Man, I have to be honest and am at my wits end...I've spent months creating unique content and have discovered today that another company as stolen several pages of my content! They have been pretty stupid though...they have an 800# and for starters, if they don't take down my content I'm going to create a web site and offer free gift certificate for a free tank of gas. All you have to do is call their 800#. If I'm lucky they have to pay for every call. Worst case scenario is they are going to be dealing with a lot of pissed off callers. A mental note to anyone out there thinking of stealing content... be carefull...you might have to deal with someone like me who will make your life a living hell!
If they stole your content and you can prove it...I think the first thing you can do is email them and talk to them and then email their host..(assuming that they are hosted by some company).
If they do remove the content immediately whats to stop the other person getting there first? Surely they have to investigate it.
Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum, but the reason I posted in this forum is I'm make the most of my income from blogging...and use adsense. I have contacted them and expect them to be stubborn. We'll see tomorrow... But, this is a good thing for everyone out to do. Every now and then do a google search for a specific phase from your site to see who has stolen it. I'm pretty pissed off right now...but not sure how else to feel. Feels about the same when some breaks into your car and steals your stereo, etc. The thing with stealing content is that it will probably hurt your google rankings...and income. Anyway, hopefully they will take it down tomorrow.
Man I know exactly how you feel ... I caught some a^^wipe right here in the sell your site section who had not only stolen (cheaply) my entire idea for one of my new applications but the thieving prick stole my layout and just changed a few colors on it and had the BALLS to advertise it as something he thought up! He swore up and down he didnt in the thread and in a PM and then yesterday sends me a PM saying he is redesigning it and "this time I wont be copying your layout" ...... freaking admitted it outright then had the BALLS to ask for a truce! Well like your friends this hammerhead doesnt know who he has screwed with! He thinks Im some little old nobody building apps but what he doesnt get is I have 3 partners who are probably THE finest db and PHP programmers in the world right now and we are gonna blow this ahole so far out of the water they will need a telescope to track him! And to make matters just a bit more fun my attorney is looking into his business practices.... One of these days these morons will stop to think about it before they do something stupid like this cause every once in a while they are going to run across someone like you or me who will make their life a living hell!
I will definitely consider it...but...assume it will cost boatloads to hire a lawyer. Ugh..sorry all for venting...but I can't tell you how much it irritates me to have someone steal my content. Feel like I got mugged or something...ugh.. I wonder if a copyright lawyer would take a percentage of the case? I should mention that I'm not a six figure blogger right now...but a HOPEFUL six figure something someday!
I feel you pain... several years ago I had a secure hosting service and someone not only stole the idea for my service but set up a completely duplicate site to the point where they copied all of my content...even down to the two or three misspelled words on my site! They even stole my logos, graphics and everything.
Forget about that! Why be nice to someone who stole from you? Go to their host directly and have them shut the account - if they did steal from you then they deserve it.
File a DMCA complaint against them, send copies of the evidence to their host, their advertisers (CPM/Adsense, etc), and follow up on it. The host will tell them to remove stolen content (if you have provided enough evidence) or they will be shut down. Likewise if they are using Adsense; if you provide all the necessary evidence to back up your claims, proper business people WILL take action to cover their ass -- after all, one website/publisher means nothing to them. I would shut them down, make this a real hassle for them, rather than go with the lawyer end. That will cost you money. Filing a DMCA is relatively easy. I wouldn't even waste your time with the webmaster, just go around and above him. In particular, if you file with Google and Adsense, and provide evidence to back up your claims, he can get banned from Adsense and removed from Google.