What do I do if someone steals my story?

[Erivva]

I’ve seen situations where some authors their books are copied and posted on other websites and the “thieves” claim it’s theirs. I don’t know if reporting them would do much, so I need ideas to prepare if such a situation arises.

Saintess? Not Anymore! I’d Rather be a Destroyer.

Being the Saintess of a human kingdom, Aurianna did her best to protect her people. To protect them from the evil demons. But who would have thought that her kindness and love would be reciprocated with betrayal? The people she cared for framed her as a hideous slut who colluded...

www.scribblehub.com

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Basically, the thing is, once you put it on the internet, it's free real estate...unless you got a lot of money to hire for legal help and sue those aggregators.

Best you can do, from my perspective as a lawyer, is to get a copyright for your work. I don't know which country you're from, but you can check the process for an application.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

Copyright your work. Though usually if you contact the site that the thief is on and show proof that it's your story then they usually take it down to avoid trouble. I've had to do that a few times but it it's not that big of a hassle unless they refuse. That's where the copyright comes in because once you show that they'll usually take it down quickly.

 

[Agentt]

Brag about it. Tell people you are so good others copy you.


While Paul's idea would work on most sites, It wouldn't on webnovel btw. This is because webnovel mods don't care about your rights till they are making the dough. And since it's a chinese site, you can't do anything.

One way is to write china sucks somewhere in the novel so that it never reaches webnovel

 

[Awasti]

While Paul's idea would work on most sites, It wouldn't on webnovel btw. This is because webnovel mods don't care about your rights till they are making the dough. And since it's a chinese site, you can't do anything.

One way is to write china sucks somewhere in the novel so that it never reaches webnovel

Haha good idea.

 

[Erivva]

Basically, the thing is, once you put it on the internet, it's free real estate...unless you got a lot of money to hire for legal help and sue those aggregators.

Best you can do, from my perspective as a lawyer, is to get a copyright for your work. I don't know which country you're from, but you can check the process for an application.

How do I do that

Copyright your work. Though usually if you contact the site that the thief is on and show proof that it's your story then they usually take it down to avoid trouble. I've had to do that a few times but it it's not that big of a hassle unless they refuse. That's where the copyright comes in because once you show that they'll usually take it down quickly.

How do I get a copyright

Brag about it. Tell people you are so good others copy you.


While Paul's idea would work on most sites, It wouldn't on webnovel btw. This is because webnovel mods don't care about your rights till they are making the dough. And since it's a chinese site, you can't do anything.

One way is to write china sucks somewhere in the novel so that it never reaches webnovel

I’ll remember

 

[Anon2024]

Yeah, web novel is terrible. People plagiarized my work and put it on there. I'm glad they can't do "bolding" in text because it makes all the plagiarized work there look cheap lol.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

How do I do that

Search your country's copyright requirements online. If they don't have it on web, then ask the local authorities, especially the librarians.

Thing is, it's your work. You got to do whatever it takes to protect yourself and your intellectual property. People on the net won't do it for you. Besides every country has different laws and ways to grant copyrights, so I can't speak for you even if I want to.

 

[WincumCestalot]

You can get google to delist links to other sites. You can send the sites you find your content on emails. You can keep invisible text halfway through your chapters saying things like "Family Essence - Deviant (or whatever the name of your story is) is published and updated only on Scribblehub/Literotica (Or royalroad, if you're not a deviant like me)".

Having it pirated isn't nearly as bad as them stealing the credit. And if you get any level of success, it will be pirated. This at least establishes your credit, and may get readers to read it on the site it belongs.

 

[PeacefulMyst]

steal theirs

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Pipe wrench -> shins
Problem solved

 

[Akaichi]

Publish about 10-20 chapters on webnovel then ignore it. People would not be able to post it again. And, if your novel is good, you gain more publicity. As people would want more.

 

[Ai-chan]

I’ve seen situations where some authors their books are copied and posted on other websites and the “thieves” claim it’s theirs. I don’t know if reporting them would do much, so I need ideas to prepare if such a situation arises.

Saintess? Not Anymore! I’d Rather be a Destroyer.

Being the Saintess of a human kingdom, Aurianna did her best to protect her people. To protect them from the evil demons. But who would have thought that her kindness and love would be reciprocated with betrayal? The people she cared for framed her as a hideous slut who colluded...

www.scribblehub.com

DMCA them. If you can provide evidence that it's yours, then you get the rights to have your story removed from that site. Usually, just the threat of DMCA is enough to get websites to remove your story, but if not, then you have to go through with it. Remember though that only the copyright owner (you) or people you give the rights to take legal actions to (your lawyers) can make use of DMCA. Your fans can't file DMCA for you.

What it does is that, the immediate effect is the link to your story to their site is removed and hidden, so that search engines will never suggest a link to that story on their site. These bans on particular websites weaken their points on the search engines algorithm with every bans on a link that points to their website. At some point, with multiple DMCA strikes, it is possible for the site to never be suggested by a particular search engine. If the operator of the website is in the USA, the UK or the EU, the operator can be charged.

However, doing DMCA is a complicated process, to the point that these thieves get away scot free because the copyright owners won't take actions on the thieves. If left to fester, once your copyrighted materials are stolen enough, your claims while valid, won't be respected. Because you took too long to deal with the matter.

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