Episode 128: Copycats and Poachers: What to Do When Someone Steals Your Stuff

Practical guidance on what to do when you find out someone has copied or stolen your free or paid material and how to handle the thoughts and emotions that come with these experiences.

128: Copycats and Poachers: What to Do When Someone Steals Your Stuff

What can you do when someone copies or steals something you've created? It's happened to me more than once in the six-plus years I've been in business, and unfortunately, this is something you're likely to encounter at some point in your coaching journey.

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Show Notes

What can you do when someone copies or steals something you’ve created?

It’s happened to me more than once in the six-plus years I’ve been in business, and unfortunately, this is something you’re likely to encounter at some point in your coaching journey.

Today I’m sharing my experiences and practical guidance for handling situations where someone copies your free or paid material, repurposes your content without crediting you, or infringes on your intellectual property, whether or not it’s been trademarked or copyrighted. I’m also sharing what happens internally with our thoughts and emotions and how to reframe the situation so we can move forward a little more at peace with it.

With this episode, I want to ensure that you feel equipped and prepared to handle whatever comes your way if you discover that someone has been stealing your stuff, whether it’s an image you’ve posted or the contents of your paid program.

As I mentioned in the show, I am not an attorney, and this episode should not be construed as legal advice. I strongly encourage you to consult with an attorney you trust about all legal matters, including those I discuss in this episode.

Topics covered

  • Some of the experiences I’ve had with people stealing my free and paid material
  • How the Legalpreneur membership has helped me through these issues and more
  • Trademarks versus copyright
  • Steps to take if someone copies your blog posts, sales pages, or other free material
  • Responding to someone reposting your content on social media without citing you as the source
  • Your obligations when it comes to trademark infringement
  • How to get started with registering a trademark
  • How to handle situations where clients or students repurpose and sell your paid material
  • Why clear, strong terms of service for your programs are essential
  • How it felt to learn that my work was being stolen

Resources mentioned

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TRANSCRIPT

 

Well, hello, my friend. Welcome to the Coach with Clarity Podcast. I am so glad you are joining me for today's episode. And just in case this is the first time you've ever tuned in, allow me to introduce myself – my name is Lee Chaix McDonough. I am the host of the Coach with Clarity Podcast and the founder of Coach with Clarity, where we support intuitive, innovative, service professionals as they transition into the world of coaching. So if you have questions about the business, or the craft of coaching then you have come to the right place. 

Today, we are going to talk about an issue that, unfortunately, is likely to happen to you at some point in your coaching journey. We are going to talk about what happens when someone copies or steals something you've created. I will be honest with you, this has happened to me more than once in the six and a half years that I've been in business. So I will be sharing some of my own personal experiences with you today. Not naming any names, of course. But I want to make sure that you feel equipped and prepared to handle whatever comes your way if you discover that someone has been stealing your stuff. And that stuff can range from an image that you've posted that's been shared without your permission. It might include someone repurposing your free content as their own. For example, if you've posted a blog, and someone has used your content and put it on their page and made it look like they wrote it. It can also include stealing your paid material, so if you have a course or a program, or you have a digital product that you've sold, and someone is using it as their own and making money off of it. All of these things have happened to me. And so I will share with you how I've approached these issues, and offer some recommendations on how you can handle it both externally and internally. So externally means what are you actually doing out in the real world to keep this from happening again? And to handle it when it does? And internally is really looking at how we respond to it. What are our thoughts, our emotions? How can we manage those? And how can we maybe even reframe the situation so that we can feel a little more at peace with it? So I'll talk about that at the end of today's episode. 

 
 

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