Copycats

[trishany]

You are welcome! We are new, also.
I would just say, if you are doing good, you are happy and content, don't waste your precious time on this. I would take it as a huge compliment!

 

[Morticia]

While it's definitely shady, and morally wrong to rip off people's copy it happens all the time and if it's on the web you honestly have no recourse at all. Theoretically, if you someone uses your copyrighted materials (most likely your website isn't copyrighted) you can send them a dmca takedown notice but they don't have to listen. They can also use select portions, like a B&B special and argue fair use. Your next step would be to go to whoever hosts the site, and issue them a takedown notice. More than likely you'll get ignored, especially if the servers are in another country in which case they aren't bound by US law.
If you're concerned about protecting your written material, while the 'mail it yourself' thing is a good idea, recent legal precedent says that holds no water in a court of law, plus actually going through with a real intellectual property violation lawsuit is cartoonishly expensive (I have friends that are IP attorneys and bill at $375+ an hour). The 21st century version of that is a Creative Commons License, which is free and transparent and allows you to put things on the web, share them but retain some control over who does what with them. It's much easier to mark your work this way. You can read about CC here:
http://creativecommons.org/
I absolutely sympathize with you. Over the years I've had copy, press releases, headlines and ideas ripped off lock, stock and barrel and there isn't much you can do about it. I would suggest learning to live with it. The web is still a really new thing, and laws and thought haven't really caught up with the tech yet. Pre-web ways of thinking about ownership of intellectual property just don't hold water online, so I'd let it go in lieu of giving yourself an ulcer. It's worked for me.
Bree: That's absolutely bizarre..

While it's definitely shady, and morally wrong to rip off people's copy it happens all the time and if it's on the web you honestly have no recourse at all. Theoretically, if you someone uses your copyrighted materials (most likely your website isn't copyrighted) you can send them a dmca takedown notice but they don't have to listen. They can also use select portions, like a B&B special and argue fair use. Your next step would be to go to whoever hosts the site, and issue them a takedown notice. More than likely you'll get ignored, especially if the servers are in another country in which case they aren't bound by US law.
If you're concerned about protecting your written material, while the 'mail it yourself' thing is a good idea, recent legal precedent says that holds no water in a court of law, plus actually going through with a real intellectual property violation lawsuit is cartoonishly expensive (I have friends that are IP attorneys and bill at $375+ an hour). The 21st century version of that is a Creative Commons License, which is free and transparent and allows you to put things on the web, share them but retain some control over who does what with them. It's much easier to mark your work this way. You can read about CC here:
http://creativecommons.org/
I absolutely sympathize with you. Over the years I've had copy, press releases, headlines and ideas ripped off lock, stock and barrel and there isn't much you can do about it. I would suggest learning to live with it. The web is still a really new thing, and laws and thought haven't really caught up with the tech yet. Pre-web ways of thinking about ownership of intellectual property just don't hold water online, so I'd let it go in lieu of giving yourself an ulcer. It's worked for me.
Bree: That's absolutely bizarre.

In my case, I pulled the DMCA card pretty quickly. (As soon as Swirt suggested it.) I had already contacted all the advertisers and read them back their own policy statements that websites had to be 'mostly new content' in order to be eligible to have ads listed on their site. The site was pulled within 24 hours of the first DMCA notice being faxed. I sent them to Google, the web host and assorted other 'concerned parties'. I also emailed a 'cease and desist' to the email on the website as the address on the website was bogus. By the time my lawyer contacted me (I'm VERY serious about my website as a business vehicle) most of the work was done and he offered me a job in their IT dept.

 

[swirt]

Here is what I have used on several occasions for a variety of sites in our niche.

1. Do a search in Google for a "snippet" of the exact content you think was taken.
2. If yours was the original source, quite likely Google will list your page first. This is usually (though not always) an indication that they first encountered the content on your site. It is also an indication that your competitors page that has your content will get filtered out by Google's duplicate content filter (not always guaranteed).
3. Contact the owner of the B&B and suggest that their webmaster may have done something unscrupulous by copying content from your site and charging them for his time. (this gives them a way "out" while still saving face and appearing to be honorable). Let them know that while you don't appreciate having your hard work copied, you understand that sometimes the people we hire to do things sometimes behave in unscrupulous ways. Then go on to tell them that their webmaster put them at risk for a decrease in traffic by making their "specials" page more likely to get filtered out by the search engines for duplicate content. The search engines don't like to return identical pages so if two pages are identical they will often filter out the duplicates that are "younger" than the original content (not always true, but is much of the time). At the close of the letter in as civil and respectful a tone as possible, ask them to remove the offending content by (give them a week or so) and let them know that to protect your own work if they are unable to get their webmaster to remove it, that you will need to contact both their website host and Google to make sure that the stolen content does not continue to cause your business damage. And that under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act they will both be obbliged to remove the page. (no innkeeper wants an invisible page)
4. Your site does not have to be copyrighted (officially or unofficially) in order to put in a DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) cease and desist.

