Why Content Thieves Steal Your Work

You’ve done your research, you’ve spent your time, and you’ve written high quality content for your website. Or perhaps, you’ve invested money to hire a copywriter. So if you find that someone else is using or adapting your content for their websites, it can be very frustrating. So what can you do? Not much.

Why do they do it?

The reason content is stolen is because thieves know that they can get away with it. And they’re usually right. As we all know, the internet is a large place, so finding stolen content can be difficult. Additionally, enforcing copyrights can be costly, time-consuming, and not worth the litigation. (For information on finding stolen content and enforcing your copyright, see our article How To Find Stolen Content & Get It Removed.)

How to make it hard for people to steal your work

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of enforcing copyrights, you can consider making it harder for people to steal content. In our article, Can You Prevent Your Content From Being Stolen?, we list a few ways that you can frustrate would-be thieves. Some of these methods include:

1. disable any on-page mouse events. By using some javascript, you can stop users from highlighting text, saving images, or viewing source code. Of course, there are workarounds for experienced internet users.
2. opt for flash, images, and ajax. If search engine optimization isn’t a priority, you could consider serving all textual content in a hard to copy form, such as via flash, images, or ajax.
3. use image replacement. To prevent users from copying and pasting your content directly from your webpage, you can opt for image replacement. This technique enables you to keep text in the source code (for search engines) while showing users an image instead of rich-text.
4. use absolute urls. Sometimes thieves will actually download entire websites. In this case, their is very little that you can do to protect your content. But you can start by using absolute urls when linking to pages, images, and any other embedded content.
5. watermark images. To protect your images, include a simple watermark. This will prevent most theives. But if your images are reproduced on any other website, you will at least have the benefit of getting free advertising.

Content theft happens all over the internet. And whether or not you are aware of it, if you own a website, you are probably a victim. By employing the tips above, you will minimize theft. Additionally, you can consider opting for the services which actively monitor website content.