The only thing more frustrating that searching for a plagiarist is finding one. For most, the act of locating and tracking down plagiarism is a relatively easy matter, but convincing those engaging in it to stop is a completely different game. Because, while knowing someone is stealing your work is definitely better than being in the dark, it doesn’t do much good unless you can get the work taken down.

Contact the Plagiarist

A lot of copyright advocates disagree with this step. They feel that plagiarists are simple thieves and that you shouldn’t negotiate with them or give them a chance to back down. However, as rare as it is, some people who steal others works do so without meaning to. They either A) Don’t understand copyright law B) Were given the works by some third party or C) Found the work on another site/newsgroup/message board where it was listed as public domain.

Like I said, this doesn’t happen often, but it does happen and if you don’t at least try to handle things face to face, you might miss a good chance to discover another case or at least resolve the situation with a minimal amount of mess.

But none of this means that your letter shouldn’t be strongly worded and very direct. Lawyers like to call this kind of letter a “cease and desist” letter and its tone should match it’s title. It should be a formal and specific letter that gives as much information as possible and sets deadlines/ultimatums that you are prepared to follow up on. It’s important to remember that this is your hard work you’re defending and you have every right to protect it vigorously. This letter should reflect that.

A cease and desist letter usually containts four key elements:

1. All pertinent information about the infringement including which pieces, where they’re located and why their use infringes on your copyright
2. A list of things you want (usually either proper credit or removal as well as contact on the issue)
3. A deadline by which the recipient must meet those demands and
4. What will happen if they aren’t met (usually including possible legal action and a report filed to their host)

Most plagiarists don’t expect to get caught and, when they do, they generally go along with the demands to avoid escalation. Many will do so silently, never writing back and others will write back to apologize or make excuses. A few bold souls might even blame the infringement on a friend who gave them the work.

If that happens to you, be sure to ask for the name and E-mail of the friend in question so you can contact them personally about the infringement and, if your plagiarist doesn’t provide that information, don’t buy the story, especially if they distinctly claimed the works to be their own.

But sometimes things get ugly, either the person doesn’t respond, the E-mail you sent bounces back indicating it wasn’t a valid E-mail address, or worse, the person gives an indignant response telling you in no uncertain terms (and usually with a string of obscenities) that he’s not going to remove your work or respect your wishes.

Either way, it’s time to take it to the next level…

When Not To Do It

Sadly, this method of resolving plagiarism is slowly being shown the door. Where it once made up over 2/3 of my resolutions, it now accounts for less than five percent of them all.

This is due to two separate, but equally important trends: The rise of spam blogs and the rise of social networking.

With spam blogs, there is no human plagiarist to contact. The entire operation is run by machines and one person, usually with many fake identities, runs tens of thousands of blogs. In these cases, contacting the plagiarist does no good as you most likely can not reach them and, even if you can, they have no motivation to cooperate.

Social networking plagiarism, though usually the product of a single human, creates a similar problem by removing all practical contact information for the plagiarist. Instead, these sites try to push you to send a notice via an internal messaging network, often requiring you to register with the site before contacting the target.

This is something you should never do. It is important that you maintain your own paper trail and not rely on a service with which you have no affiliation.

Sadly, as these infringements make up a larger and larger percentage of all plagiarism cases, there is less and less room for direct resolution.

Sample Letters & Other Reading

Utsystem.edu: Sample Cease and Desist Letter
Builder.com.com: Sample Cease and Desist Letter
Webmastertechniques.com: Sample Cease and Desist Letter
RightsForArtists.com: Sample Cease and Desist Letter