So You’re Stealing My Poetry?
Although somewhat flattering, I recently found several websites republishing my poetry without permission. Generally, I would email the website’s owner and have them take down the poem or at the very least place a link to the original. The problem is, many websites (for whatever reason) do not have a contact form or email address visible on their site. This leads me to believe they know they are doing something wrong or they honestly have no clue how to conduct a website of any nature.
So here are my choices:
- Look up the domain in a Whois lookup utility and hope for an email address. If it is there, email the owner.
- Email the domain register, tell them about the copyright infringement.
- File a DMCA report with Yahoo, MSN, and Google. They will remove the results from Google.
- Talk to a lawyer.
If I made any real money off the poetry, I would definitely do option 4. However, that just isn’t the case. Since my poetry still is ahead in search engines, it isn’t a dire situation. It is just really, really annoying that someone would steal the poetry and not even bother to give a link back. If it gets any worse I’ll definitely do #1, #2 and possibly #3.
What do you guys think?
Sassy Mama Bear
September 3, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
Are you able to leave a comment on the posts? I would do that in a professional manner.
It is unfortunately an aspect we risk as writers to see our stuff nicked…that is why when I do NaNoWriMo and share novels I do not share everything.
definitely make them aware they used it without permission.
I personally ask people if I may use writing or graphics and should they not respond I do not use.
Gary R. Hess
September 3, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
They don’t allow comments.
I don’t necessarily care if people use my stuff, just leave a link at least, sheesh.
Breeni Books
September 4, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
I know it will take some legwork, but I would pursue it with their hosts. I had the same thing happen, finding several spam blogs blatantly ripping off my reviews, so I tracked down the contact info for the blog hosts and they removed the blogs within a few days, one almost immediately. It’s worth it.
Joie
September 6, 2008 @ 2:39 am
I would probably do #1, 2 or 3. Worst case scenario ill do #4.