Copyscape

Copyscape is an online service to detect plagiarism from web pages. It is operated by Indigo Stream Technologies, Ltd..

Operation

After one has communicated the address to the original content are the Copyscape site from a list of websites that contain copies of the original or of parts of the original. Normally, the program repeats of more than three words in a text that, with proper names and proverbial sayings are to be tolerated. It works quite reliable as professional web authors may find their texts are reviewed by clients and agencies by Copyscape text. How reliable the program works, however, given the high redundancy in the Internet, it is hard to determine. The service ' Copyscape Premium " checks the web every day to copies of a registered website and send the registered site owner a notification if copies were found. The fee-based service ' Copyscape Premium " lets you search for offline content. This text can be entered via copy-and- paste on the site and copies will be sought. The offer is for authors and editors who can use it to ensure the authenticity of its publication. On their websites, website operators can integrate the Copyscape banner to warn against copyright infringement. Copyscape provides a forum that is primarily intended for discussion of intellectual property.

Revealed by Copyscape cases

The use of Copyscape led in several cases to detect online plagiarism of Websites:

• Used on 6 April 2005, the Norwegian web designer Arve Bersvendsen Copyscape to detect the copy of a CSS tutorials written by him at a run by Apple Computer website. Shortly after Bersvendsen had his copyright asserted that the contents have been removed from the site.
• On 9 December 2005 the ZDNet blogger Richard Stiennon could detect six sites where he designed a business plan for an Internet service provider has been copied and republished.

Construction

The search of the site by Copyscape based on the Google Web API. Although Copyscape can thereby detect copied texts from websites, but not media such as graphics. Special algorithms can even recognize slightly different lyrics. Whether a copy was made with or without the permission of its author can naturally not be determined.

History

Copyscape was founded in 2004, develops Inc. by the company Indigo Stream Technologies, which was previously established in a year from Gideon Greenspan.

Swell

• English-language article about Copyscape