How annoying. A few years ago some of my history articles were lifted word for word and published on three Nigerian websites, along with the copyright notice at the foot of my article with my name on it.

Someone else added their own name to the top of my stories for good measure. They even copied my pics.

I did get them taken down, but it took months and months of hassling, and really pissed me off because they were good pieces.

If I hadn't put them online, they might have been sold to a magazine, but I always thought, well as long as I'm in control of it, I can delete if I want to offer them to magazines. And I hadn't found buyers for them yet. Or some were 'reprints'.

But once people start posting multiple copies all over the internet you can't. A magazine wouldn't touch something that's up online. So I learnt my lesson and deleted all my history stories to protect them.

However, the magazine market is now in such dire straits, I've started putting more of my best stuff on here again and hoping it does well.

I hate plagiarism. I mean rewriting is one thing, but a straight copy and paste is completely unacceptable. It's copyright infringement.