 

[Don Draper]

Here is what I have used on several occasions for a variety of sites in our niche.

1. Do a search in Google for a "snippet" of the exact content you think was taken.
2. If yours was the original source, quite likely Google will list your page first. This is usually (though not always) an indication that they first encountered the content on your site. It is also an indication that your competitors page that has your content will get filtered out by Google's duplicate content filter (not always guaranteed).
3. Contact the owner of the B&B and suggest that their webmaster may have done something unscrupulous by copying content from your site and charging them for his time. (this gives them a way "out" while still saving face and appearing to be honorable). Let them know that while you don't appreciate having your hard work copied, you understand that sometimes the people we hire to do things sometimes behave in unscrupulous ways. Then go on to tell them that their webmaster put them at risk for a decrease in traffic by making their "specials" page more likely to get filtered out by the search engines for duplicate content. The search engines don't like to return identical pages so if two pages are identical they will often filter out the duplicates that are "younger" than the original content (not always true, but is much of the time). At the close of the letter in as civil and respectful a tone as possible, ask them to remove the offending content by (give them a week or so) and let them know that to protect your own work if they are unable to get their webmaster to remove it, that you will need to contact both their website host and Google to make sure that the stolen content does not continue to cause your business damage. And that under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act they will both be obbliged to remove the page. (no innkeeper wants an invisible page)
4. Your site does not have to be copyrighted (officially or unofficially) in order to put in a DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) cease and desist.

.

Swirt, do you know where I can get more information on DCMA? I was planning to have our attorney send a "Cease and Desist" letter to the offending individual (unfortunately with this person we have had previous issues and are way past the point of trying to send an email directly to her, it will be ignored)...but I KNOW that the threat of a decreased Google presence will at least make her listen.
Appreciate your help!

 

[swirt]

Here is what I have used on several occasions for a variety of sites in our niche.

1. Do a search in Google for a "snippet" of the exact content you think was taken.
2. If yours was the original source, quite likely Google will list your page first. This is usually (though not always) an indication that they first encountered the content on your site. It is also an indication that your competitors page that has your content will get filtered out by Google's duplicate content filter (not always guaranteed).
3. Contact the owner of the B&B and suggest that their webmaster may have done something unscrupulous by copying content from your site and charging them for his time. (this gives them a way "out" while still saving face and appearing to be honorable). Let them know that while you don't appreciate having your hard work copied, you understand that sometimes the people we hire to do things sometimes behave in unscrupulous ways. Then go on to tell them that their webmaster put them at risk for a decrease in traffic by making their "specials" page more likely to get filtered out by the search engines for duplicate content. The search engines don't like to return identical pages so if two pages are identical they will often filter out the duplicates that are "younger" than the original content (not always true, but is much of the time). At the close of the letter in as civil and respectful a tone as possible, ask them to remove the offending content by (give them a week or so) and let them know that to protect your own work if they are unable to get their webmaster to remove it, that you will need to contact both their website host and Google to make sure that the stolen content does not continue to cause your business damage. And that under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act they will both be obbliged to remove the page. (no innkeeper wants an invisible page)
4. Your site does not have to be copyrighted (officially or unofficially) in order to put in a DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) cease and desist.

.

Swirt, do you know where I can get more information on DCMA? I was planning to have our attorney send a "Cease and Desist" letter to the offending individual (unfortunately with this person we have had previous issues and are way past the point of trying to send an email directly to her, it will be ignored)...but I KNOW that the threat of a decreased Google presence will at least make her listen.
Appreciate your help!
.

Here is the best info on DCMA complaints. If it were me, I would not bother with the attorney. The cost is not worth the result. If she ignores your request, then you just continue on and get the page removed by the host and if the host won't comply (which they are oblidged to do by law if they are in the states) then you get them pulled from google and she'll be scratching her head over where the traffic went. The DCMA process allows for success even if you get no response. The most difficult part is in establishing who had it first (sometimes Google can do that easily) another source of date establishment can be the web archiver http://www.archive.org

 

[Morticia]

Here is what I have used on several occasions for a variety of sites in our niche.

1. Do a search in Google for a "snippet" of the exact content you think was taken.
2. If yours was the original source, quite likely Google will list your page first. This is usually (though not always) an indication that they first encountered the content on your site. It is also an indication that your competitors page that has your content will get filtered out by Google's duplicate content filter (not always guaranteed).
3. Contact the owner of the B&B and suggest that their webmaster may have done something unscrupulous by copying content from your site and charging them for his time. (this gives them a way "out" while still saving face and appearing to be honorable). Let them know that while you don't appreciate having your hard work copied, you understand that sometimes the people we hire to do things sometimes behave in unscrupulous ways. Then go on to tell them that their webmaster put them at risk for a decrease in traffic by making their "specials" page more likely to get filtered out by the search engines for duplicate content. The search engines don't like to return identical pages so if two pages are identical they will often filter out the duplicates that are "younger" than the original content (not always true, but is much of the time). At the close of the letter in as civil and respectful a tone as possible, ask them to remove the offending content by (give them a week or so) and let them know that to protect your own work if they are unable to get their webmaster to remove it, that you will need to contact both their website host and Google to make sure that the stolen content does not continue to cause your business damage. And that under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act they will both be obbliged to remove the page. (no innkeeper wants an invisible page)
4. Your site does not have to be copyrighted (officially or unofficially) in order to put in a DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) cease and desist.

