Website Plagiarism.... content writing

[QueenAlicia]

Lately I have noticed a lot of plagarism on newbies websites.  When I say plagarism I mean word for word copying and pasting as well as moving a few words around.  Did you know that there are programs and encryptions that web designers can implement on a website to monitor if their websites and content are being plagarized.  Did you know that if you plagarize from another website you can be banned from Google?The person who's website you copied from doesn't have to ask you to remove it by sending you a courtesy note.  They can immediately go and report you and your website.  A courtesy note is a professional gesture for you to wrong a right and if you receive one you should apologize immediately if you are guilty.

I know it's hard for newbies especially those with no experience but to sink to a low where you are taking content and work that is yours and displaying it on your website is unprofessional and unethical.  You can always research other billing sites but to flat out copy/paste their content is wrong.  You can always hire a content writer to help you out.  If you can't afford it you can always work out a payment plan.

For example, taking a form on someones website, removing their logo and replacing it with yours is plagiarism.


I am posting this becuase this has recently happend to me and it's frustrating, disappointing, annoying and wrong! 

[PMRNC]

You are just hitting on all my pet peeve's today!! LOL

I design, host and manage websites and mostly for medical billers, that is my biggest pet peeve. I will get someone who buys a website and either they want me to write their content or they copy someone Else's not realizing I have seen most sites! Aside from the plagiarism factor, redundancy is the downfall of most marketing efforts.. how many times can you see "We don't make money unless you do".. old, and redundant!   BTW.. from a legal standpoint there are legal publishing / copyright guidelines, for example, you can copy 30% of CPT codes ONLY w/out having to pay a royalty. Same goes for content on websites, and proving plagiarism is hard and requires the plagiarized site to be completely copyrighted which most do not, it's expensive.  Not trying to take away from your point which was an EXCELLENT one by the way

[PMRNC]

Oh Alicia, I also meant to tell you that you have a really nice site

[jmedley]

WOW! Not good, I went thru alot to design my website from scratch and would be UPSET about that too!

[jmedley]

And I agree Alicia your site looks great and like you took great pride in building it good job!

[QueenAlicia]

Btw, this has happened recently to a person that I know once but it wasn't a medical billing company.  She has a bed rest service company and was the Bethany Frankel show a few weeks back.  This one girl copied her entire website from the blogs to the pictures and started her business after the show aired.  She is now seeking legal action because the girl who copied the site still has it up and has no shame and is not sorry for copyrighting.  so horrible that people are that lazy!

[PMRNC]

Sadly, she'll probably spend more trying to recoup any losses since the internet is really not regulated. Many think it's full proof to put "copyright" on the bottom of their page, and it's not full proof, it's a deterrent yes, but not foolproof or binding unless you do go through the channels of copyright. Publishing laws are pretty lenient on the web.  You also have to remember that "GENERAL informational content" of an industry can't be copyrighted.   For example if I write at the top of my website "WE DON'T GET PAID UNTIL YOU GET PAID"  well, just look around and you'll see that everywhere.  There are many generalizations for any given industry that you can't enforce copyright.  IMHO using template based website's is JUST as bad..  I've seen billing companies slap these up because they are cheap or free and then get upset when there are about 2000 more of the same site.

[PMRNC]

It's also hard to prove who wrote what and when because there's no real copyright and much of what goes onto a website for our industry is generalized.

[ste]

As a newbe I hope my site is free of plagarism.
www.oakbridgebilling.com

[Michele]

Your site appears original to me.  It's ok to get ideas from other sites but you have to make them your own.  If you don't mind some constructive criticism, on your about us page I found the first sentence to be difficult to follow.  I'm not sure if its a grammatical error or just that the flow isn't there.  JMO and I hope you don't mind.  I like input from others.  Sometimes I agree and sometimes I don't.  In the end, it's your site and you have to like it, so do what you feel is best.  Good luck!

[Jinchin]

Yes, I agree that plagiarism is an unethical practice of stealing the content from here and there, but it can be easily confronted with the help of free plagiarism checker  software.