In my last article, Copyright Protection and Plagiarism on the Internet – Part 01, we discussed the basics of each as applied to the Web. Now we will go more in depth about the many free and paid tools available to stop this crime.
There are now many tools to catch frauds on the Web. Some software is for sale, but many are free. One example, Article Checker, generates a list of how many times it finds your text, or portions of your text, within the Google or Yahoo search results.
If you are a website owner and you worry about your web content being stolen, you can use Copyscape to protect your content. Copyscape uses your URL (Domain) to find other copies of your content on the Web. There is a free version of this available online, but the paid version allows you to better check your content.
Duplicate Web Content Poses Additional Threats
Aside from infringement of your copyright, plagiarists also do more harm to your site. Search engines punish sites that contain duplicate content without proper search engine Canonical tags by not indexing your website. For novice writers, begin with the free version of Copyscape to help you avoid many of the more common copyright issues, then progress to the more robust paid version as your work increases. Best of all, both give you the option to report URLs that plagiarize and need to be removed from the search result index.
Many Other Tools You May Use:
So far, Small SEO Tools seems to be the best; still testing the newest: Plagly
*Updated October 1st, 2020
If you detect plagiarized content using any of the above software, then you always have an option to help stop such criminals. You can report abusive criminals by using tools that retrieve data about the culprit’s site. For example, the Hosting Company, Internet Service Provider (ISP), Webmaster, and Server ID can help identify violators. Some helpful resources include:
- DomainTools
- Signature Extensions
- DMCA Takedown Notice Templates
- U.S. Copyright Office DMCA List
- Plagiarism Today’s DMCA Contact
You can even use these tools to catch plagiarists even from highly specialized areas like WordPress, Copyfeed, and the Ebay VeRO Program, for example.
What about Fair Use
U.S. Copyright Law states you may use limited, but not all, material without the permission of the copyright owner under the Fair Use Act, on the principle of free speech. Any person may use any portion of original work without permission as long as it is ‘fair use’ based on factors such as:
- May not generate any profit from its use
- Must use it for educational purposes only
- Nature of the original work
- Portion used in relevance to the entire work
- Effect of its use upon the potential value of the original work
Such premise, though, leads to case-by-case arguments between the copyright holder and the ‘borrower,’ which may lead to legal action.
Copyright Law arguments are case-by-case, as these factors are relative. It therefore binds the borrower and holder of the copyright under U.S. laws only. It’s still open to debate if this applies to other courts in other parts of the world. In most, but not all, situations, arguments on ‘Fair Use’ between the borrower and the copyright owner lead to legal action under the U.S. courts. To avoid this, ‘borrowers’ should cite sources carefully, in due respect to the copyright. The Web is an open portal nearly free from censorship and control. Both copyright owners and ‘borrowers’ should be very careful with whatever they publish and borrow online to avoid infringement of copyright. Plagiarism is a crime, and ignorance of the law excuses no one.
*Originally published on WorldStart February 24, 2010
