A 6 Step System To Stop People From Stealing Your Website Content

Step 1: Discourage People From Stealing Your Website Content

The best thing you can do to discourage people from stealing your content is to put a copyright notice on each page of your site. It could be something simple like “Copyright my Company, 2007” or it could be more complex, like “All content on this site is Copyrighted by My Company, 2007. You may not use, distribute, or reproduce anything from this website without written permission.”

Step Two: Detect People Who Have Stolen Your Content

The best way to find websites that are using content stolen from your site is CopyScape. Just enter your site url and it will show you sites that may have stolen text from your site. You may want to consider using their paid service CopySentry, which is a great help.

Step Three: Contact The Site Owner

Once you have found a site that has clearly stolen content from your site,. You can just contact the site owner. (You can get their contact details by going to http://www.whois.sc and entering in the domain). Politely inform them that you believe that their site is using your copyrighted content, and ask them to take it down from their site.

Step Four: Send Them A Formal Letter

If you can’t contact them directly, or they do not comply, you can send them a legal cease and desist letter. You can find a form letter you can use at http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/contract/cease.htm Include a print out of their website with your content highlighted so they know what content to remove from their site.

Step Five: Send Their Webhost A DMCA/Copyright Infringement Notice

If the offending website owner has not removed your copyrighted content after the period allowed in the letter, you can notify their web host. Each web hosting company has a different procedure for copyright infringement claims – try to find out what their host’s policy is and follow it. (If you don’t know what their web host provider is, you can find out via http://www.whois.sc)

Basically the way this works is that you notify the web host that the domain in question is hosting content that infringes on your copyrights. The web host will either remove the content, disable the domain’s hosting account, or demand that the site owner remove the content or justify their actions.

Step5b: You can also file notices with Google, Yahoo, and MSN requesting that they remove the site with your content from their indexes.

Step 6: Initiate Legal Proceedings

If for some reason filing a infringement notice with their web host did not work, you have one option left – take the website owner to court. This can be very expensive and you may not want to proceed with this step. If you do decide to take the website owner to court, consult with a lawyer skilled in copyright issues first.

Conclusion:

Website copyright infringement / content stealing is a serious issue and you should fight it relentlessly.

Most of us will – at some time in our translation career – have been there. You’ve labored for hours and produced – what you feel is – a masterpiece of translation: all traces of the source language eradicated, all traces of quaintness removed; the document spell-checked; I’s dotted and T’s crossed. And then you get THE EMAIL from your client. You scratch your head and double-check to make sure they’re talking about YOUR project? Can these comments apply to you? Unless you were having a particularly bad translation day – and we all make mistakes (hence, erasers on pencils!) – or for some other reason have delivered work of a lesser quality than you normally would, then you may be the victim of a “hatchet job”.

Freedictionary.com defines a hatchet job as:

a false accusation of an offence or a malicious misrepresentation of someone’s words or actions

a communication that belittles somebody or something

an attack intended to ruin someone’s reputation

slanderous defamation

a false and malicious publication printed for the purpose of defaming a living person

words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of another

verbal abuse; a crude substitute for argument; “sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me”

a defamatory or abusive word or phrase.

OR

Is there some substance to the complaint? Were you under unusual pressure at the time you took on the project? Were you snowed under with other commitments? Were you overtired – perhaps juggling childcare and managing a home with a sudden deluge of projects, or simply under the weather or for some other reason less focused than normal? Were you translating outside your zone of expertise? Did you leave terms unchecked, poor translation choices unresolved or otherwise deliver something you knew to be of a poorer standard than your normal work? Now may be the time to spend a few minutes (or longer) looking at your translation before moving onto the next stage.

So what next? You have a dissatisfied client (the agency or LSP), because they’re at the receiving end of criticism from the client and may, or may not, stand to lose money. The end-client is unhappy because their perception is that they have a sub-standard translation. The first thing I’d suggest is that you go and make a coffee and then read your client’s complaint carefully. What I wouldn’t do is immediately fire off a hostile, defensive email in response (I’ve often felt that Outlook should have a “pause” button), but rather take some time and respond in a professional manner. This, and it may not be everyone’s approach, is how I advocate handling such situations:

Finally, keep things in perspective. If you deal with this kind of thing professionally and communicate well with the client then the chances are that you’ll keep your client and tighten up your QC procedures, which works out as a win-win. Comments to this posting are welcome.

