How do you know whether someone has stolen your material? Do you have to hire Monk in his final season? Better hurry. If an infringement is detected, what do you do to get it removed or hurt the infringer, figuratively speaking?
Prevention-wise, experts on this topic, like lawyer Jay Hollander, Esq., recommend copyrighting your books, conference presentations, Websites, blogs, etc. as literary works within 3 months of publication ($45 copyright registration fee) and before any infringement occurs. This maximizes your legal claims and compensation should a lawsuit be necessary. (Note: For blogs which change daily, the copyright would have to be filed every 3 months.)
Post WARNINGS on your works. On your professional Websites, blog sites, etc., post the copyscape warning you see at the top of each of my blogs and a copyright line of your corporation at the end.
Now, how do you proceed?
Here are MY TOP 10 SUGGESTED STEPS TO RESOLUTION:
1. Search the Internet for stolen material. Use www.copyscape.com or another company who can track down whether any of your work is stolen. They also report the link for the site containing your work. For $5. a year, they will run 100 scans of cyberspace for you. Can’t beat that! They scanned all of my blogs to date and the culprit was immediately identified. They can scan your manuscripts, Websites, and everything else you write lickety split. For an extra nominal fee, they can scan your sites and send you a report weekly.
2. Track down the perp (that’s Law & Order lingo for "perpetrator") with the link provided by Copyscape.
3. Assess the extent of the damage---2 lines, paragraghs, or the whole article, blog, or Web page.
4. Contact the perp online or by phone. Online is more practical, though less intimidating, for perps in UK, India, and elsewhere outside of the U.S.
5. Mirandize the perp. Request in writing that the stolen material be immediately removed from his or her document or site.
6. Wait a couple of days for a response. If there is no response, send another e-mail.
7. Submit a “takedown notice.” If the perp doesn’t respond or challenges the legitimacy of your claim, send 1 more communication indicating you will be submitting a “takedown notice” to the search engine or other source carrying the infringed material which will request removal. If the material still isn’t removed, go to step 8 and collect more than $200.
8. Get a lawyer. There are specific legal requirements for the “takedown notice.” A competent lawyer can advise you.
9. Search engine should remove material. This should resolve the problem unless there is a challenge to the rights of the copyrighted material.
10. File a lawsuit as a last resort. Hopefully, the perp will have seen the error of his or her plagiarized ways before legal action is required. You can also file suit if you have been damaged in some way by his or hers actions with your work.
I hope these suggestions might help a little. The legal issues are a lot more complicated and beyond my meager knowledge of this process. Step 6 was sufficient to resolve my recent blog theft. Fortunately, legal action wasn’t required.
Let me know of any experiences you have had or reactions to the above suggestions.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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