There are times when plagiarism is more serious in that it copies a rather large portion of your website’s content or the entire website itself. This cases of plagiarism obviously becomes a big problem since it can and will probably affect your ranking. Crawlers tend to not crawl a site which they have determined to be a mirror site of another to avoid duplicate results in their SERPs. If this happens and the crawler mistakes your site for the mirror site then not only will your page rank be affected but you won’t even be listed in the SERP.

In cases like this it is still recommended that you take the diplomatic route first. You can contact the website or blog owner and ask them to remove the offending website or webpages. If they do not comply then you can contact their hosting service and ask them to pressure the owner to remove the offending content. If this does not work then that is the time to turn into a tattle-tale by submitting a complaint to search engines. Search engines such as Google take such things seriously and really do act upon reports of plagiarism.

Photo credit: tnarik

The three benefits are:

1. RSS feeds provide instant themed content for your website.
2. RSS feeds provide fresh and updated content for you without you having to write anything or pay anyone to write.
3. The presence of RSS feeds result in more frequent search engine spidering.

And this is all happens just by having RSS feeds incorporated into you website. So if you’ve ran out of ideas to help you rank higher then try using RSS feeds. A note of warning though. DO NOT plagiarize! Use content only with the permission of the owner and always link back to the source of the feeds.

So now you know how to file an infringement notification to Google if someone plagiarizes your website. But what should you do if someone files a notification against you and it is approved by Google?

First of all I would like to say that if you are indeed guilty then you deserve it. Admit your guilt, apologize, stop harping and put fresh original content on your site. Don’t even bother wasting anyone’s time by filing any counter notifications and just go home to your daddy, cry, and then resolve to clean your act up. Hope it teaches you a well deserved lesson.

However, in the rare case wherein you really are innocent then you can still redeem yourself. Being accused of copyright infringement whether true or not will definitely be bad for your business so you’d better do something about it quick before you lose much face and clients.

Since the infringement notification that lead to the banning of your website from Google’s SERPs was submitted to Google then you must file your counter notification to Google as well. The steps for filing a counter notification is found in Google’s section on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Note though that you’d better be sure about your innocence since filing a counter notification usually leads to a legal battle with the party that accused you of copyright infringement. In fact before you do file any counter notifications I advise that you consult and use the services of a lawyer that specializes on internet law. If you win your case then not only do you get your honor back but usually you get a hefty compensation as well.

As I promised today I will give you an outline on how to file a complaint if some copies the content of your website or blog. Note though that before actually filing a complaint with Google I advice you to read the actual Digital Millennium Copyright Act provided by Google.

1. Before filing an infringement notification contact a lawyer who specializes on internet law to make sure that the people you are charging really are guilty of copyright infringement.

2. Write your infringement notification containing ALL the details required by Google.

Required details include:

• Details of your copyrighted work that was plagiarized.
• Search string and URL of search result leading to infringing website
• Your contact information
• Contact information of the infringing party (if possible only)
• The statements

“I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.”

and

“I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”

• Your signature

3. Send your letter via fax or regular mail only.

Address: Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 9404

Fax: (650) 963-3255,
Attn: Google Legal Support, DMCA Complaints

After you have sent this to Google you can be assured that they will take action. But remember like I said earlier it can be bad for your business if the other party is able to prove that they actually didn’t really commit any copyright infringement.