I have written several articles and posted them on internet article directories. All directories I have posted on state that if others wish to use the article they must place the author's link/s along with the article. I have found a website that used my article and did not give me any credit (including adding my name). Is there anything I can do about this?
2006-08-10 22:31:31 · 7 answers · asked by Xennon 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
No unless you copywrighted it first. And I don't mean just putting a note on your site. You have to go through filling out the documentation, etc...
I've done this at legalzoom.com before.
2006-08-10 22:36:17 · answer #1 · answered by BeachBum 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I work for a publishing company so I'm pretty familiar with copyright. The moment you put your thoughts or ideas into a tangible format, i.e. onto paper or into a software program, your work is automatically copy protected.
Many people have the misconception that you have to go out and "copyright" your work, which is not the case. Oftentimes I suggest to authors to REGISTER their copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in case they plan on needing a sure-fire way of proving they are the copyright owners.
My recommendation to you is to contact the website that has used your article without permission, and let them know what you want (either for them to remove the article or to properly cite you as the copyright holder). Most likely the website will comply with your wishes. If not, contact a copyright attorney.
2006-08-11 04:50:53 · answer #2 · answered by Neeners 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've encountered this before and what's always worked for me was to contact the web site owner directly & inform them that my article was posted without the proper credit.
This can be a little tricky if the contact information is not displayed on the site. Try a WHOIS search to see who the owner is: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp
If that doesn't work, try contacting the ISP. I've never had to take this step. Most people are honest and I've been able to correct those with minimal contact.
Another helpful hint -- to keep an eye on who's publishing your articles, create alerts for each of your articles. This can be done through Yahoo! or Google. I put my headlines in quotes and have set up alerts for all of my articles; this way I can see where exactly they're popping up on the web. If you have many articles, you may want to create a separate email account for this purpose alone because the emails will come in fast & furious.
Hope that helps!
2006-08-11 03:30:30 · answer #3 · answered by TM Express™ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You hold the copyright (unless you have waived it) and you can insist on proper credit.
Have you asked the site to remove your article or add your link? They may prefer to delete the article if they consider your link to constitute advertising. But if they don't you can pursue them. You may, if they don't respond, contact their ISP and individuals associated with the site and its sponsor. You can sue (see below), but I don't advise it unless you really want to escalate the thing.
2006-08-10 22:38:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2006-08-14 01:01:57 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your work is registered, you could sue the user for violation of the Copyright Law.
2006-08-11 00:25:08 · answer #6 · answered by FRAGINAL, JTM 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really if you didn't copyright it.
2006-08-10 22:38:28 · answer #7 · answered by sneezewhiz 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