So How Do You Protect Your Blog Content?
I asked Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today, assuming his expertise, how one does actually go about protecting online content.
For people like myself, who employs bloggers on over 50 blogs and has nothing in writing, his comments are a worry.
To check for plagiarism, I have always used Copyscape- which is quick and easy. Obviously, this only searches for online plagiarism, not offline. To protect copyright- not just for my own stuff, but also on behalf of my clients, I have recommended the service at CopyrightDeposit.com. You can see a sample of one of my certs here (weird- I just noticed that page has a PR3, so I guess I got a backlink at least!). For $13 USD, they will allow you to submit all your files, be they written or graphic, and then notarize the online copyright cert.- which is guaranteed to stay online for your lifetime, plus 50 years (unless someone buys out their host or fails to notify them of your death!). They then allow you further monthly updates of 10 meg of content for free, as long as you maintain the described link between your website and the corresponding copyright certificate.
But Jonathan says that they “appear to be a snake oil salesman” and that “the only solution really is the U.S. Copyright Office“....As not only does it enable you to sue in Federal court for copyright infringement, but it also provides greater proof and legal protection“. He recommends Numly.com as the best solution out there right now- although also points to many new and exciting things on the horizon, which will hopefully make all our lives a little simpler.
As for me, I’m preparing a contract for all my bloggers to sign immediately…
An old trick that has long been used by writers is to mail your text to yourself in a tamper-proof envelope. In the US at least, if you have a sealed envelope with a postal mark indicating when it was put inside, it is acceptable in most courts as proof of copyright.
I imagine you could do the same thing with a CD —only problem is the degrading over time issue.
But isn’t there also a massive web archive? I know I’ve gone into one and found dead pages I authored almost ten years ago. I’ll bet if it comes to a court case, that will work just as well.
kywrite said this on August 25, 2006 2:41 pm