Copy-paste protection

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Avatar for Read.Cash
4 years ago (Last updated: 3 years ago)

NOTE: Copy-paste protection is no longer active as described

As with any project where you can make money for something, read.cash has attracted the crowd that wants easy money for no effort. One of the (bad) ways to do it is to take somebody's article (like, from CoinDesk, BBC or somebody's blog) and publish it on read.cash.

Most of the time it doesn't work, it gets you nothing in terms of tips.

When you copy an article from a high-profile publication, the language that is used is very different from the one that real authors on read.cash use, so people instinctively think that something is wrong.

However, sometimes it gets an author a small random tip, so the author is now encouraged to start a copy-pasting business, copying articles from all over the place to read.cash.

One of the problems with this is that this is illegal (and for a good reason). That means that we would have to remove the article anyway if the original author asks us to. But the bigger issue is that the original author took a lot of time to research the article, write it, edit it and publish it. The user that copied the article basically stole all that effort from the author. This is pretty bad.

It's also pretty bad for the readers of read.cash, since now they have to wade through all of the hundreds of copy-pasted articles that they don't want to read.

Today we're adding some basic copy-paste protection. If you try to publish an article that is copied from somewhere - that article won't get to the main page or even to the "new" section.

OC = Original Content

The mechanism is not perfect, so if you see something wrong with it - please let us know in the forums.

Will I have problems if I copy from Word?

No. We only look for sources of your article in the Internet.

But, I have the rights to copy that article!

Yes, sometimes you are the original author and you want to post your article on as many sites as possible to get the bigger exposure.

However, this is a tricky situation for read.cash. First of all, how do we ensure that you are the author. I mean anyone can claim to be the original author. Anyone can even claim that the original author is not the author. How do we verify such claims? We're not a court to go into details of each case and declare somebody a valid copyright holder.

Here's an example to demonstrate the problem:

How do we distinguish between a user that claims she is the same person as on the other page. If we take all these claims for granted - it's basically a free pass for everybody to claim to be a popular blogger and copying everything.

So, we're taking an easy route for now - if an article is deemed to be a copy of another one already published on the Internet - we consider it to be a copy and process like all other copies.

Simplest solution for publishing to multiple sites for now: publish on read.cash first.

What happens to copy-pasted articles?

They appear on your personal page, but they aren't included on the main page or any lists. So, they basically get dramatically less exposure, but are still available.

Copy-paste detector avoidance

Please note, there are many ways to cheat the detector and we don't have time now to fix them all, so if you are caught cheating the copy-paste detector on purpose (i.e. trying to publish a copied article as an original one, like changing letters to similar look1ng 1etters, adding typoss, saving and re-saving with completely different article, etc...) - that might lead to a complete ban.

Here's an example:

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4 years ago (Last updated: 3 years ago)

Comments

Would a pgp signed message be enough to remove the exposure ban?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Whatever you can do to help you curate your frontpage and the lists is good, even though I disagree about "stealing someone's effort" when you copy an article. It's a really bad thing to do and currently illegal (though I disagree with the law).

Anyhow! It's a good move!

But what if we write the article on an external editor and then paste it? I had done this for one of my articles because I had an issue with your editbox scrolling to the place I am typing and hiding the previous lines which annoyed me. I think I had mentioned the issue to you back then. Should I avoid doing that for my next article?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

No, we're looking for anything that's publicly available, not looking at the "paste" event.

I had done this for one of my articles because I had an issue with your editbox scrolling to the place I am typing and hiding the previous lines which annoyed me.

Does it happen in the article editor or in the comments?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Hey @Read.cash you haven't upvoted my articles since long time, and I am disappointed now :(

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I have a doubt, I make always my content first in Word, because when it comes to creating in Read.cash my computer presents problems, will I have problems with this?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

No. It's only about copy-paste from the Internet, not from any local program.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

So every post unrelated to BCH turns out to be copy-pasted...

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Partially that's our (as in community) fault too. Bitcoin Cash content gets all the attention anyway, because the readers of that content are the people who have Bitcoin Cash to tip in the first place. I think it'll take months and maybe years until there's enough Bitcoin Cash in the hands of other people to tip non-BC content.

