What can I do about this? This is a high profile site, I purchased it through Sedo. Have just e-mailed Sedo about it, but what can I do? How can I make someone stop using the content I purchased and now rightly own? The domain is from 1996, so obviously it will show ownership to the domain I own, but I have been deceived. Feeling frustrated, tasty
If the seller sold you EXCLUSIVE rights to the content on the site you purchased, you can file a Digital Millenium Copyright Act complaint to get him to stop. Do some Googleing to find out how to go about this or contact your attorney. If the previous owner sold you the domain and RIGHTS to USE the content, then there is nothing you can do.
Threaten to inform the company(s) he uses to generate revenue off the site within 24 hours. Always works for me, and it doesn't half scare 'em. Pete
There is nothing in the contract that stipulates I have exclusive rights to the content, just to the "domain name as well as, where applicable, the related Internet project." This is the third site I've bought through Sedo. The other two contracts are iron-clad in the ownership of content. I assumed (big mistake) this would be the same contract. Didn't even look at it. Of course, I get the traffic of over 3000 uniques a day, I suppose I shall just have to do a full redesign. Ironically, I was planning on a whole section of tribute to this guy who founded the site. Two days after the DNS is updated, bam, he's got the whole site on another one of his domains. Guess the tribute section just took a flush ... Thanks for the reply. Any other considerations? I am planning on pressuring Sedo, do you think that will help?
He did nothing wrong in the eyes of the law then. I think that is how Sedo will look at it aswell. Always read over an agreement before making the final transaction.
It doesn't really matter if they will or they won't, but it will scare him if he doesn't know enough about the law etc. Forget those saying about the content wasn't in the contract - the fact is he didn't stipulate the content wasn't included in the sale therfore he is a twat if it wasn't included, so threaten to report him and also threaten to file a DMCA with Google and explain if succesful this would mean his site would be de-indexed by Google, also threatening his revenue. It's just a threat, so it's irrelevant if you are unable to do any of the above. I would put money on him taking the content down though in a panic. (Unless he's smarter than the average Bear, unlike the majority of people.) Pete
Panic of what? He said he could use the content, but he never said it was going to be exclusive. Nothing illegal was done here, which means he has no grounds to file anything. Always get everything you want in writing.
I did (through e-mail correspondence with Sedo) request 100% ownership of content as a condition of purchase. I did not review the contract prior to paying, as it is not generated in the Sedo system until you say "yes, i will purchase" and lay the money on the table. But even then, I did not read it until today ... I suppose I have a bigger beef with Sedo - I'll just have to see where this goes. This guy is no newbie, in the biggie days for this site, it had over 10 million page views a month.
That seems like a serious flaw in the Sedo system. I would be very hesitant to "lay my money on the table" until I knew exactly what I was paying for. You might try approaching the seller and asking him to take down the duplicate copy, but if he's really an old pro, I would bet that the contract wording was not a mistake. Bottom line: if the seller did not explicitly sell you the exclusive rights, you don't have the exclusive rights to the material. There are legal penalties for filing a false DMCA notice, so do so at your own risk.
"Forget those saying about the content wasn't in the contract" "It's just a threat, so it's irrelevant if you are unable to do any of the above." Two most stupid comments I've read today, this isn't a school playground. If it doesn't state its exclusive then thats it, if you was missled into thinking this was the case then you may have a point but not with the creator, but with Sedo. Good luck on that one if you try it. Secondly if you try what mr school yard bully sugests and start using treats make sure you can back it up and follow it through as you could land yourself in trouble. I'd say just send a polite email asking if he could remove or change the content as it is a conflict of interest if you both have the same, you never know he could appologise and remove or change it, if you don't ask you don't get just be polite.