I just came across someone clearly trying to make a clone of my site. http://www.scriptlance.com/projects/1238115588.shtml I believe we are both in the US. What legal action can I take when he publishes this site?
cloning a site is basicly stealing someones idea. how much money do you have? you can always contact scriptlance, but this is about money, maybe they will remove it, maybe they wont. sites are cloned on a daily basis' for the simple fact that people can not come up with their own orginal ideas...he is going to clone your site to either sell, give away, or even use...I doubt there is that much you can really do about it then watch.. take hotscipts for example, how many clones of that script are all over the net... in all honestly, ive had sites cloned myself. If I found some use for your site, put up a bid request on RAC, then I could do the exact same thing.
You can always send a DMCA notice to the host. But, if you can't prove you are the owner of the copyright, than you are wasting your time. Send them a C&D or something if you really feel the need to. But, unless you invested thousands into the site, it's really not even worth more than a DMCA to them, the host, and google, and just letting it be. You're probably not loosing much money, so there really isn't much else to do. You could, technically sue, but, that would cost you WAY more than the site did. Really not worth it.
The site isn't all too complicated, however it does have a lot of features. I doubt that it will be a very good clone with his budget... We will see what it looks like when it is all said and done. I have dozens of somewhat similar competitors, but none that are exact replicas (or at least none that I know of).
his clone will probably be a one shot deal as he probably will not invest more. you can be sure to beat his clone by keeping your site updated and continue to add new features, and continue to grow. it will probably be impossible for him to even catch up to you.
What i would advice to do is email scriptlance and tell them your problem and how it is violating copy right. Im 100% sure they will take the project down due to copyright act. I no if i owned scriptlance i would rather take that job down than rather deal with a lawsuit.
you should take action against them .What ever possible and on other hand improving your site is always a way available to keep upper hand on these kind of cloners..