Hey writers, do you hesitate to release your self-published
writing because you’re afraid the content could be stolen? I hate to say your
fear is well founded but it happens to so many writers these days.
Wait, that’s not what you wanted to hear, right? You want to
hear that trolls and criminals have been sent to idiot island where there’s no
internet access and everyone can live happily ever after, right?
Sadly, that’s not the case. But, I’m here to assure you that
your self-published writing can be protected. After reading this article you’ll
be in the know about how to put the smack-down on those nasty thieves and come
out the other side smiling because your work is finally seeing the light of day!
DMCA takedown notice:
If you share your work, fiction or non-fiction, on a blog, there’s a
possibility it could be swiped and re-posted. I’ve had this happen but knew just
what to do about it and the problem was solved swiftly. DMCA stands for Digital
Millennium Copyright Act and is something every writer should know about. A
DMCA notice is sent to the host of the site with the copyright-infringed
material in order to have it removed. When I sent my notices, not only was my
copyrighted work taken down, the entire site was brought down both times! Most
of what they had on their sites was ripped off material from other writers and
the DMCA meant the site host had to investigate and take proper action.
Copyright office of
the United States: As a self-published writer living and releasing work in
the good old U.S. of A. I take full advantage of submitting my work to
copyright.gov. For fiction works it costs $35 to upload a deposit (your book). You’ll
have a much easier time in court if you already applied for legally binding
copyright status. Yes, your copyright is yours the moment you put “pen to paper”
but that fact will be much easier to prove when you have a big government
entity standing behind you with the proof.
Creative Commons
licenses: There’s a fine line between being ripped off and having someone
share your work in today’s world. If someone copies your work then pastes on
their own blog but links back to your site, there’s not much you can do. Most
bloggers and writers would be fine with that type of share because the link
back is a good thing. But here’s the rub. Google doesn’t like the exact same content in multiple places.
When a site gets pinged to be removed from Google indexing, 9 times out of 10
it will be your website! Uncool. Tell
people how much they’re allowed to share by placing a CC on your site. Then, if
they go outside the parameters of the license you provide, loop back to that
DMCA.
So how can you find out if your work has been swiped?
I do the following things every time I release any kind of
self-published writing:
1. Set up a Google
alert. If the work in question is a blog I generally set up 2 alerts – one on
the title, another on the keyword I built the post around. For books, I set one
on the title. It can get cumbersome to have all those alerts show up in email,
but I’d rather scroll for ten seconds every day to make sure nobody is trying
to steal and re-publish my work as their own than have someone else profiting
off of my hard work!
2. Share the link
everywhere. This might sound strange but it works. The more of your
networks and followers who see the content of your self-published writing, the
more who could recognize it if it shows up somewhere else. When your “street
team” sees the stolen work, they’ll let you know and you can get with the
takedown.
3. Consider launching
an LLC. When I first started blogging it was just me and my thoughts. Intellectual
property, sure, but I didn’t consider it self-published writing (even though it
is!). Once I started writing books I knew I wanted protection from weird people
who will stop at nothing to take down a little old indie author like me. So I
contacted an intellectual property attorney and created my LLC. The LLC covers
my micro-press (I self-publish under my own house, Writesy Press) and all my
DBAs (Copywrite That for freelancing, Jenn Flynn-Shon for bloggers, etc.).
Protecting your self-published writing can be a bit of work
for those of us running a business all on our own, but in the end it is so
worth the extra effort just knowing our words are protected. Now, put fear
aside, get out there and get publishing!
Have you ever been robbed without proper credit? How did you fix it? Share in the comments!
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