EDIT: Ok, I figured I haven't finished my thought :) So, naturally good authors stop publishing non-BC content and all that's left is poor and copy-pasted non-BC content. Hopefully that'll change with time.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I just got nabbed by this, but I write my posts in word documents first for proofreading and formatting purposes. Then I copy and paste them.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

No, that can't be the reason. The only reason can be that your article or part of it is already published somewhere. Are you sure you haven't published it previously?

EDIT: Ok, like I said the reason is that your content is already published - therefore it's a copy.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Ahh. I write it out and then copy it to 2 or 3 sites. Gotcha

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I removed the "Non-OC" mark from your article. We're still thinking about how to handle the situation with people who publish to multiple sites. One of the bigger issues is that we can't be sure that you're the same CotyReh as the one on publish0x.. (I mean what's stopping me as registering as CotyRehReal on read.cash and claiming that I'm the author :) )

And to do that at scale - i.e. with hundreds of users - we'd need some kind of internal investigation unit :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I was hit by that before over a year ago on minds, so I'm sympathetic to the problem you have here. Someone was using slight variations in people's names and content as a phishing scam and was like pulling teeth to bring that to their attention.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yep, we want to prevent that (cause, that really sucks) and at the same time it should be OK to publish on multiple sites (its your content anyway). We're thinking about it, but we don't see any immediate quick solution. But it definitely exists.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Posting first on read.cash could be a quick fix.

Shadowbanning a read.cash post because someone posted a copy later on another platform would not make sense. If someone plagiarizes content published first in read.cash, the corrective measures are the other platform's problem.

Note: I just realized that you had already considered

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yes, after you publish on read.cash - somebody could illegally copy it and that's why we don't double-check it later.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

One way to avoid it would be to publish to read.cash first.

In that case we're 100% sure you're the original author.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Simple enough. Thanks for the heads up! :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I think it's great. You have a good platfrom to fight against writers who copy content from other websites. From my experience, it can really destroy a website like this if everyone plagiarise content around the web.

$ 0.50
4 years ago

Perhaps if we add an explanation in the end of the articles in both platforms, that we reposted them and links to the other platform can be considered proof. I remember a few people facing similar issues in Steemit two years ago when I used them for a while.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

This question actually arises quite often. You see the problem is that when you claim that you are "zenthereum" and you have the right to publish anything that "zenthereum" published on the Internet, I can register a "zenthereum.real" account or "TheRealZenthereum" and say that you are an impostor. You can actually see me do that a little below.

Now, poor @Read.Cash - how is he going to discern who is the real zenthereum now? Now imagine doing this dance for MILLIONS of users.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

☝️ That was me, of course.

The last question is the big one. We will have soon a TON of these claims and we'll need to do police-like work trying to figure out who can copy what.

And there are more problems.

Let's say a guy comes and says that he is "dsfhkjdsf" on Steemit and proves that he is. Do we now allow him to copy ANY content from Steemit? Including your conent? Do we limit it to some part like steemit.com/dsfhkjdsf ? What about the platforms that don't have username in the URL? Do we now need to write a parser for every one of thousands of platforms out there to determine WHO wrote that piece of content?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

i need to complaint about my latest article, it's 100% original, i spent 15 mins to write it, only the cover page image is download on internet otherwise all the words and pictures are belonged to myself.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yep, that's a bug, fixed. Sorry for that!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

no worry, as long as my article is listed on the page.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I have a problem. I have decided to publish one of my articles in my medium account on read.cash. I first removed it from medium and published on read.cash here. However it still give not original warning.

It was originally published here but now I removed it:

https://medium.com/@cryptorizer/kripto-para-ve-bitcoin-borsalar%C4%B1nda-hesap-a%C3%A7%C4%B1l%C4%B1rken-dikkat-edilmesi-gerekenler-fd353ce44dc3

Then I published it here:

https://read.cash/@Cryptorizer/kripto-para-borsalarinda-hesap-acilirken-dikkat-edilmesi-gerekenler-000d0e90

Can you help on this?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

About this, I think that the medium posts and other platforms are somehow saved in google search and there is need for some time to pass. I don't know how much, perhaps days.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

RIP Plagiarism 2020-2020

$ 0.00
3 years ago

LOL. Yeah, it dramatically lowered the number of copied articles.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I think it's a real problem and it's a good first temporary measure.

