Hello,

The articles they are claiming are copied are entirely rewritten and can be seen through CopyScape

I am trying not to be rude, but I am sorry, rewriting someone else work, is still stealing his content. Also, you perfectly know this, otherwise you wouldn't use copyscape to try to game the system.

They are also claiming the images are licensed but that does not mean they own them.

It doesn't matter, you copied someone else work, including the images. They can own these images, they may also has bought the right to use them, and you "not" .

Also, do copyright violations remove from the policy center in 7 to 10 days like other violations?

You need to remove the stolen material, ask for a review, and cross your fingers. Also, it sounds that you are in use of violation notice, so I would recommend reviewing your business model, ...

Thank you for your response, let me clarify a few things. The articles are based around non-fiction topics and have been rewritten and repurposed entirely and produced throughout several other sites as well. An example of an article topic in question would Michael Jordan and his history. There are several articles on this topic throughout the internet. Our articles are all based on non-fiction topics like this.

And the images in question are not on any of the sites they claim they're licensing from and used on several other sites as well as there are only so many to use on certain nonfiction topics. Please let me know your opinion.

If the articles were entirely copied or duplicated I would understand, but the topics in question are non fiction and entirely rewritten by us. And the images may even be considered fair use as they are for an educational purpose and only a very small piece of the article itself

[edited by: Appledaily at 10:08 pm (utc) on Nov 15, 2020]

We only use Copyscape to confirm our content does not match any other source

your rationalizations may be convincing to some including yourself but they offer no legal protections.
you should consult with a qualified attorney and/or look for another way to monetize that content.

I am not trying to convince anyone and am just looking into all of the facts. I am not sure if the claimant has much if any legal protection either as all articles are on factual topics and the images (mostly) are from Wikipedia Commons or YouTube screenshots which I do not believe are licensed. I am just looking for anyone who may have experienced this themselves here but I will be looking into research more myself as well. Thank you for your response

@Appledaily ... Welcome to Webmasterworld.

Copyright is a strange beast at times ... particularly when involved with living people and most exceptionally in sports and entertainment niches. The DMCA sent might come from a number of sources

As far as g is concerned, until your site is reviewed to show corrections removing the material under complaint, it is unlikely your joy will return. BY LAW they must comply with the DMCA or get into trouble themselves ... and guess where their consideration will be centered.

They are also claiming the images are licensed but that does not mean they own them.

The question isn’t whether they own them; it’s whether you own them (or are licensed to use them).

A passage I love to quote*:

We may remember too, that in Virgil’s poem, almost the first light in which the Pious Æneas appears to us, is a deer-stealer; nor is it much excuse for him, that the deer were wandering without keepers; for however he might, from this circumstance, have been unable to ascertain whose property they were; he might, I think, have been pretty well assured that they were not his.

* Published in 1787, so it is safe to say it is out of copyright everywhere on the planet.

Monkeys on type writers.

We only use Copyscape to confirm our content does not match any other source

If you wrote the article then why would you need to "confirm" that it is not copied. Are you seriously concerned that there is a chance that what you have written matches someone else's work. The probability of that is really low, like really low.

I wonder how copyscape even stays in business?

But what if you could take some else's work change it just enough so that it is not "copied" then you wouldn't need to right it yourself, write? Humm, but how much is just enough?

Wait! Copyscape, I just modified the article a little bit and at some point it will return "not copied". Yeah!

Then when, AdSense or a copyright lawyer comes knocking I can say "I wrote it!" and "look Copyscape said so". Except that if you read copyscapes terms of service they clearly say that their service means nothing in the eyes of the law or anyone really.

My favorite part of their terms:

The Services use a search engine index to find copies of your site,

So you pay copyscape to Google your article, when you could have a Googled the article yourself for free! Really?

Instead of re-writing someone else's work, why not just do the research and write your own content? That way you are always safe and the workload is about the same.

non-fiction topics

It doesn't matter. A factual information is not copyrighted , but the text exposing it, is copyrighted automatically by the author of the text. So even if a text is listing a series of factual information, copying it, or "rewriting" it, is a copyright infringement.

This is not a problem to write your own articles from factual information, that you collected here and there. But, here, you explicitly said you were rewriting others articles.

By the way, to address your question, and as said above. Such Adsense violation is not going to be removed automatically. You need to remove the article(s) and ask for a review.

Adsense is not here to compare articles to verify if a DMCA is legitimate or not. Imagine the amount of work it would require to do this. This is simply impossible. They receive a DMCA requests, and just apply it. The same way, you can received a DMCA directly, or your hosts. Usually, it's more efficient to submit the DMCA to a host, because it can take the site down, (worse case scenario).

That being said, if you want to challenge the legitimacy of the DMCA claim, you have to fill a lawsuit , and expose your arguments to a judge.