Is Someone Plagiarizing Your Website?

Wondering if someone is plagiarizing your website? I've recently heard of several people who have found their website content appearing as someone else's website, with just the name changed. The cases I've heard about have taken place within the same profession, with the offending website lifting the entire website, including credentials and memberships, from the website of someone in the same profession.

You can check to see if that is happening to you by going to www.copyscape.com, where you can enter your website address for free to see if your content comes up on someone else's site. There is a limited number of times per month you can run this check, but it is available for $5 a month for unlimited access.

What to do if you find your website has been plagiarized? Call or email the owner and demand they remove their content from the internet. In the cases mentioned above, the owner of the website has usually hired someone to create the website, and has usually complied with the request to remove it. It would be appropriate to threaten legal action should the owner not cooperate.