artists_beware | (no subject)

I am here to warn others about a website called coursework.info. My ‘beware artists!’ comes in to play here with the written word rather than the traditional word of caution regarding visual arts & hope this is alright.

Back in highschool in the 2002-2003 acidemic year, I was on newspaper team. I wrote an article on teen depression which made it to the first page, I was excited! The article remained off the internet, and only published in the small school newspaper. The same year I wrote a paper for my Government/Economics class on Henry VIII, I had previously thought that only my teacher and myself had access to that work.

Fast forward almost 4 years; I’m bored. I googled my name and come across my newspaper article and my government essay on this paid site..! I’m confused, I didn’t submit this stuff, and you can obviously see my name (Chalea Evans, now married) right in the document preview, these are mine..! Though this site provides a disclaimer that users are not supposed to use the material as their own and have an extensive anti-plagiarism area; clearly this is a paid site for other intentions than what are provided.

I emailed & hadn't heard anything back from them; since this site is not on US soil there’s little I can really do. I talked with a lawyer who works for my employer on a friend-basis and he suggested I send a ‘cease & desist’ letter to attempt to manipulate them into getting my work off their site at the very least.

Take a look at what I’ve created and provide feedback? (Letter.PDF – 124 KB) Any other advice?
I know for starters that I will never see any money; this as my lawyer friend suggested would simply be a motivator to get them to remove the content, and to do put the option of them contacting you for republishing rights; but if they try to quote them an insane amount of money that they wouldn't purchase for.

I also wanted to alert others; work that I thought would never make it onto my school website let alone a giant collection of pay-access content has totally blown me away, and I'm worried that there's others out there like me who aren't even aware of this yet. Thank you.