[WillT]

The most serious problem now is the mechanical scrapers. Everyone has had some of their posts stolen by these scrapers. If you think you have not, it is only because you have not yet come across it. Google is going to have to stop penalizing for duplicate content because there is so much out there now.

If an individual plagiarises your content and you find it, it can be pretty easy to shut their site down. You can also sue them for damages. When it is done by a professional with an automated scraping program, it is much harder to get them.