Copyright law states that the minute you write something, the rights to that work belong to you. Many people post copyright notices on their blogs, but whether you have such a notice or not, you own the rights to anything you write or any image you create. It's so easy to steal words, images—even code—on the Web that having things lifted from your blog or website and posted elsewhere is a common problem.

A fine blog aimed at helping Wordpress users, Lorelle on WordPress provides a very helpful list of actions that you can take when you become a victim of such theft. The article link just provided is to the first of three articles on this topic from Lorelle on WordPress. Here's what is included in the series:

This is the first of three articles. This article covers tips, information and resources to help you deal with copyright infringement, the theft of your blog or website content. The second article includes helpful links and resources for finding stolen content and copyright infringements. The last article in the series examines the growing trends in content theft such as image hotlinking, website hijacking, and abusive use of feeds to replace original content without permission, as well as other copyright infringements on the rise.

The three articles form a thorough guide to techniques for protecting yourself from copyright theft, and to responding to such theft when it does happen despite your best efforts to prevent it.