Have you ever wondering if someone is pilfering your prose? Thieving your thoughts? Copying your copy?

Well, worry no more. I discovered an online tool that can discover if anyone has plagiarized you on the Web. (And, I lost half-a-day’s productivity in the process!)

Fervent readers of this blog may remember that I’ve had problems with plagiarism in the past. That’s why I was so excited to give Copyscape a try.

Once you arrive at the site you enter in your URL. The free version of Copyscape only allows you to test one URL at a time. There are two paid versions that allow you to check multiple pages routinely; they start at $9.95/mo for up to 20 pages.

Do you want to know what I found? Curious to hear what the apparent plagiarizers said when I confronted them? Glad you asked.

I started by entering our home page: http://www.flyte.biz.
Copyscape came back with four results.

Two of them were from other
domains I’ve picked up over the years and point to my home page.
Another was for a Web page that has been taken down. Looking at the
cached version shows that it was one of those spam pages that skims
text from other Web sites to lure searchers, then shows them Google
ads.

The last result was for an Australian marketing firm
called 2TONEMEDIA. The last paragraph on their Web services page
(http://www.2tonemedia.com.au/webcentric.htm) was almost identical to
our home page:

You need a long-term approach.
You
need ongoing support, regular updates, reliable hosting and sound
advice…because you don’t need a Web site — you need to grow your
business.

The only difference was my use of a hyphen in "long-term." So I contacted 2TONEMEDIA about the similarities. They responded via email saying that they were surprised to hear that and they had been using that copy for years.

Now,
to be fair, there’s nothing else in the entire site, (including that
page) that bears any resemblance to my work. It’s just strange that
this paragraph exactly matches my own, right down to the ellipses.
Might be the work of "great minds." We’ll let it go.

Then I went on to check an article of mine that was the source of several instances of plagiarism a while back, 10 Questions to Ask Before Setting Up a Web site. To be honest, if you’re interested in learning those questions, and the answers, I have a much more up-to-date version here.

This query brought back 9 results.

One
was from the Australian company (hmmm…sensing a trend here?) that I
had contacted about their theft of two of my articles about a year
ago…both have since been removed.

One was from the Export
America site (owned by our very own government!) that had plagiarized
me before, but took down my work upon request. Unfortunately, three
other instances were of two other export organizations posting my work
and attributing it to Export America! I’ve contacted them but heard
nothing back.

Others were my own article, but at different flyte-owned domains. The last was from R’n'B Web Design, a firm in England. It was my exact article, except where I wrote:

…there’s
still a wide range in billing rates. The Pricing Guide for Web
Services, Second Edition, found pricing from $25 – $250 per hour for
Web work, and Web pages from $30 – $1,500. (Whoever’s paying $1,500 per
page, please call me so I can save you a few bucks.)

they wrote (http://www.rnbwebdesign.com/whatnext/qna.htm):

There
is a wide range of billing rates. The Pricing Guide for Web Services,
Second Edition, found pricing from £25 – £250 per hour for web work,
and web pages from £30 – £1,500. (If you know anyone paying £1,500 per
page please put them in touch with R’n'B and we’ll save them a few
pounds.)

When I confronted them, they responded:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.  We have taken down the
mentioned page until the appropriate alterations have been carried out.
I am sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Brendan
R’n'B Web Design.

First off, it’s still up there as of today. (If it’s gone when you read this you can check out the cached version here.)

Secondly,
how is it that I brought this to their attention? How is it possible
that they didn’t realize you had stolen this almost word for word from
my Web site?

And what do appropriate alterations mean? Why don’t
they just write their own material rather than stealing it from other
people?

Oddly, an email to them in this vein didn’t elicit a response.

Anyway, if you’re curious to know if someone is taking your work as their own, check out Copyscape…and give yourself an afternoon to have some fun.

Rich Brooks
Author of This Blog, Dammit!