PLAGIARISM and how to tackle it

What is Plagiarism?

Ans: The unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

In Laymen language,it simply means "Illegal Copying of the contents/photos from your blog  by another blogger and pasting it on their blog posing themselves as original creator of that content!"

I recently had an experience of PLAGIARISM..! My blog entry on Gulab Jamoon from My recipe blog ,Swathi Pradeep's Kitchen was copied Word-to-word along with the picture by another Blogger user .

It was shocking,but i finally succeeded in getting my content removed from her blog within 12 hours of time! So,i m writing this blog entry to help other people tackle PLAGIARISM!

A>How to discover whether your blog is being copied i.e PLAGIARISM?

Ans: Use Copyscape and give your blog url to see if your blog is being copied.

Giving your url on Copyscape throws search results of websites where  the content from your blog matches with the content in their website.

B>Steps to Tackle 'PLAGIARISM'

• Write a comment on that copied blog entry on their blog asking them politely to remove the content. This works sometimes.
• If the above step doesnot work,then write an email to them asking them to remove the copied entry if you can obtain their email id from their blog.If you cannot find their contact details,use Whois website to find the contact details of webmaster.
• File a complaint online with Google using this form:http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/request.py?contact_type=blogger_dmca_infringment
When Google finds that your content has been really copied, Google will notify the infringer against it and delete the content from their blog. Also,in case of repeated Infringement,Google will delete the INFRINGER's blog permanently! 

C>STEPS TO PREVENT/AVOID PLAGARISM:

• Protect your site with a Copyscape Banner
• Obtain the Creative Commons license for your work and display it on your blog warning people against PLAGIARISM
• Set up the Google alert to send updates to your email id often
• Periodically check for PLAGIARISM using Copyscape by giving your url 

SPREAD THE WORD and Lets Fight PLAGIARISM!

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