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  1. #1

    Thumbs down Spry Networks Steals Content! (They stole ours!)



    Wow,

    I've read through many posts about stolen site content, but this is the first time I've noticed that it's happened to us!

    And boy... it really does anger me! Now I can relate to the frustrations felt by others in this position.

    It seems that not only did Spry steal our content, they stole our idea!

    On our site, http://www.100mbpsservers.com/ , you'll see our ORIGINAL text:
    Many of the most demanding of hosting applications such as media hosting, adult website hosting, and file hosting & mirroring require 100Mbps of unmetered connectivity.

    Many bandwidth providers charge over $100 per Mbps of quality bandwidth. 100MbpsServers.com offers 99.99% uptime guaranteed, non-oversubscribed bandwidth for just a fraction of that!

    ...(further down on that page)...

    We provide a full 100Mbps pipe to each server hosted with us, with no monthly overages fees and UNLIMITED usage!
    I just realized that Spry is now advertising with many of the same keywords that we're using in Google Adwords... I took a look at their site and see:

    Un-metered 100Mbps Servers starting at $2,795
    Many of the most demanding of hosting applications such as media hosting, adult website hosting, and file hosting & mirroring require 100Mbps of unmetered connectivity. Unmetered 100 megabit dedicated servers and colocation. This means that we provide 100Mbps of transfer (approximately 66 times the speed of a T1 line) to your server.

    Many bandwidth providers charge over $200 per Mbps of quality bandwidth. We offers 99.99% uptime guaranteed, non-oversubscribed bandwidth for just a fraction of that! We provide a full 100Mbps pipe to each server hosted with us, with no monthly overages fees and UNLIMITED usage!
    Hmm, maybe they'd consider it to be original content since they changed "$100 per Mbps" to "$200Mbps."

    Just thought I'd post here and warn people to stay away from them before I make an angry phone call to them .

    Any thoughts?

    Thanks,
    Russell

    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  2. #2
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    Wow, that is bad stuff. I don't know why companies would even stoop so low, especially with offering such bandwidth intensive plans.

  3. #3
    Yep... they even copied our pricing. Whether or not they can actually offer that pricing without taking a loss is something I'd wonder about.

    This sort of dishonesty really gets me!

    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  4. #4
    Looks like they also copied the following from the section above the other text on our page:

    This means that we provide 100Mbps of transfer (approximately 66 times the speed of a T1 line) to your server.
    I've already been in touch with our attorney though I'm not sure we'll take it that far. Anyone have any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Russell
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  5. #5
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    At least their control panel is proprietary, isn't it?
    www.spry.com/hosting/control-panel

    BTW, your keywords are very poorly performing in Google as compared to spry.com. Suppose, they have a much higher PR.

    I have tried "means that we provide 100Mbps of transfer" even before you posted them here.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Rusty500,

    It is quite common that you will see some few of your competitors copying your content. You see this in a first few days at their sites. If you email them to tell them stop, they will usually edit it and change the content little by little.


    I suggest that you email them and inform them to respect your company's creativity and business information. Inform them that many web users who sees this may not like it and may unlikely to purchase their service since its business operation management team doesn't really bother about its business credibility.

    Cristiano
    HostPulse.com - Hosting Directory & Tips
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  7. #7
    let me make Rusty500 a bit more mad about it

    so Rusty500 how do we know it was not you who toke from them lol
    http://boostdomain.com
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  8. #8
    For one, our site is newer than Spry's. While we've been in business since 1995, we created this site last month to focus on this service line :-).

    And yes, their control panel looks to be proprietary. Makes me even more surprised that they decided to copy our text.

    Originally posted by Imago
    At least their control panel is proprietary, isn't it?
    www.spry.com/hosting/control-panel

    BTW, your keywords are very poorly performing in Google as compared to spry.com. Suppose, they have a much higher PR.

    I have tried "means that we provide 100Mbps of transfer" even before you posted them here.
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  9. #9
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    are we talking about spry.com because it looks like they registered their domain way before rusty registered his.
    Patron: I'd like my free lunch please.
    Cafe Manager: Free lunch? Did you read the fine print stating it was an April Fool's joke.
    Patron: I read the same way I listen, I ignore the parts I don't agree with. I'm suing you for false advertising.
    Cafe Owner: Is our lawyer still working pro bono?

  10. #10
    Originally posted by Boost
    let me make Rusty500 a bit more mad about it

    so Rusty500 how do we know it was not you who toke from them lol
    There are several sites out there that take snapshots of websites and archive content on various dates. I'm sure there's at least one out there that'll prove this.

    Besides, I really have no gripes with other hosting companies in general, and I'm not crazy enough to copy someone's content and then post about it here.
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
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  11. #11
    Yes, spry.com -- their domain was registered earlier than ours, but their site lists a copyright of 1998-2004. We've been registered as an NJ Corporation since 1995 (Inc.). This is not our main site.
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
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  12. #12
    Join Date
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    Re: Spry Networks Steals Content! (They stole ours!)