.

Swirt, do you know where I can get more information on DCMA? I was planning to have our attorney send a "Cease and Desist" letter to the offending individual (unfortunately with this person we have had previous issues and are way past the point of trying to send an email directly to her, it will be ignored)...but I KNOW that the threat of a decreased Google presence will at least make her listen.
Appreciate your help!
.

Here is the best info on DCMA complaints. If it were me, I would not bother with the attorney. The cost is not worth the result. If she ignores your request, then you just continue on and get the page removed by the host and if the host won't comply (which they are oblidged to do by law if they are in the states) then you get them pulled from google and she'll be scratching her head over where the traffic went. The DCMA process allows for success even if you get no response. The most difficult part is in establishing who had it first (sometimes Google can do that easily) another source of date establishment can be the web archiver http://www.archive.org
.

Here is the best info on DCMA complaints. If it were me, I would not bother with the attorney. The cost is not worth the result. If she ignores your request, then you just continue on and get the page removed by the host and if the host won't comply (which they are oblidged to do by law if they are in the states) then you get them pulled from google and she'll be scratching her head over where the traffic went. The DCMA process allows for success even if you get no response. The most difficult part is in establishing who had it first (sometimes Google can do that easily) another source of date establishment can be the web archiver http://www.archive.org

Yeah, I could have avoided the call to the attorney if I'd posted here first! Everyone here jumped right in to help.

 

[Copperhead]

Swirt - you are a wonderful source of valuable info. I have made note of this for any future need. - Hopefully never! Thanks!

 

[Don Draper]

Here is what I have used on several occasions for a variety of sites in our niche.

1. Do a search in Google for a "snippet" of the exact content you think was taken.
2. If yours was the original source, quite likely Google will list your page first. This is usually (though not always) an indication that they first encountered the content on your site. It is also an indication that your competitors page that has your content will get filtered out by Google's duplicate content filter (not always guaranteed).
3. Contact the owner of the B&B and suggest that their webmaster may have done something unscrupulous by copying content from your site and charging them for his time. (this gives them a way "out" while still saving face and appearing to be honorable). Let them know that while you don't appreciate having your hard work copied, you understand that sometimes the people we hire to do things sometimes behave in unscrupulous ways. Then go on to tell them that their webmaster put them at risk for a decrease in traffic by making their "specials" page more likely to get filtered out by the search engines for duplicate content. The search engines don't like to return identical pages so if two pages are identical they will often filter out the duplicates that are "younger" than the original content (not always true, but is much of the time). At the close of the letter in as civil and respectful a tone as possible, ask them to remove the offending content by (give them a week or so) and let them know that to protect your own work if they are unable to get their webmaster to remove it, that you will need to contact both their website host and Google to make sure that the stolen content does not continue to cause your business damage. And that under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act they will both be obbliged to remove the page. (no innkeeper wants an invisible page)
4. Your site does not have to be copyrighted (officially or unofficially) in order to put in a DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) cease and desist.

.

Swirt, do you know where I can get more information on DCMA? I was planning to have our attorney send a "Cease and Desist" letter to the offending individual (unfortunately with this person we have had previous issues and are way past the point of trying to send an email directly to her, it will be ignored)...but I KNOW that the threat of a decreased Google presence will at least make her listen.
Appreciate your help!
.

Here is the best info on DCMA complaints. If it were me, I would not bother with the attorney. The cost is not worth the result. If she ignores your request, then you just continue on and get the page removed by the host and if the host won't comply (which they are oblidged to do by law if they are in the states) then you get them pulled from google and she'll be scratching her head over where the traffic went. The DCMA process allows for success even if you get no response. The most difficult part is in establishing who had it first (sometimes Google can do that easily) another source of date establishment can be the web archiver http://www.archive.org
.

I'm wondering if it matters that the material is no longer posted on my site (it was a seasonal promotion from last year and we took it down), but it IS still up on the other person's site. So when I Google search on the phrase HERS comes up (because it is still live on her site and not on mine). I know we had it up first, though, because as I said she took it verbatim from our site and they were my own words.

 

[swirt]

Swirt - you are a wonderful source of valuable info. I have made note of this for any future need. - Hopefully never! Thanks!.

Happy to help. It is rare when people have need of the stuff trapped in my head, but sometimes it is of use.

 

[IvyLee]

Thanks for filling me on more on this subject, great stuff to know. Have you read about the recent Uril Geller/DMCA notice brouhaha? It's an interesting case.

 

[swirt]

Thanks for filling me on more on this subject, great stuff to know. Have you read about the recent Uril Geller/DMCA notice brouhaha? It's an interesting case..

Not familiar with the case. I'll have to look into it.