I hope that better and better solutions can be found.

The fact that publishing first in read.cash is a solution is enough for now.

$ 0.10
4 years ago

I am glad, You took this step It will be great to see original content now .

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Great job we have here at read.cash. certainly to earn from this system you have to make it your home. Read.cash want to have all your priorities.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hi, my Article is qualified by NON-OC ! it's my own content, i post on few sites and blog, same article ...

$ 1.00
4 years ago

Also, note, we're marking it not as "plagiarism", which would be incorrect, but as "Non-Original Content", which is correct, since the original content is somewhere else and this is a copy (even if a legal one).

$ 0.00
4 years ago

So the answer, is, to post 1st on Read.Cash and after on other website ?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

For now, yes. Until we create some better way to prove legal syndication (posting to multiple sites)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Ok thanks, i will do that for next post

$ 0.05
4 years ago

Also note, that there are no penalties for publishing on read.cash and getting "Probably Non-OC" mark, except that the article doesn't show up on the main page. It still shows up on your own personal page on read.cash and to subscribers.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Just One last question, if i post same Article in French, but only on Read.Cash (because only your website allow post onn foreign community) it's considered like 'OC Content' ?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yes, basically we check if the same text already exists on the Internet. As you haven't published it anywhere else - it's automatically OC.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Would verified accounts on other sites help with this? It's a fairly big change, but lets say you link your medium account, youtube accounts, and maybe a few others, and copy-paste protection wouldn't kick in if it was content from profiles on those sites?

$ 0.00
3 years ago
$ 0.00
3 years ago

Nice, great idea

$ 0.00
3 years ago

This is great. Too bad those people found there way here to begin with. My promise to read cash is, I will only EVER write genuine articles from my head. Such a great site. Thank

$ 0.50
4 years ago

Awesome! :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I wan trying to publishing it and It was an old post, Got the notification about it, I understand and deleted it, is there any way that we can appeal that ?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

If you are experiencing problems with detection - i.e. it incorrectly detects that this is a copy of a content already available on the Internet - then let me know. If it correctly detect that this was already posted somewhere - there's nothing we can do for now - it's is a copy by definition. The only thing that we'll try to improve in the future - is the ability to verify that you are the same person that posted it originally.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I was by your side, bayonet in hand until this:

Simplest solution for publishing to multiple sites for now: publish on read.cash first.

This is self-serving, since Google will select your site as the authoritative source for the article as opposed to my own. Not happy. My content is mine, not yours.

This new policy is conducive to creating yet another walled garden (YAWG).

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Maybe another way to handle would be not to punish with SEO but turn off tips for non-OC content?

$ 0.00
4 years ago

You would see the best content leave.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

You're looking at a wrong problem. It's not to make read.cash authoritative, it's to stop the flood of spam. It's the only way for now without resorting to manual verification of all sources, which is impossible for now.

This was getting out of hand, we had to deal with dozens of articles every day that needed manual research - is it copied? Is it the original author?

read.cash was getting pretty boring, since it was becoming a cesspool of articles copied from BBC, Bitcoinist, CNN, Bitcoin.com, etc... all in the name of getting a few cents.

If you are worried about "authoritative" sources (we aren't) then it's easy to solve - we can add an editable "rel canonical" link, which you could set to any authoritative source you want. Though that won't affect how we detect original content. (We don't have any other way as you can see from the article - as soon as the article is on the Internet - we can't be sure who the real author is)

Would rel canonical help your? Frankly, we don't care about our SEO at all. Like, zero interest. The only reason we add noindex, nofollow is to stop spammers, because it's much less interesting to spam if you don't get any SEO benefit.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I understand you have difficult trade-offs and respect that.

Regarding rel canonical, interesting idea! I would have to do some research. Thanks.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

thanks @Read.cash 💕

$ 0.00
4 years ago

When I write a cybersecurity blog, I syndicate it across many platforms. I use the same name, so it is obvious. Is there a way to get on a validated list, so we aren't flagged?

