Members who copy & paste content

What would you do if you caught one of your members copying whole threads from another site and posting them on your forum? Would you punish them, remove the content or leave it?

I delete their posts and warn. Just as I hate it when people steal my content, i will not allow my members to steal content from other sites.

Ah, as in copying someone's post at one site and putting it on as their own on another?

I never encountered that (but how would I know lol),, but I guess I would ask why they did it before taking other measures ^^ Urge them not to do it anymore and give them tips on whwt to do if they do find another post elswhere htey like.. Maybe, quote it and comment on it furthermore?

If they continued, then something will definitely have to be done ^^

If they did that then I would simply point it out in the thread and then close it. Shames them into never doing it again.

Would you say it is ok to let forum members have similiar threads to the other sites? Like if they got an idea from another site for a thread, but then put their own view on it?

Possibly, as long as they provided credit for the original post.

I delete such posts, if there is many, i warn and delete his account.

If it's say an article I don't mind, but if they're going and taking posts from other sites, I'll delete them.

If they made it I don't mind.

This really aggravates me because if I wanted to have another websites content, why would I make my own forum for it? So I usually remove the content and send them a 'friendly' message about why they should not do that and that it can result in administrative action being taken on their account.

I would message them and tell them not to do it again and remove the copied content.

Depends really. If they copied it but gave credits + linkback, I wouldn't have a problem with it but if they just go ahead and steal an entire thread or major parts of it then I would delete their post and warn them sternly. As said above, I hate copying and stealing others work but we have to face that this is the problem with the internet isn't it? Ah well, as long as we don't get all lax on it and let people do it, I think us forum owners will be semi-alright.

How about when people post their own thread but on 50 forums?

Nothing, I was just asking

If it is their own thread which they have uniquely created then I do not really see a problem with it. I have myself copied a few threads I made onto several forums so as long as you didn't copy the thread from elsewhere, have at it in my view!

That's still annoying. I have posted thousands of messages in forums in the past 10 years. ALL are original and exclusive. If people can't be bothered to write 2-3 sentences and not hit copy-paste I for sure don't need their junk in my forums

I find it pretty annoying, in both cases!
I mean someone is "stealing my work" or someone is "posting some stolen work on my forums"!
I will delete all of them. But in case its too many i will just use the spam cleaner!