avatarSimon Whaley - Author | Writer | Photographer

Summary

Simon Whaley discusses the theft of his Medium articles by pirate websites and the steps he took to address the infringement, emphasizing Medium's limited ability to assist due to copyright ownership.

Abstract

Four of Simon Whaley's Medium articles, which were placed behind Medium's paywall, were stolen and published on other websites without his consent, leading to significant views but no earnings for him. The theft was discovered through a Google Alert, and the articles were not only copied but also falsely attributed to the pirate sites' "Admin." Medium acknowledged the issue but informed Whaley that as the copyright owner, he had to take action against the infringers. Whaley used a DMCA Takedown Notice and contacted Google to prevent the pirated content from appearing in search results. Despite the challenges, his proactive measures eventually led to the removal of his articles from the pirate sites.

Opinions

  • The author feels frustration towards Medium's inability to prevent content theft due to the nature of copyright law.
  • Whaley is proactive in protecting his intellectual property, as seen by his use of Google Alerts and subsequent actions.
  • The author believes that writers should act collectively and swiftly when their work is stolen to send a clear message to pirate sites.
  • There is a sense of sympathy for the Medium publication owner who is also a victim of the theft and is working diligently to resolve the issue.
  • The author suggests that the lack of contact information and use of a Gmail address instead of a domain-specific email by the pirate site indicates a lack of credibility.
  • Whaley emphasizes the importance of authors taking immediate action against copyright infringement to minimize the impact of such thefts.

What To Do When Your Medium Articles Are Stolen

(And why Medium can’t help much)

Image © Simon Whaley

Four of my Medium articles have had over 6,000 views, but they haven’t earned me a dime. That’s despite me putting them behind Medium’s paywall.

Why not?

Because those views were from a website that had illegally lifted them from the Medium publication I’d submitted them to.

When I contacted the Medium publication’s owner to see if he knew anything about it, he thanked me for getting in touch and for bringing it to his attention. He knew nothing about it. After some further investigations, he advised me that:

”two pirate websites have copied every article …”

. . . that had been published in his Medium publication since the start of the year. He has since contacted every writer of the publication to let them know.

How did I find out?

It was only by chance that I discovered this. I have a Google Alert set up so that whenever my name appears on the Internet somewhere, Google alerts me. (I’m not that vain — honest! I set it up purely for this very reason!) But the alert also sent me the link to the website in question.

For more information about how to set up a Google Alert, click here.

When I clicked on the link Google had alerted me about, I discovered that not only were my words all on this other website, but so too were some of my photos I’d used to illustrate the piece. However, the article was not attributed to me (it was attributed to the website’s “Admin”).Nor was it attributed to the Medium publication it had been published by.

However, because I use my photos (not images from any third-party websites) I always credit them with © Simon Whaley, and it was this text that Google picked up on in the alert.

Naturally, I got in touch with the Medium publication’s owner/editor to check first that this was not a legitimate use. (I didn’t think it would be it’s always best to check.) Sadly, it wasn’t. He confirmed the theft.

I then received another Google alert indicating another site had copied the article, too. (I advised the Medium publication’s owner.)

Then I got in touch with Medium. I wondered if they could do anything because these were articles from behind their paywall. I soon received the following:

Hi Simon,

Sorry you are experiencing that.

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything Medium can do to prevent people from copy and pasting, and in essence, “stealing”, the text from the Medium post page. We are actively working to identify and stop these sites right now.

As good citizens of the internet, Medium completely honors the DMCA and all takedowns we receive. So when we are alerted to copyright infringement that occurs on Medium, we remove it until the matter can be resolved legally. We offer a public form to initiate this process.

This site that has taken your work does not appear to have that in place, nor any contact information even, and embrace anonymity above all else. That’s troubling.

So what can you do?

As the copyright owner, you need to make a claim against them for copying your work. As there is no contact information on the site, you can do a Whois lookup to find any other information on the site: https://www.whois.com

You may need to start higher up the food chain, possibly by contacting their DNS registrar, as copyright violation should be against their terms.

https://www.whois.com/whois/name of publication

https://www.whogohost.com/terms-of-service

Again, we are working to identify and stop this behavior. However, you, as the copyright owner, have much more power than us as an interested third-party, but non-copyright holder.

If you have any further questions, let me know.

Thanks,

Frustratingly, Medium cannot do much because they’re not the copyright owner. We retain the copyright in what we publish on Medium. So it’s down to us.

I did some further investigation and found a contact email address for the website in question. It was a Gmail address, rather than an email address connected with the website’s domain name. It seems odd that a genuine company/website would do this.

Searching the Whois register isn’t always successful. Sites that are, shall we say, less reputable, rarely display any contact details, which is why Medium suggests trying to contact the DNS registrar.

Sending a DMCA Takedown Notice

While the DMCA takedown notice is American legislation, it’s become a common process for infringed copyright holders to use when demanding copyrighted material published without permission is removed immediately.

Essentially, a DMCA Takedown Notice needs to include the following information:

  • Your name and assertion that you are the copyright owner,
  • A brief description of what has been illegally copied,
  • The URLs of the websites where the material is legally entitled to be (ie, from where it has been copied),
  • The URLs of the website where the illegally copied material can be found.

It is also a good idea to take screenshots of the material on the offending website, just so you have a record of the copyright breach.

I sent this statement to the Gmail address and, unsurprisingly, have not heard anything!

Google

You can also complete a DMCA on Google’s platform. While they can’t take down the illegal material (because they don’t host the website or have any connection with it) what they can do is prevent those copyright infringing pages from being returned as results in Google searches.

That way, if someone searches Google and your article is returned as a result, at least it will be a link to the legitimate Medium article that is returned.

To do this, you need to complete Google’s Copyright Removal form (which is, effectively, the same information you’ll find in a DMCA Takedown Notice). NOTE: You’ll need to sign in to a Google account in order to complete the form — and click on “Create a New Notice.”

And then it’s just a question of waiting.

There’s always a risk of anything we publish online being illegally copied. Which is why it’s important we jump on any illegal copying as soon as we see it.

And when something like this happens to numerous writers of the same publication, it’s important we all act the same way, so the message to these websites is loud and clear.

I feel so sorry for the owner/editor of the Medium publication involved. He’s been working hard to try to get this situation resolved. Which is why, as writers, it’s important we all do what we can to stop this.

Update:

After taking this action, my articles were removed by the website.

For more advice and tips for writers, check out my other articles here:

And to read my Writing Magazine article about writing for Medium, check out:

Freelance Writing
Writing
Writing Tips
Copyright
Copyright Infringement
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