Taking a  break – in my favourite coffee bar actually, having just bought a new “King of the Mountains” bike helmet – and with an hour to kill before going home, I’d like to pause from the many issues currently affecting (or at least threatening to affect) our industry, e.g. MT, crowd-sourcing, unregulated translators, downward pressure on rates, increasing use of remote TMs and loss of control of our intellectual property (need I go on?). I’d then like to pick all those issues up, put them quietly onto another desk out of the way and take a few minutes to celebrate why I personally love being a freelance translator. I love my job because:

• I don’t have to commute to work
• I’m effectively my own boss – even when I’m working within a client relationship
• I’ve just been paid 10 K dollars for a project that – thanks to my CAT tool (Wordfast) and my translation memory – took me far less time than planned, and still doesn’t seem to justify that kind of payday
• My job enables me to explore my creativity and do what I love, rather than what I have to do to pay the bills. How many people have that kind of freedom?
• I can mix with a great bunch of stimulating, funny, passionate individuals who all share my love of language
• I can work barefoot with last year’s Giro d’Italia on the DVD player if I choose
• I can perform CPD whenever and wherever I choose
• I can have Christmas and New Year off every year
• I can be a home parent and spend time with my kids
• I live in a beautiful town in regional Western Australia, but could essentially live anywhere with a decent Internet connection and a good coffee bar (well, there are limits!)
• I feel in control of my own life
• I can save enough money to pay for a weekly cleaner – giving me the time to market my services, administrate my social network and work on my business
• My work is a constant learning process – I’m never bored
• I can work in a niche area and don’t have to translate texts on obscure hotels or backhoe loaders anymore!
• I belong to a social network that makes me feel connected

I could keep on writing, but I think you should get the gist! Joking apart, I think that it helps to stop now and then and take a look at why we chose to work freelance, and what a great choice it can be in terms of work-life balance and freedom. Anyway, hope you like my bit of Monday morning positivity, and a big THANKS goes out to the team at Freelance Switch for their excellent site and cartoon strip – Freelance Freedom (from which this image was copied). Both the aforementioned are well worth a visit. Anyway, have a great week!

Freelance Overload: What to do when you have too much work is a useful article from Freelance Folder. Thanks to the guys on Rosetta for this. If you have other ideas for handling excess work, please feel free to share!Thanks to the author of the article, Tim Wasson (http://www.timwasson.com/index.html)

Overload: What to do when you have too much work – Watercooler.

Links

http://www.literarytranslation.com/
http://www.literarytranslation.com/usr/downloads/workshops/smilla.pdf

T

My perception is that many translators have, to some degree, allowed this situation to develop: by accepting unreasonable deadlines; by accepting rates below “quality cut-off; by allowing (some) agencies to drive down prices through a lack of effective negotiating skills, and by settling for payment terms and conditions that would be unacceptable in any other industry (60-90 days – come on!) Consequently, the industry has become increasingly powerful, and translators appear to be reacting to the changes rather than shaping them. I believe that by acting proactively we can change this situation and ensure our survival.

SWOT-analysis

I thought a SWOT analysis would be a good way of looking at the current state of play in the industry, and where we’re headed. For those unfamiliar with the term, a SWOT analysis is:

a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. (Wikipedia)

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to list some of  the internal strengths and weaknesses that I think can be broadly applied to the industry:

Internal Strengths

• Proactive response to business threats and opportunities
• Resilience
• Intelligence
• Ability to adopt new technology quickly
• Communication skills
• Flexibility of lifestyle
• Ability to expand role
• Transferable skills
• Multi-tasking
• IT competence
• Industry know-how
• Strength through professional organisations
• Ability to foster relationships with clients
• Marketing know-how
• Selling to our strengths

Internal Weaknesses

• Reactive, rather than proactive, culture
• Relative isolation of freelance community
• Lack of access to CPD
• Lack of cohesion amongst T and I community
• Lack of control over outside influences
• Power imbalance – Agencies vs. Freelancers
• Lack of control over industry developments, rates, IT etc.
• Relative naivety about potential threats (e.g. online CAT tools and VLTMs – providing the material to improve the quality of MT)

Now let’s take a look at some potential external threats and opportunities:

External Threats

• Unregulated industry (anyone can claim to be a translator and charge below the market mean for their services)
• CAT tool providers with an eye on the bottom line, not the sustainability of your industry in the long term
• Global economic downturn
• Machine Translation
• Downward pressure on rates from agencies
• CAT matrices – strong position of agencies vs. freelance translators due to relative unfamiliarity of many translators with the matrix system
• Increased use of English as second language – impact on some minority languages (e.g. encroachment of English into other languages)
• Constant need to update software, e.g. operating systems, CAT tools, OCR software etc.
• Lack of affordable CPD online
• Variations in technological advancement depending on geographic location

External Opportunities (I know this makes the acronym SWTO, but I like to end on an up-note)

• Increasing demand for translation services
• Increased access to potential clients across geographic boundaries
• Technological advancements
• Access to CPD through professional organisations
• Social and professional networking opportunities
• Ready access to industry-related tools (CAT tools, dictionaries, books etc.) irrespective of geographic location
• Expedient communication
• Marketing opportunities
• Ability to create a global presence

