Help! My content has been stolen and . . . oh, never mind

As a regular reader of SEO 2.0, I was shocked, SHOCKED that my content could possibly be stolen by the dregs of webdom. Lazy clouts unable to articulate original thoughts, poaching my wisdom, insight, and wit. Shame on them.

And using Copyscape (thanks Highena) I found a nefarious content thief! Using the steps outlined in SEO 2.0, I prepared to wage battle. That’s when I asked myself - What Would Sir Robin Do?

Now I am a firm believer in the WWSRD test - retreat is sometimes the best course of action if you spin it the right way. In this case, I think it might be better to let my content be “appropriated” for now. The thief is hiding behind a privacy redirector, has no contact info, and does not seem to be running any ads.   Battle would result in long hours of frustration and tedious digging. For now, I’ll add a URL back to my site at the bottom of this entry. Lets see if it results in any new inbound links if it isn’t stripped out.

Out in the real world, however, this problem is very serious.  The existence of the privacy screens for domains, the difficulty in contacting hosting providers and advertisers in Russia and China,  and the lack of enforceable rules makes fighting content infringement extremely challenging and time-intensive.