The simplest and most honest answer to this is simply that we, as a site that allows authors to post work, can not possibly stop someone from copying something they've read online and trying to use it as their own.

The question you have to ask yourself, more so, is whether or not that's likely to happen. If you feel your work is up to the level that someone could just take it and get it published -- then certainly you should not be joining a writing community to improve your skills -- you should instead be out getting your work published.

From our 15 years of experience, having had tens of thousands of authors post work to Writing.Com, we've never heard from anyone that their work has been stolen from our site and published by someone else.

I hope this answer helps!

I get the impression that writing.com is not a site I would want to be part of. The answers above are patronising to say the least, friendly NOT! No wonder there has not been a further comment since 2015.

Hi, Marlene
I believe the work you post at Writing.Com is only as likely to be lifted as that which you submit to an editor at a reputable publishing house or magazine or ezine.

Since you ask the question, I presume you already have some familiarity with submitting work for publication, and copyright parameters. For those reading this conversation who may not be, I cite to the U.S. Copyright Office at copyright.gov - "When is my work protected? Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device." (For additional detail on copyright and the penalties for violation, see the link I've included to the government site.)

I mention this because Writing.Com takes the proactive step to affirm this implicit copyright by affixing the copyright symbol and the writer's site name to each item that is saved by the writer in his or her portfolio. I see this as an additional deterrent to someone who may think of stealing the work of another.

Also, you control who sees your work. You may allow view by all visitors to the site, or to registered users or authors only, or keep it private and protect with a password you create and share as you wish. You may change this access allowance to each item at will. For example, once you have an item polished in near final form, you may want to make it private if it already isn't so that you comply with guidelines for first rights.

Writing.Com is a community of peers - whether emerging writing or already published, and as peers, can you logically see us stealing work created by one of our own?

Stop on by and check us out, fellow writer^_^

We've got this!

"The question you have to ask yourself, more so, is whether or not that's likely to happen. If you feel your work is up to the level that someone could just take it and get it published -- then certainly you should not be joining a writing community to improve your skills -- you should instead be out getting your work published." --In addition to being completely wrong, your reply is pretty cavalier and definitely in keeping with the other negative comments about writing.com, that is, that the site admins are unhelpful, unfriendly and wouldn't know quality writing if it sneaked up and choked them. While I haven't found any steal-worthy writing on your site, other content aggregates are famous for content theft. I've found my writing published all over the world from sites like yours. The correct answer, Marlene, is yes, your writing is completely exposed and available to any person or bot with access to the world-wide-interwebs. If you write any kind of quality essay, article, story or how-to piece, it will be copied and published elsewhere. Count on it.

Potentially, since they have nonexclusive copyright

While it would be possible to copy (and steal) content, Writing.com does allow various levels of access control so that you can limit who sees your work. In addition, most authors will not post an entire novel in a public way as many publishers would consider that "published" and not accept it. But you can limit anything you post to a group you trust or make it completely locked down unless you give somebody an access code. Most authors I know on the site feel fairly secure with posting short stories and poems and the occasional chapter. It is certainly no less secure than any other place where you post publicly.

Collette, you could not be more wrong. This is a very friendly, welcoming community.