One of the most frustrating issues faced by bloggers is content theft, i have personally faced it and so have countless other bloggers and to tell you the truth there is not much that can be done except the usual banning of IP, contacting the offenders web host or plain old contacting the owner of the site.

Unfortunately most of these type of sites that steal your copyrighted content do not have a contact form and that of course is a no-brainer, they know what they are doing is wrong and they don’t want you contacting them, but fortunately a big chunk of these sites use Google’s Adsense to monetize their site, so if would be good to let the Adsense team know that the other site is displaying your content.

How Do I Inform Google?

It’s actually pretty simple, all you have to do is visit the site that is using your content and on their adsense ads click the “Ads by Google” link and that will lead you to another page, just click “Send Google your thoughts on the site or the ads you just saw” (as seen in the pic on the left).

One you’ve done that a drop down will appear with some questions about the ads and what you think of it, obviously you would want to “Report a Violation?” and from than on just click the appropriate check boxes and add any additional comments in the box, fill in your e-mail and submit your feedback to Google.

That’s it, it’s pretty simple and easy, however don’t expect Google to ban the site immediately, i’ve tried this method and after 2 days the adsense team replied to me with what looked like a generic message but basically they (Google) will need proof that you are indeed the copyright holder of the said material/content, here is an excerpt of the message i received from Google:

To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when you in fact do not. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether you have the right to request removal from our service, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

and another excerpt (yes, it was a long reply by Google) :

1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. For example, “The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.html.”

2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. You must identify each page that allegedly contains infringing material by providing its URL.

3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred).

4. Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing webpages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.”

5. Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”

6. Sign the paper.

As you can see it is indeed a hassle with attorney’s involved, documents, proof and such but if you are really serious about your material/content being stolen than you would have to take this extra mile.

**Personal Advice: My personal advice would be for you to try to resolve this with the owner of the site FIRST before approaching Google or even their web host ( i even tried the web host method and got a similar reply to Google’s), it would probably save you time and money if it could be resolved between you and the offender.

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