Anyone else catch the Melania Trump Speech the other night?
What about the Michelle Obama Speech 8 years ago?
Well, in case you have been living under a rock for the past couple of days, let me enlighten you.
On Monday night, Melania Trump gave a speech at the Republican National Convention. She spoke from her heart about values, hard work, honoring your word, and treating people with dignity and respect.
The problem is, so did Michelle Obama back in 2008. Here is a clip showing the striking similarities of the speeches.
Why do I bring this up now?
Because, politics aside, it is a shining example of plagiarism. And if you are building an online business, you need to understand how plagiarism can effect, and at times, destroy your business.
Plagiarism is nothing more than copyright infringement. And copyright infringement is basically using the works of another person without their permission.
Right now we are seeing this with unprecedented frequency from people that are selling artistic products on Amazon. It has even spurned several lawsuits which Amazon is defending vigorously. I field several calls and emails a week from people whose products have been ripped off by rogue sellers on Amazon.
But that isn’t the worst of it.
It is happening online as well with sellers of information products.
People purchase a course, copy the language and the videos, then sell it as their own. In some situations, they don’t even have the decency to paraphrase the videos or documents used in the original course.
It is a huge problem, and as an online business, you need to be aware of how you can protect your business.
What exactly can you do to prevent copyright infringement?
The obvious route is to send a cease and desist letter. If that doesn’t work, you can send a DMCA takedown notice to the web host of the site that contains the infringing work.
Alternatively, you can also register your works (which we highly recommend) with the US Copyright office. For a small fee, you can put the whole world on notice that you own your work.
In addition, if you register within certain time frames, then you are eligible to sue the infringing party in federal court and can receive statutory damages, as well as attorneys fees.