$ 0.00
User's avatar M.Rosenquist
This user is who they claim to be.
We have manually verified this user via some other channel.
Proof
4 years ago

It may make sense to verify that a user owns other social network accounts.

However, it can be complex to implement and may not be a priority.

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Yes, exactly, it's pretty complex, when you consider all the details. You are totally right.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Yes, that's exactly what I wrote about - here's your claim "I use the same name", but how do we prove that this is you. What prevents me from registering "MRosenquistReal" and claim that I'm the real you and you're the impostor? :) That's the problem. Now, let's assume that you are not on platform1.com (fictional site). Let's say I register "M.Rosenquist" there first - am I now you? :) The problems of trust.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I think the validation can come in many forms. I can do a one-time validation by posting something on my other networks, or even BETTER, I could post something first on read.cash before I post it to my other social networks (I normally don't as they would then flag it)

The point is, however I prove it, I should only have to do it once. That should earn me the trust (i.e. Validated list).

$ 0.00
User's avatar M.Rosenquist
This user is who they claim to be.
We have manually verified this user via some other channel.
Proof
4 years ago

See here: https://read.cash/@Read.Cash/copy-paste-protection-c4bd5de3#comment-eb9eabf6

Basically, the problem right now is that it needs to be automated. We can't automatically trust everything a user does. If for example a malicious user proves that he can post to one-day old Reddit account - should we trust him if he copes from BBC? There are a lot of questions :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I am completely indignant, my reddit profile is in my read.cash profile, I publish part of a reddit post and it takes me as what is a copy of the Internet? I am copying part of an article of my property, written by me but published in another community.

"Copying from other sources" is my personal reddit page

https://www.reddit.com/user/Mariamread

https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/fg620u/the_adoption_of_bitcoin_cash_with_bitcoinbileto/

https://read.cash/@Mariam/the-adoption-of-bitcoincash-with-the-support-of-at-bitcoinbileto-is-ready-f9b7f5db

It is a good idea what is being implemented but one should seek to develop something better.

I think the most viable solution is to delete my article and create a new one so that nothing written in my reddit post is mentioned :(

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I can confirm that I'm the real owner of the account https://www.reddit.com/user/Mariamread (as you can see my username matches that of my Reddit account) and that user @Mariam is copying my articles without a permission!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

👆 Actually I made that account and post just to demonstrate the problem that I've described here: https://read.cash/@Read.Cash/copy-paste-protection-c4bd5de3#but-i-have-the-rights-to-copy-that-article

I mean anyone can claim to be the original author. Anyone can even claim that the original author is not the author. How do we verify such claims? We're not a court to go into details of each case and declare somebody a valid copyright holder.

So the only way for us to be sure that you're the original author is if the post appears on read.cash first.

@Mariam, would you be happy if that account @Mariamread started to copy your articles and getting tipped for that? I don't think so. But I don't have any personal contact with you to verify who is the real reddit/u/Mariamread - is is @Mariam or @Mariamread. They both look the same. They both can claim to be the original authors.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Again, I'll quote the same link:

We're not a court to go into details of each case and declare somebody a valid copyright holder.

Imagine me trying to verify thousands of users with up to a hundred joining every day, and each user has dozens of places where she/he publishes. This is impossible, unless somebody willing to pay the salary of somebody who will do all these verifications by hand ($500-1000/month).

At the same time read.cash was flooded with copy-paste articles, affiliate articles, spam, ads... This stopped overnight with copy-paste protection.

We understand that this is an inconvenience, but it's our only option for now.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

It was a good test to show why the new change in read cash. For now I was scared I thought they had created a plagiarism of my account in read.cash, Thanks for your demonstration, hopefully over time you can improve that new change.

You are right in what you say, verifying the large number of accounts would be something that would take too long.

I would be willing to help with user verification if necessary. If one day that project occurs, I would be happy to collaborate.

Thank you for attending to my complaint and my request, I am already writing the publication to publish it again. Greetings you do a grab job

$ 2.00
4 years ago

I think this is a good move, and that people who publish to multiple locations should simply accept that read.cash value proposition is now partially a matter of original content. This will bring in more readers and likely more engagement.

One is still free to publish to multiple locations, but shouldn't expect to get automatic exposure that way.

$ 0.10
4 years ago