Any responsible, web-savvy person will tell you: duplicate content is a big no-no.
It's extremely unprofessional to steal content from website similar to your own just to populate your pages. Many of us wouldn't consider partaking in such a risky, counter-productive behavoir. That means it's easy to side-step this messy issue from the get-go, right?
Wrong.
You have the choice not to steal someone else's content, but it's harder to prevent others from thieving your own. On Monday, Gergana Marinova with the AdSense Publisher Support team posted about this controversial AdSense duplicate content glitch, and some corrective steps you can take if you feel your site's been affected.
Marinova gave the following helpful example: say you keep a movie blog, and you just posted your own personal critique of Slumdog Millionaire. Later that day, you read your exact review posted on another website- a site you've never seen and never gave permission to use your content.
Then you notice on that page, there's AdSense ads generated and displayed by Google. Not only has this thief wrongfully taken your content, he (or she) is making money off it through paid advertisements! What's a blogger to do?
Contact Google, give them the 411, and work towards regaining control of your own content. How?
Compile a simple report below with the following criteria taken directly from Google AdSense Help Center
- Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed. For example, "The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.html"
- Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. Identify each page that allegedly contains infringing material by providing its URL.
- Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred).
- Include the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials as described above is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
- Include the following statement: "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."
- Sign the paper.
- Fax report to: 650) 618-8507, Attn: Google AdSense Support, DMCA complaints
- Or send the written communication to the following address:
Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, AdSense DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
If you think your content is being misappropriated and republished, and want to submit a specific complaint that it's a potential violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines, login to your Google account and complete this special form found here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport