Hunting for Content Thieves

Good Method to Protect Articles

I got a good tip from Michael James on how he finds folks that have been stealing his content and passing it off as their own, and it really is quite simple.

1. Find one of your old posts and copy a sentence from the middle of the article
2. Go to google (or whatever search engine you like) and paste the phrase into the search phrase (if you want to be even more clever, you can enclose the phrase in quotes, so you are looking for an exact match).
3. Voila, you will see if there is anyone out there passing your good works off as their own stuff.

Protect Your Content

You then need to have a standard DCMA infringement e-mail that you will then want to send to the alleged perpetrator (and maybe copy Google if you wish) asking them to take the content down. It seems to have worked well for Michael James, I have yet to find anyone who has “stolen” any of my content, but I will keep looking.

You wrote it, you should be the one to profit from it.

In 2025, content theft has evolved. Entire sites scrape RSS feeds or spin articles using AI. One defensive trick is internal linking like pointing readers to related posts such as Spam, Censorship, or iPhone categories—so when your content is stolen, your backlinks remain. Another layer is legal protection: register your site under Copyright.ca and keep timestamped backups in Google Search Console.

If you want to get cheeky, embed a digital watermark or Easter egg line in your posts (“Only fools copy this paragraph verbatim”). You’d be surprised how many thieves forget to remove your signature snark.

Honest Perspective on Plagiarization

Let’s be honest: the internet’s like a bad neighbourhood now. You post something good, and some SEO zombie in a “content factory” rips it off, five minutes later. The only difference from 2012? Now they pretend it’s “AI curation.” Protect your stuff, and don’t feel bad about swinging the DMCA hammer.

FAQ Content protection