James Burt’s latest é-Wealth Daily’ article is titled “How to Protect Your Info Marketing Products”. [é-Wealth Daily’ Article]

James Burt’s latest é-Wealth Daily’ article:

How to Protect Your Info Marketing Products

“How dare they?!”

When my friend got mad, the Earth shook. Man, was he mad that day! I sat in his home office, cup of coffee in hand, watching him pace up and down in a fury. He had been robbed, but not of money. He had had his information stolen.

On his desk computer was a blog screen from a business of unknown location that had a new posting. It was a slightly rewritten copy of a newsletter my friend had sent out to his clients regarding some financial advice. His wife had found it online the night before doing a random search.

“This isn’t right,” he said. “What can I do about this?”

A good question and one that is tough to answer. Information “theft” has been going on since information began being shared on the Internet. Long before transferable music files began causing controversy after being exchanged online, whole chunks of publications and news articles were being copied and pasted on other people’s web sites. You may think that there’s nothing really that bad about this. But you need to know
two things: it’s flat-out theft and nobody gets paid when someone else takes their info content without asking.

The Internet threw the whole world for a loop. By the dawn of the millennium, the big honchos who were used to getting royalties and a new “Porsche” every year for copies of published work — record company executives, book publishers, film distribution companies — suddenly found themselves powerless. They had no idea how to rectify the situation and are still struggling with it over 10 years later.

I won’t get into a debate about the ethics of all this here, as I’ve committed a literary crime or two myself back in my school days. But I will not deny that it hurts entrepreneurs. I felt really sorry for the friend that I mentioned above. He worked hard and now someone else is taking his stuff and perhaps profiting off it. Copyright laws for the ‘Net are still in development and legal action is time-consuming and costly, and often comes to nothing.

If you are suffering from info theft online, there are some methods you can use to deal with the situation:

— Do some detective work: Right from the get-go, it’s a good idea to play it cool and start doing some investigative work. First, make sure you can prove that the stolen content is yours. Examine everything and look for matching phrases, paragraphs, and other plagiarized material. Also try to find out more about the culprit, such as where their business is located and their contact information. You will probably have to get
ahold of them at some point, so this information is important.

— Check with a legal pro: Once you’re sure you’ve had theft happen to you and think it’s a case worth pursuing, I would advise a legal professional who is up on the recent laws for online content copyright. Most city centers have lawyers who specialize in commercial and intellectual property. He or she can counsel you to see if you can take the case to the next step and pursue it further.

— Issue a professional request: Regardless of whether you can make a case or not, it’s good to issue a professional warning to cease and desist to whoever has stolen your content. This stuff is yours and they are welcome to it in exchange for some compensation. But be sure to issue a written letter either via e-mail, mail, or fax advising them that they are not permitted to use any further content without permission from you. This can be tough and you might have to perform a confrontation, but it is often necessary in order to prevent any further “borrowing” of your material.

— Beating them vs. joining them: These situations can leave a scar. Always be sure to trademark all future material and be wary of who gets your content. But be open to other possibilities, too, as there are some cases I have come across where the incident of info content theft actually had some positive ramifications. Some info marketers have tracked down the thieving party, confronted them on the issue, and actually
found that they could not only resolve the issue, but also work together as joint info partners to build both their businesses. This might sound like that climax of an after-school TV special, but it can happen. I always like positive endings to these kinds of stories and I do recommend it to parties who have the potential to make the best of a seemingly negative situation.

Being stolen from is something that can strike you right to the core. Many info marketers feel that they are powerless to deal with the situation. But they aren’t. Deal with this problem like you would any other one in the most professional way possible and you can avoid having it happen again.

e-Wealth Daily

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The e-Wealth Daily Bulletin brings you daily tips, advice and breaking news related to home businesses, small businesses and internet marketing. Our team of experts gives you the information you need to take your business pursuits to the most profitable level. Founded by Adrian Newman in 2003, the e-Wealth Daily Bulletin and www.ewealthdaily.com are a division of Lombardi Publishing with online newsletters reaching over 100,000 subscribers each month.

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