Changing from reactive to proactive

In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, Stephen R. Covey suggests that one way we can become more self-aware about our own degree of proactivity is by looking at where we focus our time and energy. These concerns can be grouped within what Covey calls a Circle of Concern, in other words, those things that we react to. Covey also describes a group of things we can do something about – these he describes collectively as the Circle of Influence, i.e. things about which we can be proactive. According to Covey, people acting proactively focus their efforts in the circle of influence, i.e. on the things they can do something about. People behaving reactively, on the other hand, focus on the Circle of Concern, i.e. on issues affecting them, but over which they have no control. Focus on this area, and the negative energy thus created, causes their Circle of Influence to shrink. So, by focusing on things we can change (including recognizing those things we cannot – areas of No control), this positive energy, and the decisions made, can expand our Circle of Influence and shrink our Circle of Concern. If, for example, the economic downturn causes us to lose some key clients with subsequent loss of income, this becomes an item for our Circle of Concern. If, however, we continue to market consistently and gain new clients we can not only counterbalance the natural attrition of our client group, but actually increase our client stable. This will not only prevent sine wave work-flow during stable periods, but will also act as a buffer during economically lean times.  By acting proactively we increase our area of influence.

Meeting others’ needs

In his book, Unlimited Power, Anthony Robbins suggests that success in our business or personal lives involves:

…the skill or the ability to specifically define exactly what others want, and then to fill others’ needs quickly and elegantly.

This makes real sense. If you’ll allow me, I’ll use a charity bike ride I participated in recently to illustrate the point. Woefully ill-prepared, I agreed to take part in a 200 km ride in my part of Western Australia. I’ve just bought a new racing bike, but it hadn’t arrived on the day in question so I rode my old hybrid bike, assured that there would be other people on equally slow machines. Anyway, after about 50 km my handlebars loosened, my legs were numb, and I was wiggling my head round like an idiot to get the sweat from my eyes. Frankly, I’d hit the wall and was looking for any excuse to stop pedalling and get on the bus! Fortunately, the support crew involved a bus loaded with candy, iced water, dried fruit and other treats, plus a friendly driver who was happy to load your bike on the trailer and chat with you while you rested until you felt ready to continue. For the backmarker, and consider that the bus would be about 10 feet from your rear wheel,  the decision to stop hurting and hop on board was not a difficult one. I should point out that once I’d rested for a while I continued cycling and did 120 km in total, which was a good starting point for me. My point is that the proximity of the bus to the cycling group, the friendly and accessible driver, the pleasant chat on board, the excess of chilled drinks and chocolate bars, all made the decision to stop cycling an easy one: too easy really. If, on the other hand, the bus had travelled further behind the cycling group, if the driver had been unfriendly, and if there had been no snacks or drinks on board, then I probably would have soldiered on until the next official stop. My message then is this: by being the friendly, professional and accessible translation service provider (the bus) we can encourage the potential purchaser of language services (the cyclist) to stop pedalling (i.e. looking for another TSP) and come on board our bus! By “adding value” and by being proactive in our business decisions, we can increase our client stable and work-flow and also make it easy for clients to work with us, and keep working with us.

In summary, I’d like to list some of the ways we can be proactive rather than reactive in our business dealings, and how we can add value to the service we provide to customers.

Proactive measures

• Network with colleagues, keep abreast of industry trends and developments
• Undertake regular CPD, go to conferences, make new friends and meet clients
• Expand your skill base: take courses, e.g. proofreading and copy-editing, subtitling, transcription, medical writing etc. If you can’t attend an on-campus course consider a distance option
• Join one or more professional associations, subscribe to monthly or bimonthly journals
• Join professional e-groups
• Educate clients: give all new or prospective clients (not agencies) a copy of Getting it Right (from the ATA or ITI websites)
• Become a niche translator. Look at specialty fields you might enter, e.g. automotive, technical, medical, legal, pharmaceutical etc.
• Don’t settle for unreasonable deadlines, payment intervals or rates below the quality cut-off. These are only successful strategies because some people accept them. If professional translators continue to demand acceptable rates and payment conditions then change will take place. If you are approached by an agency and you want to check their payment practice, try www.paymentpractices.com or ProZ Blue Board before signing the dotted line
• Improve your negotiating skills. Many clients are willing to negotiate over rates or a CAT tool matrix. Before saying “no” and sending an angry email response to an unreasonable offer, see if there’s room for compromise
• Market consistently and effectively
• If you don’t have a website, create one now or pay someone to create one for you. There’s no point having excellent skills and services if no one knows you’re there
• Don’t neglect family and colleagues. As Anthony Robbins says, “if you get to the top of success mountain on your own, chances are you’re going to want to jump off.” Nurture yourself and those who provide you with support
• Say “sorry” if you stuff up – it costs nothing and clients appreciate it
• Thanks clients for payments received
• Write for pleasure and to enhance/maintain your writing skills, particularly if your write often in your source language(s)

