Stolen content - posted on Fiverr and SEOClerks - what to do?

So I have a site like Fiverr, and some people bought some stuff, which they are allowed to resell, but then they took the same Description (word-for-word), and photo, and posted that on Fiverr and SEOClerks.

Now, obviously, it pisses me off because I make my sellers have unique at least 90% descriptions.

So I want to do something about this. These people can resell the product, but not use the same title/description/photo on their gig as is on my site.


And one thing that blew me away. One gig that was made on SEOClerks, made 5 months AFTER the gig on my site was made, outranks the gig on my site now. Stolen description and everything. How could that DUPLICATED CONTENT outrank the gig which they basically stole.


Do you think I should put together a nice formal email and send it to Fiverr and SEOClerks, asking them to please compare this and that gig with that and that gig, and see that these sellers on your sites basically stole those gigs descriptions and everything word-for-word. And to ask them to remove those gigs?

Would that work? And if it wouldn't, what the Fuck can I do about this guys?

Have you checked both Fiverrs and SEOClerks T&C to make sure the user is actual breaking them on their sites?

Scorpion Ghost said:

So I want to do something about this. These people can resell the product, but not use the same title/description/photo on their gig as is on my site.

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If this is not against the hosting sites T&C then why cant they do this? Do you have a disclaimer or something on your site stating that product descriptions and such can't be copies without authorisation? Also one thing to be sure of, do you actually have the right to have that photo on your own site? As in, is it self created, covered by creative commons or have you purchased the right to use it?

Shaunm said:

Have you checked both Fiverrs and SEOClerks T&C to make sure the user is actual breaking them on their sites?



If this is not against the hosting sites T&C then why cant they do this? Do you have a disclaimer or something on your site stating that product descriptions and such can't be copies without authorisation? Also one thing to be sure of, do you actually have the right to have that photo on your own site? As in, is it self created, covered by creative commons or have you purchased the right to use it?

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Some photos on my site are unique 100%. Some are not. The ones that were stolen in particular all belong to 1 seller, and they're unique. He made them.

Well, I don't know about Fiverr and SEOClerk's policy on the matter, and I don't specifically note anywhere on my site that people can't use that content. But, how many blogs write on them that people can't use their content. It's the way it is - no one can use your content unless you give them permission to do it.

I mean, shit, isn't Google all about morality and correctness and all that? So then, I could report (supposedly) these gigs to Google too. Right?

And if I tell Fiverr and SEOClerks to do something about those gigs and they refuse to do anything about them, then, what?

If reselling is legal then there is little you can do. There is probably no copyright on sales copy for these sites. You should probably protect your product before selling it, either by copyrighting it or by patent, then you can pursue these competitors. Otherwise what you're selling is public domain then anyone can do it.

bartosimpsonio said:

If reselling is legal then there is little you can do. There is probably no copyright on sales copy for these sites. You should probably protect your product before selling it, either by copyrighting it or by patent, then you can pursue these competitors. Otherwise what you're selling is public domain then anyone can do it.

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I matured in Internet Marketing and everything using this very site - blackhatworld - and the response to somebody taking somebody else's content and using it word-for-word, always, was that you don't do that. You will not get indexed (duplicated content), you will open yourself for Google penalties, even reports to your advertisement provider (e.g Adsense) and loss of your account.

So now, we're talking Fiverrs of the world, but do these same rules not apply?

Scorpion Ghost said:

I matured in Internet Marketing and everything using this very site - blackhatworld - and the response to somebody taking somebody else's content and using it word-for-word, always, was that you don't do that. You will not get indexed (duplicated content), you will open yourself for Google penalties, even reports to your advertisement provider (e.g Adsense) and loss of your account.

So now, we're talking Fiverrs of the world, but do these same rules not apply?

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I always thought dupe content = bad juju.

Regardless of where or how you applied it.

Maybe they're spamming it with shitty links and poorly ranking it the wrong way?

Contact them and send them a "cease and desist" - doesn't even have to be legit. Some people just scare easily.

Scorpion Ghost said:

You will not get indexed (duplicated content), you will open yourself for Google penalties, even reports to your advertisement provider (e.g Adsense) and loss of your account.

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But they got indexed and out ranked you......

At the end of the day I doubt you will get a definite answer on here, my personal opinion is that nothing will happen and the gigs will all stay up.

The only action I think you can do is send some emails and hope for the best.

Duplicate content won't get you penalized. Have you seen all the news site posting the exact same content? I have forgotten the number but the majority of the web is duplicated content. The problem Google have with duplicate content is when a site reuse the same article multiple times to rank for local keywords.

Instead of chasing these people, take it as an oppertunity. Their source for the gigs is through your service and you will get a cut off all the sales they get on the bigger marketplace. Be open and market your service as perfect for reselling purposes and you will make a lot of money from having buyers on your service selling them on more popular marketplaces.

You can contact Fiverr and hope for the best. If you run a marketplace like Fiverr, I doubt the sellers would have more right to contact them as they own the content. Anyways, in reality Fiverr is right now too large an authority site for you to compete and win even using original content. It is like the case with Youtube. A person might steal your same video and upload it on Youtube and rank at the top of Google with you not ranking anywhere at all. That is a harsh reality too.

The best bet would be to "try" the seller to change some of the content. Normally, it takes hardly a few minutes to write 300+ words of content. Not sure why the sellers are so lazy and do not write original ones.

TheSEOWizard said:

You can contact Fiverr and hope for the best. If you run a marketplace like Fiverr, I doubt the sellers would have more right to contact them as they own the content. Anyways, in reality Fiverr is right now too large an authority site for you to compete and win even using original content. It is like the case with Youtube. A person might steal your same video and upload it on Youtube and rank at the top of Google with you not ranking anywhere at all. That is a harsh reality too.

The best bet would be to "try" the seller to change some of the content. Normally, it takes hardly a few minutes to write 300+ words of content. Not sure why the sellers are so lazy and do not write original ones.

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But wouldn't the content sitting there on my site, visible and known to the search engines as the first copy to appear online, won't that help in the future when my site does grow? Like, won't a comparison eventually be made and hundreds of the gigs of my site found on other sites would be exact duplicates, and then some adjustment happens in the search engine to rank my shit higher, as they should?

I'm looking for the long run. Because I control my site, and let in only very few sellers, I can guarantee that the content is all unique and photos reasonably edited, preferrably unique. Also the videos on the gigs must be unique.

I mean, I don't want to make it a Fiverr. Not exactly. So I'm hoping eventually as I grow Google and the other search engines will make way to rank my site's gigs, seeing as they were the original ones written, at least for that exact copy of what would show onto the search engines.

Scorpion Ghost said:

But wouldn't the content sitting there on my site, visible and known to the search engines as the first copy to appear online, won't that help in the future when my site does grow? Like, won't a comparison eventually be made and hundreds of the gigs of my site found on other sites would be exact duplicates, and then some adjustment happens in the search engine to rank my shit higher, as they should?

I'm looking for the long run. Because I control my site, and let in only very few sellers, I can guarantee that the content is all unique and photos reasonably edited, preferrably unique. Also the videos on the gigs must be unique.

I mean, I don't want to make it a Fiverr. Not exactly. So I'm hoping eventually as I grow Google and the other search engines will make way to rank my site's gigs, seeing as they were the original ones written, at least for that exact copy of what would show onto the search engines.

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Have you checked the guys Fiverr page for backlinks?