I deleted an EzineArticle to reuse somewhere more useful, but...

[Cornwall]

I deleted an EzineArticle to reuse somewhere more useful, but now I find it has been copied (and links to competitors added). Anyway, that's not really the main point.

What I am wondering is, as they have been reproduced 2 or 3 times, are they any use to me at all, or would they just be seen as duplicate content.

They were good articles too. Much too good for an article directory.....

[Cornwall]

Thanks for the replies. Sound advice.

Good news is the other directory where it was posted with modified links have taken it down on the back of a Google cached copy I sent them.

I don't mind writing, I sometimes even enjoy it. Rewriting though - anything to not have to!

[ePageCity]

You don't mention the age the of the articles but I'm going to assume older than not if they were on eZineA.

That said, if they really were good and at least a couple of years old, it shouldn't be too much work to update them, expand one, add media (images, video if you can) and drop it on say Squido or maybe HubPages and see how it ranks in comparison to the copies. If it performs you'll know the others are fit for re-post elsewhere.

But like Andy said, a spinning would absolutely be a waste of your time.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I would personally re-write the articles again so they are unique, but don't try to spin them. Once content starts to get duplicated, it is hard to try and be seen as the author of that.

Perhaps there could be some benefit in using Google+ to set yourself as the author, but I honestly don't know how Google would view this seeing as it has been reproduced elsewhere and potentially appear somewhere new. My gut feel is that if they see 3 or 4 copies of the same article, rather than try and determine who is the author, they might just not give the article the time of day.

Start again is my view.

Andy