First, Attributor is not open to the public yet, at least not to smaller publishers. They are in something of a closed beta right now, in case anyone goes to the site and can’t find out where to register.

Second, as the commenter above mentioned, Copyscape is a great site for a quick check but so is Bitscan. Both do the same thing fundamentally but seem to pick up different sites, go figure.

Third, with WordPress plugins, Copyfeed is the swiss army knife of content protection plugins, providing the ability to not just do digital fingerprinting, but add copyright statements and even ban sites that misuse the feed. It is a must-have for anyone who is interested.

Finally, regarding the contacting the plagiarist, I’d like to note that there are no hard rules for fair use, just factors used to determine how likely the use is fair, and that fair use is only a defense.

Also, in that same area, it may be worth mentioning that you can file DMCA notices with the hosts of uncooperative plagiarists as well as with the search engines and, in some cases, ad networks.

I hope that helps out some, if you have any questions or need any help, feel free to drop me a line!

I want THAT!

I didn’t know they MADE $$ off of my words….now I am REALLY fumed.