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IMO, If affUtd close someones account due to allegations of content theft (which I don’t doubt actually happened..), they can get sued / lose face / lose an affiliate unjustly. you have no proof that the content is yours originally, and they cannot be judge and jury. Imo contact the thiefs ISP and get the site taken down.. The ISP is probably liable for hosting copywritten material.
Therefore I agree with them telling you to seek legal advice or try to deal with it yourself (much as it sucks)
good luck
Not only that, but the people that you spoke to are a Customer Service Centre based in Manila, Phillipines. Not only would they have no idea what content theft was, but they wouldnt necessarily realise that the issue needed to be flagged up.
best thing to do would be to contact you AM and get them to sort it out. I am assuming that you have an AM there, otherwise why would you be contacting them?
(Unless they copied your content and then are running AffUtd as a program, and you arent, in which case…..*shrugs*)
Content theft is easy to prove – just go to the wayback machine and see who had it first.
Then go and complain to google, including the evidence. Google will lead you through the legal steps to file.
Then go back to your am, and if up to then s/he was not cooperative, they will be when presented with this.
Also go to the host of the copycat and submit your evidence and the copycat’s account will usually be closed.
I have had 100% sucess handling it that way. The copycat gets removed from google, from the aff program and loses their hosting/server.
It doesn’t pay to copy!
@Dominique 213979 wrote:
Content theft is easy to prove – just go to the wayback machine and see who had it first. !
well not everything is cached by the internet archive, but yes that is one of the most obvious options
it’s probably possible to get some DMCA slap on the site in question depending where it is hosted, and the extent of the theft etc.. These sites get slapped with a SERP ban (see http://chillingeffects.org for info on this kind of stuff if it’s of interest.)
Dear Sir,
Thank you for alerting us to this. We have contacted the Affiliate in question and are following up on your claim. We have looked at your site and his and can see where the copying has taken place.
If you pm me your details we will have one of our affiliate managers contact you to see if they can help you resolve this with as little fuss as possible.
Happy Holidays
Karin
Affiliate Program Marketing CoordinatorThank you all for your help. Thank goodness the webmaster contacted me himself and seems to be a nice fellow (I have seen bigger AHs) and removed the duplicate content instantly.
Thank you Ladbrokes for not condoning content theft and offer full investigation.
For whatever reason that affiliate had the duplicate text online I am sure he has learnt his lesson but we can all find in a similar situation as copyscape is not bulletproof to be sure it is unique content. Being patient and notifying the affiliate programs works for me in 99% of all cases :wink-wink
Solved I hope.
Inspiration,
If at all possible please keep us/me informed if the content theft continues or restarts. It helps us all out in one way or another.
Thanks
greek39
