To think that my article is MY article and I have the right to tell a website who are using it without my permission to remove it??

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

I'm a copywriter, I write reams of website content and have today found one of my articles on a site called DocStoc which seems to be a place where people can use articles etc for free.

The article in question was written by me for a client and that client paid for the right to use it in their newsletter.

They are a small company and the website which has stolen it from my own portfolio on my website is asking me to go on their site and fill in a big legal form and give them my personal details.

The site in question is a large one and looks "legit" in that articles are uploaded by users who each have their own account...I don't want to give the site owners my personal details...and fill in their form I am not in the wrong.

They ask that we need you to comply with the notice of copyright infringement requirements of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) if in fact there has been copyright infringement and you are authorized to request removal. and a lot of other blurb including a legal disclaimer. They link to a form which as I mention wants my name, telephone number and address.

Am I in my rights to email back and say "No I won't fill in your form, remove my article now." or similar.?? I am pissed off!

Writers' Guild is also very good and helpful; like the SoA, it has done a great deal to help writers. I don't think it matters which organisation any writer chooses to belong to, but I do think that belonging to one or the other can often be really useful. As a vast generalisation, book writers tend to belong to SoA; radio, TV and theatre writers tend to belong to WG.

Please, please forgive me if I am repeating what you know already, but, just in case it's relevant for other readers of this thread, Writers' Guild minimum Full membership is a minimum of £180; actual Full membership fees are a percentage of earnings from writing, calculated on a sliding scale: www.writersguild.org.uk/join-the-guild/full-membership.html

There is also Candidate membership, which costs £100 per year. www.writersguild.org.uk/join-the-guild/candidate-membership.html

The level at which WG members join depends on a points system, explained in the first link above. The system is essentially based on whether you have published a fair amount already (and been properly contracted and paid for it), or are just at the start of your career. The pension scheme is for Full members only.

For either organisation, membership fees are tax deductable.

Just a final thought re getting the most out of copyrights. I expect that you already know about ALCS (the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society). If not, their website explains what they do and how to join (they also take a percentage of copyright fees, but without ALCS, many authors would not receive certain copyright payments at all, so, IMO, membership is probably worthwhile:
www.alcs.co.uk/