What should I do if my content is stolen?

Nothing irks us more than seeing another website taking advantage of your beautiful photos and creative original content.

You worked too hard for someone else to get the credit — and the ad earnings — from your talent and your effort. 

So if you see your content being used against your wishes, what can you do?

Familiarize yourself with copyright law protections

Here are some good resources:

• Copyright Law of the United States
• Sarah F. Hawkins Attorney at Law
• Copyright Alliance
  • What Is The DMCA Notice and Takedown Process?
  • Are Recipes and Cookbooks Protected by Copyright?

Steps you can take

1. Start by submitting a DMCA complaint to Google. You can report the copyright issue to Google Web Search here.
   If your request is successful, Google will give the domain a “strike”, and if there are enough successful requests, it will hurt the infringer’s overall search positioning.
   
2. Ask the infringing site to remove the content — never hurts to ask!
3. Submit a DMCA takedown notice through the infringing site's host. You can use this site to identify the host.
4. Submit a DMCA takedown notice with WordPress here or Blogger here.
5. Contact the site's monetization platform and make them aware of the issue. If the site monetizes with AdSense, you can report the copyright issue here.