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Today while searching for $d^3 s$ hybridization I found copied content of a highly reputed question on stackexchange where the user answered same word to word and the date for the content posted by him on another forum is some 4 months later than the one answered one SE.

They are earning amazon vouchers by using SE content that I find to be unfair. The forum Given in the link below has many questions with answers copied from SE. Where Users are earning money by duplicating SE content word to word here are their links.

Original question- https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/a/8134/99515

Duplicate 1- https://brainly.in/question/4304386

Duplicate 2- https://www.askiitians.com/forums/Inorganic-Chemistry/can-you-brief-me-about-d3s-hybridisation-i-guess_112227.htm

Please do check their dates of posting I found that the SE one is the oldest on web.

They are earning through our SE forum. is this related with policies of SE? and how to take action against these forums.

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    $\begingroup$ duplicate 2 link has most copied content $\endgroup$
    – user99515
    Dec 19 '20 at 3:04
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Well, every time you copy people's answers for your own benefit, a tiny piece of your own soul dies, so that might be sufficient punishment for these people (or at least part of the punishment). (I'm half serious about that: for example, you can copy somebody else's answers for homework or an exam, and you might do very well, but in truth you're the one who loses out.)

For a fully serious answer, take a look at A site (or scraper) is copying content from Stack Exchange. What should I do?. TL;DR: Content on Stack Exchange is licensed under (various versions of) CC-BY-SA, which means that it is OK to copy content, as long as certain criteria are met. The main one is that there must be sufficient attribution, which doesn't seem to have been satisfied in this case.

How do I go about reporting these sites?

Please contact us directly using the on-site form. Select the "Stack Exchange content is being reproduced without attribution" option from the drop-down, and provide as much information as possible. Even if you are reporting an entire site that is scraping many questions, please provide an example of a question on their site and the corresponding question on our site, as well as any Google search terms you used that led you to finding this site. Any other information you might have can be included in the free-form text box.

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  • $\begingroup$ orthocresol but the one who made an extremely good answer(Ireally appreciate the original one) should get the benefit of money. SE content can be used to spread knowledge but not for personal benefit. that too without mentioning the user. $\endgroup$
    – user99515
    Dec 19 '20 at 3:23
  • $\begingroup$ Also the user has left the forum(copied content one) how could someone take action against him now? $\endgroup$
    – user99515
    Dec 19 '20 at 3:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Anonymous, I can see where you're coming from, but I personally disagree. The money here is a distraction, IMO: there is nothing you or I or SE can do about it. We cannot force this person who stole the content to pay the original author back. Furthermore, when one contributes to SE, it is done without any expectation of monetary gain anyway; what goes on outside of SE doesn't change that. The more actionable (and IMO bigger) problem is the intellectual property. If SE decides to take any action, it will likely be against the website (for the IP), not the user themselves (for the money). $\endgroup$
    – orthocresol Mod
    Dec 19 '20 at 3:33
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    $\begingroup$ Probably, for example, they could ask the website to edit the post or to display a notice with proper attribution, and to otherwise adhere to the conditions of CC-BY-SA. Note that as long as these conditions (such as attribution) are met, then using material on SE for commercial gain is allowed under the license terms: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0. $\endgroup$
    – orthocresol Mod
    Dec 19 '20 at 3:36
  • $\begingroup$ thanks for upgrading my childish behaviour @orthocresol. I hope that someday i will become enough mature like you. -------------Hope you have a nice day--------------- $\endgroup$
    – user99515
    Dec 19 '20 at 4:19
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    $\begingroup$ @Anonymous, that's very high praise, but I don't think you're being childish at all; you have a keen sense of what is right and wrong. I certainly agree with you that it's morally wrong to copy-paste someone else's answer to win Amazon vouchers. I just think that there's not much we can do about that, and my outlook on life tends to be a bit idealistic, as I like to believe that there is some sort of karma system, i.e. we (eventually) reap what we sow. These people may have gotten some quick cash, but will probably lose out in other ways, so I am not so fussed. :-) Take care. $\endgroup$
    – orthocresol Mod
    Dec 19 '20 at 14:35

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