Should You Sue Over Stolen Content That Ranks Higher

Jan 16, 2013 - 8:46 am 6 by

legal expensesThere is nothing more insulting and demeaning to an SEO copywriter who sees their content being stolen by third-party sites and those third-party sites ranking higher in Google for that content.

It is not uncommon, happens often and is a major concern for many webmasters.

That being said, is it worth suing over? Is it worth taking someone to court over?

A WebmasterWorld thread asks just that and while some think you should sue over this matter, many say, the outcome will cost you way more in legal bills than you can recover in damages.

Lawyers are not cheap and going to court is incredibly expensive. Trying to win damages from a site that steals your content is hard, expensive and you have to hope that webmaster has the money to pay you after you win in court.

The most webmasters do in this situation is file a DMCA request with Google and the hoster and maybe send a strict legal letter to the webmaster and wait to see if it makes any difference.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to BigStockPhoto for legal expenses icon

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 22, 2025

May 22, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Come To AI Mode & AI Overviews Desktop

May 22, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

New Google Ads Smart Bidding Exploration: Bidding Update

May 22, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads New AI Tools & Agentic Capabilities

May 22, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

New Google Docs On Using AI Generative Content & AI Search Features

May 22, 2025 - 7:21 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Double Border Search Box

May 22, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Watch Me Play The Zamboni Google Logo For 9 Minutes