Adding value

• Go the extra mile
• Try and resolve all issues before returning a project to a client
• Use a problem-solving approach with project managers
• Pay a professional associate for proofreading or editing where the job merits it
• Be easy to work with. Remain friendly, accessible and try and respond to emails expediently. If you go on vacation set your email to auto-respond
• Invest in a CAT tool and decent OCR software. Familiarise yourself with more than one translation environment. Use your local TM, as opposed to a server-based TM
• Maintain and update your IT skills
• Perform language maintenance
• Remember that you are only as good as your last job
• Communicate effectively and listen to the client

By way of balance, I should also add that where I mention agencies I am referring almost exclusively to those agencies that urge inexperienced translators (or those unskilled in negotiating terms) to accept unreasonable rates, deadlines and payment intervals. The majority of my own client group are translation agencies, most are repeat clients and I normally send all of them a Christmas card! I also consider many of the project managers friends and rarely get asked to perform superhuman feats or accept unreasonable terms.

This article (written in the middle of a book translation so please forgive any errors) is not intended to be the beginning and end of this topic, but I hope some of the information proves useful. Comments, as always, are welcome.

Additional reading

• Parallel Thinking: from Socratic to de Bono Thinking. Edward de Bono, Viking, 1994. This book on Amazon

MT: separating myth from fact

• “Is Machine Translation useful for Translators” by Josep Bonet (EU Directorate General for Translation)
• Dream machine: The clear future of machine translation: from Yndigo (translation: insights and incites)
• ATA Language Technology Division: Translation Environment Tools
• Google translate: An analysis (from Translating Patents)
• Machine translation and the future of the translation industry: Yves Champollion
• Where do translators fit into Machine Translation: by Alexander Gross
• Training Human Translators as Opposed to Programming Machine Translation Systems: A Performative Model: by Arvi Tavast

See also:
Use of Shall and Will (Wikipedia)
“Shall” versus “Will” in Business Contracts: An exchange of emails
Changes to the most recent EU style guide (v. useful)
Shall and Will (from Bartleby)
Best
Andy

Are you struggling to find interesting articles and CPD? Finding it difficult to get corporate clients or repeat business? Struggling with out-of-date technology and lost in the world of TenTs, CAT tools, VLTMs, .tmx files and more? Excuse the marketing spiel, but if this is you then read on because subscription to a professional journal might just be the first step to making your life easier and improving your bottom line. It’s that time of the bi-month again where I get my ITI Bulletin and the ATA Chronicle: both packed with stimulating industry-specific articles, event postings, CPD content, tips and advice, educational content and lots more. This month’s Bulletin includes articles on:

• language matters at The Hague
• conference reports
• the rise of anglicisms in modern German
• growing your T/I business
• technology tips
• coming to terms with the European Union
• how to keep clients happy
• …and more…

Similarly, the ATA Chronicle (monthly) has articles on:

• what interpreters might learn from medical training and research
• a beginner’s guide to video interpreting
• ATA school outreach
• building your business
• …and more…

I get so many queries and emails from colleagues asking about how to increase their client base, how to access CPD, industry events, ongoing education, and I think the answer is staring them in the face. I get both magazines by virtue of being an examined member of the ITI and corresponding member of the ATA; however, for non-members, the ITI Bulletin is available as journal subscription membership only (6 issues) for around GBP 60 per for six issues (a free copy can be obtained via the following link, http://www.iti.org.uk/indexMainG.html). For membership, just navigate to the membership pages of the ITI site.

As with the ITI Bulletin, a free sample copy of the Chronicle can be obtained here. At time of writing, journal-only membership costs USD 65 (U.S.) and USD 110 (International) for 12 months. For enquiries about ATA membership, visit www.atanet.org or email Maggie Rowe at Maggie@atanet.org.

Seriously, if you do nothing else for yourself or your business this year, give serious thought to getting these excellent publications  – the benefits in terms of networking, ongoing education, friendships, new clients and industry know-how have paid me back for my subscription fees a thousand fold. If you opt for membership of these organisations, and I strongly advocate this, you will gain access to e-groups, a corporate client database and many more member benefits that can take your business to (in the words of Dr Phil) a whole nother level!

Author’s note: I receive no payment, discounts, additional benefits or other monetary/material benefit for this plug – I just think they’re excellent publications and feel it’s knowledge worth sharing.