuring someone doesn’t pirate or “rip you off” online is a little tricky. Copying a file and sharing it with your friends is easy as ‘point and click’, so how do you keep from becoming the bootleggers next victim?

There are services that look for content finger-prints (each writer has a unique way of writing, and many books have unique phraseology too) but unless each book/article/report etc is entered into the system for comparison it’s a bit tough to check.

Truthfully, copyright violation is a pain in the *ss but it’s commonplace as you know. Protecting websites and other digital products is a little easier because there are special services for just this, but bottom line… due diligence is your main weapon.

Of course it never hurts to do what I do - use technology to ‘watch the skies’ - or in this case, the Internet. Using free services to scour the search indexes, the networks and the databases to find out if your work has bee duped by another is not terribly hard.

Each day I get emails monitoring most (if not all) my work. I can see where it has been published, and more importantly who is claiming authorship. Yes, there are some scoundrels out there who change my name for theirs - and nothing else! A strong ‘cease and desist’ letter usually does the trick. Most of the time these con-men (and women) seem greatly shocked I found them. Ain’t technology grand!

In conclusion, ‘They‘ say copying is flattery at its highest… I say it’s copyright violation and basic theft - but I’m English and we have odd ideas I guess.

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