How do you handle content thieves? Options

[Spencer Hoyt]

I have found a site [name removed] that is not only stealing my content, but they are stealing my site design. How do you handle this type of behavior?
I have contacted some of their "Clients" in their portfolio and they are all fake!
Need Advice.

[Moderator Note: We don't need the name to discuss the issue. Almost any of us have seen the issue before often enough to recognise it, and probably many of us first-hand. We can discuss the issue itself here, but discussion of the other company is probably best done directly with them, or through proper complaint channels. BK]

[phaithful]

you might want to do a search through the forums.

Flex your rights under the digital millenium copyright act (DMCA). Usually it's easy enough to contact the domain host or their ISP and have their site pulled down until they comply.

If they're out of the country... well.... good luck with that. I'd say find someone "special" who can help you out there.

[Black_Knight]

That's really a matter of personal taste and of how much effort and resource you are willing to spend in pursuit of a resolution of some kind.

Do you have the time, money, and will to take them through the courts? Have you contacted anyone from the company directly to see if they are even aware that someone has placed plagiarised content on their site? Are they actually achieving greater success with your content and design than you are, or does that matter to you? How far are you willing to go and what do you want to achieve thereby?

The truth is that it really isn't possible that someone accidentally copied your content and design. At best, the company (which is probably a fly-by-night outfit anyway in these situations) will waste a lot of your time, and eventually claim it was all someone else's fault and that that person no longer works for them.

The chances are that you'd do more to help them by highlighting them, even in a negative sense, than anything else.

[manager]

Hi Spencer Hoyt,

How do you handle content thieves?

You could always hire someone to put a horses head on their pillow.
But seriously, contacting their ISP is good, but you must have sufficient proof, to backup your complaint.

This thread has some good pointers.

TreV

[SEOEgghead]

This is a good example of a funny way to deal with them:

This guy was rippign my blog, www.seoegghead.com, as well as ha.ckers.org. Click the ha.ckers.org link. I was going to file a DMCA and tell GoDaddy about it (GoDaddy's eagerness to take this stuff down without even investigating is exactly why I'd never register a domain there -- but hey, why not take advantage of it for and honest purpose), but he did it better, I think.

Needless to say, you don't need to be as mean as ha.ckers.org, but you CAN use IP delivery if they're using a script to totally deny/screw them.

[Spencer Hoyt]

Thanks Guys/Gals for the advice. I have called this company and they started screaming at me that they have a right to use my code and content.
I sent a letter to their hosting company so we will see where this goes.
Thanks

[EGOL]

This attitude makes me hopping mad. I hope that the hosting company takes their site down.

[phaithful]

This guy was rippign my blog, www.seoegghead.com, as well as ha.ckers.org. Click the ha.ckers.org link. I was going to file a DMCA and tell GoDaddy about it (GoDaddy's eagerness to take this stuff down without even investigating is exactly why I'd never register a domain there -- but hey, why not take advantage of it for and honest purpose), but he did it better, I think.

That was an awesome IP delivery trick. So hilarious

[EGOL]

That is funny... next time somebody rips off my site I will try to find someone who can do this for me.

People on ebay steal images from my retail site all of the time and hotlink them right from my server. One guy had a ton of auctions up that were using one of my images - I wrote and nicely asked him to change it and got back a nasty, cursing, venom filled reply that denied his use of my image. I replaced it with an image that read "Parts missing, sold 'as is'"... he didn't make much from those auctions.

[canadianchick]

I replaced it with an image that read "Parts missing, sold 'as is'"... he didn't make much from those auctions.

Just classic!

[projectphp]

This one always kills me! The guy stole Scotties CSS, so I had her change it, and make the background read rather convincingly

http://www.insearchofstuff.com/images/idiot.jpg

Here is another, more subtle example: http://www.bouncingaround.net/rentals.html See if you can work out which picture was changed

I think by and large, beyond hot-linking, there is not much point chasing that sorta thing. It will be more work that it is worth.

[manager]

See if you can work out which picture was changed

It's the halloween pumkin Michael, If I was Scottie, I wouldn't be so subtle


TreV