In the evening of April 29, 2009, exactly two hours after I have written and submitted a paid opportunity, I went ahead and started to drop EC’s.  It normally is a pleasant activity for me, until I came across an exact replica of my article, the only difference is I  was reading my article on someone else’s  blog.

I signed up with different blogging affiliates so I can monetize my sites while knowing fully well that there are rules to follow (i.e. posting regulations among others) such as:

1. Unique Content. Identical or nearly identical Opportunity-related posts will not qualify for payment  and may result in termination of  the account.
2. Time Shifting. A submitted Opportunity-related post’s date of submission must match the date of creation as reflected in your blog time stamp, date line or archives. A submitted post’s date must also be relative to the time frame of an Opportunity’s life span.
3. Holding. Attempting to ‘hold’ a post by submitting to the ‘Take this Opportunity’ screen but failing to provide a written post to the requirements of the Advertiser will result in immediate suspension of  account. ( This can also be translated to: resorting to copy another blogger’s completed post with the intention to re-write or edit the copied article at a later time to make it unique).

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I was furious to say the least, and my initial plan of action was to first report the blog URL to Google so that the blog is kicked out of the search engines and blacklisted from all future searches. But kindness prevailed and I held off on doing that which means, that blog URL is still getting indexed, therefore, the owner can still use it for any monetization purposes. Furthermore, it would have been easy for Google to take action because the blog is hosted with Blogger’s free hosting . Contacting the owner of the blog in question to demand removal was never an option for me, because this is a paid content, which also goes to say, I did not plan to publicly expose the identity of the blog until I get the issue resolved with the affiliates. If  the article would have been a non-paid article,  I would have demanded removal right off the bat. Knowing fully well that we are bounded by rules when we signed up with these paid blogging affiliates, as responsible bloggers, we should abide by the set rules, no ifs, ands or buts.

Thus, I did the following:

1. That same night of April 29, 2009, I contacted the paid blogging affiliate and informed them of the misdeed. Attached were screenshots. Then, I wrote this post here.

2. On May 4, 2009 I heard from the paid blogging affiliate informing me that they have begun investigation.

2. On May 5, 2009 I wrote this post here. I wanted to share this experience to the blogging community.

3. On May 14, 2009 I found out that I was not the only victim of the same blogger. I wrote an entry here detailing what I discovered. The two crimes were committed in a span of two days, with the copied content pasted on the blog owner’s two blogs. For more information, please follow this link.

4. On May 18, 2009 I wrote the Plagiarism meme forwarded to me by Juliana. Until now, I still don’t know what exactly prompted  the author of this meme  to write such.

5. On May 26, 2009 I was informed by the affiliate that they have taken the necessary action but  the final word with resolutions came from them on June 2, 2009, exactly 1 month and 2 days after the content was copied.

On May 23, 2009 during our Memorial Day weekend barbecue party, two lawyers in my family were enraged upon hearing about my plight. It’s not so much more about the misdeed itself, but they were more concerned and infuriated about the fact that the transgressor is un-apologetic and unremorseful. Thus, they told me that it can be dealt with legally via the US Copyright Law and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

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I have been getting angry comments from some bloggers who felt they were left in the dark or thought I was just hinting.  All they needed to do was ask,  but because they did not want to ask me directly for the link of the blog, I have been inundated by them. I want to put a STOP to those angry comments.

Thus, upon consulting my legal advisers, I’m  now posting here a screenshot of the blog where my stolen article was pasted/found from April 29, 2009 to May 21, 2009.

In closing, I’m asking the same question: would you have handled this situation differently if you were in my shoes?

Much has been said about my and Leomar’s (you can click on his name for more details) stolen blog content ( a paid post, at that).  Now, it’s time to give credit where credit is due. Don’t expect this to be the last article about the “stealing” incident, though. Just remember – if you broke the law, you can only hide but you will never be able to run away from it. My cousins (the lawyers) just told me yesterday that disappearing tactics just won’t work with the law. You call that a ploy, a strategy or quite simply : a game plan.

I’m very grateful to Cee, the author of the blog Living A’ La Mode and the brain behind the Plagiarism meme. I  never came across Cee in my entire blogging journey, until Juliana of Pinay WAHM forwarded the meme to me. I’m emphasizing the fact that I didn’t know Cee prior to this incident, because that only goes to show that even someone who has no association with me abhor the despicable act of stealing any blog content, much more a paid article. If I may lift a verbatim from the meme:

To those who have the desire to Blog but are merely scraping contents from other people‘ s materials, ” Whether you are monetizing your site to help you with your basic needs or to satisfy some of your wants, do it the proper way. Stop making money out of someone else’s work. Otherwise, you are nothing but a common thief! “

To the countless blog readers and fellow bloggers who in any way expressed their concern by leaving a comment or two on this blog, messages on YM, as well as emails as soon as I wrote about the incident, thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart.

To the few readers who in one way or another were left in the dark, those who were angry at me for not coming out in the open  and PUBLICLY reveal the CULPRIT’S IDENTITY, I’m really sorry but the PERFECT TIME WILL COME.

To you – some readers, who thought that I was just hinting to get more attention, I’m sorry that you felt that way. It was never my intention to do that. I was A VICTIM OF A CRIME that no blogger would ever want to be victimized on. I was a victim of an un-apologetic and unremorseful plagiarist who wants to make money out of my own work and who is probably only sorry because she got caught.  How  can anyone stomach to steal paid articles from two different bloggers/sites in a span of two days?

I can only hope that the blogging community will be more vigilant in protecting their intellectual property. Being a victim is not easy.