There’s a nifty little tool from Copyscape that will help you find other websites that have taken your copy without asking. This copyright tool uses the Google API to query Google to find other websites that have the same text as the URL you input into the search box.
By using this copyright tool, you will be able to see if anyone has taken your copy and take appropriate action, by first asking them to take down your text, then contacting their hosting company or ISP if necessary.
In fact, I have used this tool myself and found that a company from India has copied my entire homepage and placed it on their homepage. I have contacted them about this matter and hopefully the duplicate text will be down soon.
This copyright tool is also great for finding websites that may be impacting your site by delivering to it a duplicate content penalty from Google. It is well known that Google like unique content. It is also well known that if Google finds two websites with identical content it will usually penalize both websites with a duplicate content penalty, burying both sites in the rankings.
If someone takes your copy without asking, it could be because of laziness or maliciousness. If they’re lazy, they are simply taking your copy rather than going to the trouble to write their own. If they’re malicious, then they are intending to bury your website in the ranking with a duplicate content penalty.
No matter what the reason, though it is important to protect your copyrighted material from theft and this little tool will help you do just that. Remember, the tool is free for all to use, so there is no need to copy it and place it on your own website.
