Don't assume that article is PLR odds are it's not

Posted by Cheryl Baumgartner
1625 Pageviews

More and more members are going to article directory sites and then posting those articles here.  In the process they are committing plagiarism and violating intellectual property rights.  Understand this before you even consider posting an article from a directory to this site.

Not all article directory sites are PLR article directory sites!  In fact the majority are not!  Articles on those sites are covered by intellectual property laws and posting them as your own is plagiarism.  How do I know this?  I submit articles to directories and I will not submit them to a PLR Site.  It defeats the purpose of any marketer writing articles to do so.

Authors who submit articles to these sites are doing so to gain exposure and credibility for themselves not you, and submit their articles to these sites because they have protection against unauthorized reproduction of those articles.  These sites have rules that publishers (you) must follow. 

1.  The author generally retains the intellectual property rights, the article directory generally has permission to print those articles and allow others to print them as long as the TOS is followed.

2. Anyone publishing those articles (you) must publish that article EXACTLY as it appears on the article directory in its entirety.  That means that the author bio must also be published with the article.  You must attach the link to the source of the article (You must link it back to the original article on the directory.)

If you reproduce that article on APSense without following those rules you are committing plagiarism and violating the APSense TOS:

  • Transfer, stream, or otherwise make available, files or other material that contain images, photographs, software or other material protected by intellectual property laws, including, by way of example, and not as limitation, copyright or trademark laws (or by rights of privacy or publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents to do the same.
  • Use any material or information, including images or photographs, which is made available through the Service in any manner that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary right of any party.
(NOTE: You may view the APSense TOS By scrolling to the bottom of any page and clicking the TOS Link)

There is a reason that is in the APSense TOS.  Should an author file suit for copyright infringement because you posted that article here, APSense can be held liable and face legal action.  I know many don't understand what the 'big deal' is about enforcing the anti-plagiarism policy.  Believe me it is a big deal to the author whose articles are stolen.  It is a big deal to APSense because it puts the site at risk and it will be a big deal to members when the site gets shut down either through legal judgement or the fact that they are hit with fines that bankrupt it.  And let me explain what I mean by fines.  The site will not be fined once for all the plagiarized posts, it will receive a separate fine for each individual plagiarized post that is reproduced on the site.  Oh yes and it will be a very big deal to you when YOU get hit with those fines.  That's right fined individually for EVERY article you posted on EVERY site you posted it.