Online businesses have a horrible problem with people stealing content. Record companies are spending millions trying to put the "MP3 Genie" back in the bottle. How then can a small independent webmaster keep his content from being stolen? And even more importantly, what does he do when he finds out that his content has been stolen?

The first step is to notify the offender that you seriously intend to protect your copyright and that you will use legal action if necessary. Even if you don't intend to hire an attorney, this bluff works most of the time. Track the culprit down using your web smarts and send him a registered letter, or at the least an email. You can get a copy of a stolen copyright cease and desist letter at any number of online legal resource sites.

If this does not work, and the culprit ignores your demands, you probably need to step your level of attack up. I have found that using the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act is very effective in stopping would-be content thieves.

Under the D.M.C.A. you can go after the hosting company and force them to take down stolen copyrighted content. What is interesting is that if the hosting company does not comply with the letter of the D.M.C.A. law, they may be liable to you for damages. So if you host, you had better learn the letter of this law.

Under the D.M.C.A. procedure, they must take down the offending content and then give the website a procedure to contest the copyright infringement. The D.M.C.A. requires a specific form to be sent to the Hosting Provider and is pretty technical. You can find copies of this letter at www.adultsitelaw.com for your use. I have also found that most would-be content scofflaw's (now that's a word that hasn't been used in years) run and hide when faced with up to $100,000.00 in damages.

I hope this article sheds a little light for the people who have original content on their site and want to protect it.