In part 1 of Protecting Your Website Content we discussed what a copyright is, how you can use it, and most importantly, how it protects your original works. But how do you discover if your copyright material is being used online without your permission? One easy way is using software. Copy protection programs will monitor as many pages of your content as you pay them to do. Before the word "pay" scares you away, you should know that it is relatively inexpensive and after all, you went through the hard work and expense in creating your own content. What is it worth to you to protect it?

With copy protection software, you can receive a weekly report via e-mail alerting you to other copies of your content that have been found of the web. These reports come in an easy to read format letting you know how many possible copyright infringements exist as well as what websites are using your content. The reports can even provide a link to the exact area of the website where the duplicate content is posted. In some cases you will find that no copyright infringements of your material exist online. Other times you may find that your content is popular and is on multiple websites. It’s interesting to see how some people literally copy entire pages word for word and others choose to take a few sections here and there. In some cases you may be glad to see where your work is distributed online. Perhaps someone is quoting or referencing your site and therefore giving you credit for the content. If the report shows sites your work is being copied without your permission and you would like removed, follow the steps we talked about in the blog Protecting Your Content Part 1.

In our case, we have been using copyright protection software since we launched FindAnyFloor.com. Most weeks we find several instances where our original copy was "borrowed". Using this software and following the steps we outlined in Protecting Your Content – Part 1, we have been successful with keeping our content protected.

In a world where content is king, it's important to not only protect what you have written, but not to copy what someone else has.

Remember, the same law and rules that protects your content online, also protects the original content of others. Copying original material without the authors permission can; subject you to legal action, cause your website to be removed from the index of Internet search engines or even have your domain registrar discontinue the hosting of your domain. Imagine this, one day you’re found, and the next day you are gone! We'll discuss this more in part 3 of Protecting Your Content where we review DMCA, a bill President Clinton signed in 1998 that protects copyrighted material on the Internet.

NOTE: I purposely left out the names of the software we use since we have several services and continue to try new owns as they present themselves. I felt if I mentioned and rated one, I would have to do that for all. So in fairness, I left them out of this blog. If you are interested in copy protection, feel free to e–mail me (dpatton@FindAnyFloor.com) and I will give you a list of recommended copy protection software as well as my personal opinion on each.

It should also be noted that with the amount of content writers that we have at FindAnyFloor.com, we too have posted content where parts were used without the authorization of the originator. As we are notified, or discover these oversights, we make sure to address it immediately. We take great care in checking all our content for authenticity and make every effort to ensure nothing slips by.