Tracy, check out this thread I posted a while back about what you can do to effectively take action against people like this.


I hope it helps!

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Thanks Tess,

I have pretty much gone through those steps right through to contacting the host provider for the one who hasn't taken it down yet. But the info regarding reporting duplicate content to Google I didn't know about, and will definitely be doing that if the content doesn't come down soon. Good tip

I have not heard from the other lady; obviously her saying she had permission to use it was a bit of a porkie pie! No apology as yet for her wild and misplaced accusations either, which would we nice.

BTW: I haven't posted enough to be able to send PMs so if you've PM'd me, or are about to, please PM me your email address and I'll answer direct.

Cheers,

Tracy

Originally Posted by Tess

Tracy, check out this thread I posted a while back about what you can do to effectively take action against people like this. I hope it helps!

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Partner, Freelancealot.co.uk
Think Smart, Think Virtual Assistant.

So, when it is a case of plagiarism? Or is paranoia setting in...

Here's the text written by us and published online in February 2006:

"A Virtual Assistant provides off-site support in their areas of expertise to businesses and individuals who lack the time, space, or resources to hire an employee or to those who just appreciate the many practical, financial, and environmental benefits of using a virtual assistant. "

And some more of our text, written and published in February 2006:

"....you only pay for the time your VA has concentrated on your work—you don't pay for training or tea-breaks, holidays or sickness, pensions or parental leave; there is no need for you to be tied to the office to supervise the 'Temp'; no agency or 'middle-man' fees to incur; less energy consumption by your business."

Now take a look at http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile%2...%29_293325.htm

"Little Star Virtual Assistant provide off-site business administration support to businesses and individuals who lack the time, space, or resources to hire an employee; or who just appreciate the many practical, financial, and environmental benefits of using a Virtual Assistant."

And another at http://phsupportservices.com/benefits.html:

"Our professional experience can benefit businesses and individuals who lack the time, space or resources to hire an employee; or who just appreciate the many practical and financial benefits of using our services."

And another at http://www.dbvirtualservices.com/voa.htm"

"Virtual Office Assistants are highly skilled and highly qualified specialists in a diverse range of administrative services who provide off-site support in their areas of expertise to businesses and individuals who lack the time, space, or resources to hire an employee; or who just appreciate the many practical, financial, and environmental benefits of using a Virtual Office Assistant."

and further down their page:

• No need to pay for training or tea-breaks, holidays or sickness, pensions or parental leave.
• No agency or 'middle-man' fees to incur.
• Less energy consumption by your business.

Here's another at http://www.powerhouse-vba.com/benefits.htm:

"VBA's have many years of professional experience in roles from a range of industries, which can benefit businesses and individuals who lack the time, space or resources to hire an employee; or who just appreciate the many practical, financial and environmental benefits of using a VBA."

And further down their page:

• No need to provide training, tea-breaks, holiday or sick leave, pension or parental leave
• No need to be tied to the office to supervise the 'Temp'
• No Agency or 'Middle-man' fees

Another one at http://www.pcvirtualpa.com/page13.htm who has included our text:

"Your VA will work from home which removes the need to heat another room or building which reduces the waste from miscellaneous items such as milk cartons, coffee tins, lunch wrappers and cleaning products."

As well as the rest of our listed benefits.

Oh, and finally at http://rfsecretarial.moonfruit.com:

"A Virtual Assistant provides off-site support in their areas of expertise to business' and individuals that lack the time, space or resources to hire an employee."

None of these website's owners have contacted Freelancealot.co.uk about using our text. Most of these individuals/businesses have included a copyright statement on their web pages and are therefore aware of the issues around plagiarism.

Freelancealot.co.uk will be issuing an invoice to any individual/business who has reproduced content from our website, without our permission, if it is not removed within the given timeframe in our initial request for removal of the content.

Cheers,

Tracy

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Partner, Freelancealot.co.uk
Think Smart, Think Virtual Assistant.

I also, am very sorry that people do this. I am new and in the process of building my website. I have been looking at websites in my field, but I would never dream of just paste and copying.I am just looking for ideas. How frustrating for you but I must say, it must be amazing for someone to want to copy it so, complements to you on a great website... Dana

Tracy, I am just now seeing your follow up post on this. Let me preface my reply by saying that in some cases I do think there are only so many ways that certain key phrases can be written... Usually, but not always, when another site has copied your text it will be entire paragraphs or pages with very obvious plagiarism.

To start, I searched for this phrase "off-site business administration support to businesses and individuals who lack the time, space, or resources to hire an employee; or who just appreciate the many practical, financial, and environmental benefits of using a Virtual Assistant" in Google and found it on at least three sites, including yours... possibly more but I didn't take the time to click onto any other sites and actually read their content.

For the sites you have found your content on, I think you have to decide if it's worth your time and effort to go after them for a paragraph here or a sentence there. That's not to discount the frustration you feel or the level of wrongdoing of content theft. But I do think in some cases it is just not worth it.

For smaller things I usually just file a duplicate content report / spam report with Google. For things like what you've found on http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile(l...nt)_293325.htm I would contact the freeindex.co.uk siite itself, letting them know that your original content has been reproduced without your permission and that you expect it to be removed. If they don't comply then file a duplicate content report with Google. At the very least, this gets the pages removed from Google's index.

Good luck with this!

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Just a quick follow up - on the freeindex site there is a 'report inaccurate' link at the bottom of the listing you mentioned, you might want to start there...

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Im sorry to hear that. This a big NO NO and I wish their clients knew about this. If you can't creat your ideas and write your own mission etc; than its no use of being in business in the first place! I agree we all get ideas from one another but NOT word form word. LOL

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Naomi Vela