Need help understanding "Clone sites"

[bizzer]

I just read an article about Panda and it warned against against Clone sites:

"Clone sites are a strong panda factor (JM, Mar 10, 2014)"

I don't have any clone sites, but there are dozens of sites with imitations of mine.  We were the first in the area of interest, and then all these other sites that imitated us popped up.  None are exact replicas.  But many have spun some of our articles and used them to create their sites; the site structures are not identical though.

Google seems to know we are the original site on the topic since we are ranked #1 for most terms.

Would these be considered clone sites in their eyes?

[MoosaHemani]

Usually in the design industry clone sites means a website that copies the functionality of some other website, some changes on the design and boom! When it comes to Panda update I believe this has more to do with content.

So if there are websites A and B in the same industry and B have spun most of the content that is available on site A and put it on his website, probably B is the site Panda love to eat.

Hope this gives you a clue!!

[bizzer]

And do you think that Google always knows who the original site is? Do they always check history?

On top of more aged content, we are the only one with tens of thousands of FB Likes (wish they were G+, but our users do not use that), and thousands of comments. All real.