Website Plagiarism & Copyright

Has anybody any advice on how to counteract Website Plagiarism?

I run a small business in the UK, and recently I have come across another person who has copied the entire FAQ page from my website. I have had this happen before, but only the odd sentence or paragraph here and there and for such small issues I never really bothered. However this is virtually an entire page, and I am the Author of the text which I guess makes me the copyright holder by default.

I emailed the webmaster with a cease and desist, who basically replied and denied that he had copied it, even though it was a verbatim cut and paste from my page. He has since changed the odd word here and there, but it is still obvious that it is a direct copy.

Obviously I am concerned that a client may wrongly believe that the sites and businesses may be linked or affiliated or that a duplicate content ban may affect my google ranking so I would like to get the page removed or changed to make it original and avoid the risk.

I also emailed the abuse dept of the webhost (Liquidweb) with the links, but they have so far done nothing to address the problem or even reply to the email.

Using both domain reg data and also snapshots from archive.org I can prove that my site was the original and that my page was up before this guy's website was built, so what else, if anything, can I do?.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

The webhost is required to take it down, point this out to them and if they don't, report them to whoever regulates them or Companies House. You can also go to Small Claims Court, won't cost much and you can fill everything in online so it's relatively easy. The plagiarist will get time to settle before it goes to court and then he'll know you are not be be messed around with.

 

I am having problems with another forum stealing articles from my site, so I can relate. I've tried contacting the admin, even sent him links to free reprint article websites, and he said he wouldn't do anything. I sent an e-mail to their host, and nothing. So I just ended up going to google (google.com/dmca.html). I'm hoping that will get them to stop. Its a sad thing too, because he is trying to sell the forum now too, and I would hate to see someone buy it and then have legal problems. If google doesn't help, then I'm off to talk to my friends, as some of them are copyright laywers. One of them already said to go after them for montary damages, and is eager to start.

 

I hate to say this, but you will be spending a lot of time and some money to fight this and it might not be worth it.

If I were you, I would let it slide unless it really affected my business. You have to pick your battles. You might have better success if you spend the same time and money else where to promote your business.

This happens a lot and since he copied just a page, it might not be worthwhile fighting this. I had a similar experience and spent a lot of time fighting and eventually had some success, but he meanwhile got more attention and he was focussing on promoting the business, while I was fighting the plagiarism. I refused to give up on principle, but just wasn't the wisest choice, looking back at it.


If I were you, I would send him a legal letter from a lawyer & copy his hosting company. If you are a small business, you can just hire a small lawyer just to send out such letters and it won't cost much as you can type and create the letter yourself. Beyond that, it is a big waste of time.

Here is the upside though, he is opening himself to HUGE amount of liability. So later if you have the time and he is successful, you can go after his money anytime, since he plagiarised your content Just document all the details and create a file.

Strike him later, when it hurts the most and take his money But right now, just gather the details and send him and his host an official letter and keep copies as proof.

 

these days i too am going through a similar situation. The guy just wouldnt stop copying. I've been advised to directly contact their web hosts, but how do i learn which hosting service are they using?

 

Do a WHOIS query. Try something like domaintools.com. Look at the nameservers.

 

Only if they're in the US.

Liquidweb seems to be, so send them a proper DMCA notice and they'll have to take it down.

 

This is a tricky one. He copied your FAQ page. FAQ stands for frequently asked questions.

Is there something about your questions and answers that makes them unique? For many questions there are only so many answers. I can think of many situations where people would put the same answer to the same question.

Unless there is something about your FAQ that is really unique to you or your site, the questions and answers may well be of such common usage that you cannot stop someone else from answering questions in the same way.

An example would help to clarify, if you care to provide one.

These types of questions probably have similar answers, especially if the sites are running the same back end:

How do I change my email address?
How do I change my password?