Searching the Web for Copycats

Here's a useful application of the Google API: Copyscape, a free service that can find Web sites plagiarizing your content.

The service takes any URL as input, looking for a suspicious number of matching words on other sites. Most hits for Workbench came from sites and aggregators making legitimate use of my RSS feed.

Copyscape found several plagiarists of my book Sams Teach Yourself Java 1.1 in 24 Hours, using the first chapter as input.

The service might be too fast on the trigger: Another suspected copywronger was a person who quoted one of my jokes as his .SIG.

Publishing · 2004/12/16 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

That seems like a great tool. Lord knows how many "copy cats" are really out there.

#1 · mark · 2004/12/16

Looks good. That would be a great Christmas present.

#2 · Ashley Portman · 2004/12/19

Didn't your mother tell you to stop "joking off?" As a professional "joker" you should expect such platonic plagerism.

#3 · dabney coleman · 2004/12/22