    Originally posted by Rusty500

    I've read through many posts about stolen site content, but this is the first time I've noticed that it's happened to us!
    Spry.com has had that text on their website since July 2003:

    http://web.archive.org/web/200404091....www.spry.com/

    -B
    iptables -I INPUT -s 64.88.128.0/19 -j DROP
    iptables -I INPUT -s 66.111.192.0/18 -j DROP
    iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables

  13. #13
    The link that you're providing contains content archived today, on April 9. Have a look at the URL before you make posts like that.

    If a given date doesn't exist in Archive.org or there's a problem with the archived copy, Archive.org redirects to an archive obtained on-the-fly.

    See:

    http://web.archive.org/web/200104091...psservers.com/

    Obviously not obtained in 2001 as our site was not up then :-).

    -Russell
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  14. #14
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    Yeah... I've seen this happen before. Unfortunately, archive.org is not the definitive source that it once was...
    Kasey Johns - sparkNet Creative
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  15. #15
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    Anyway we all support you best of luck getting this resolved.
    Patron: I'd like my free lunch please.
    Cafe Manager: Free lunch? Did you read the fine print stating it was an April Fool's joke.
    Patron: I read the same way I listen, I ignore the parts I don't agree with. I'm suing you for false advertising.
    Cafe Owner: Is our lawyer still working pro bono?

  16. #16
    Thanks :-). Didn't expect to be challenged, but I guess I should have. I guess you'll all have to trust me when I say that I wouldn't post here (and invite the critical eyes of WHT) if this weren't true.

    Thanks for your support.

    -Russell
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
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    Originally posted by Rusty500
    The link that you're providing contains content archived today, on April 9. Have a look at the URL before you make posts like that.
    You're right. The link for July 2003:
    http://web.archive.org/web/200307141....www.spry.com/

    ...does actually return a current version of the page. I've never seen the Internet Archive do that before, although the immediate tipoff probably should have been the "April signup special" that ends May 1, 2004.

    Sorry about that.

    -B
    iptables -I INPUT -s 64.88.128.0/19 -j DROP
    iptables -I INPUT -s 66.111.192.0/18 -j DROP
    iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables

  18. #18
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    Originally posted by Imago
    At least their control panel is proprietary, isn't it?
    www.spry.com/hosting/control-panel

    BTW, your keywords are very poorly performing in Google as compared to spry.com. Suppose, they have a much higher PR.

    I have tried "means that we provide 100Mbps of transfer" even before you posted them here.
    That is the Virtuozzo/HSPComplete control-panel.
    ^^ IM WITH STUPID!! ^^

    "The only way to overcome fear, is to challenge it head on"
    "The quickest way to get over a woman, is to get under another"

  19. #19
    After speaking to our attorney, I called Spry and followed our attorney's advice. The gentleman I spoke to (owner of the company) was fairly rude and when I told him that I'd be recording the call he said "then I'm going to hang up on you."

    I kindly stopped the recording device and explained the situation to him.

    He initially denied this, then asked if the content from our site was copyrighted. He sounded fairly nervous and guilty.

    Miraculously, after threats of legal action, the wording has suddenly changed on their site -- an admission of guilt.

    It amazes me that a company that's been around for a while would engage in such disgusting practices as copying content directly off of a competitor's site. You'd think that after deciding to copy our service offerings that they could come up with their own wording.

    In any case, thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. Looks like everything is resolved.

    -Russell
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
    IFlex Data Center.: FlexData.Center
    Northern Virginia & Washington DC Area Data Center Colocation

  20. #20
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    Wow, that's interesting..

    I've been with spry.com for a few weeks now and I really like them. The guy I deal with is really nice/professional.

    :O
    I specialize in neck beards
    https://thatshirt.com

  21. #21
    I never said their service is poor. It may be the best in the world. I for one, would not want to do business with a "company" (or more likely one person) unprofessional enough to launch a service and steal text directly off of their competitor's site.
    Sitelutions: www.sitelutions.com -- Reliable Hosting, Low-Cost Domains, Dynamic DNS
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  22. #22
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    Mar 2004
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    Hmm.. could have been the designer, hard to say for sure, I know I have commisioned some sites, and find what I got back was copied. I then do not put it live, but I bet many do not even check, and how can I be sure even if my 30 mintues searching finds no matches I did not miss it?

  23. #23
    Join Date
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    yeah.. a lot of people that design/program will copy snippets as I work with some people like that.. (I don't do it myself) I tend to get the company to write their own content. heh.

    And Rusty: what I meant before was, usually companies that would do something like that, would probably show weakness in other parts (service, customer care, etc) and so far I'm fine with tall that at spry..

    It's weird though, would like to hear about it from them.
    Last edited by mg-; 04-10-2004 at 03:16 PM.
    I specialize in neck beards
    https://thatshirt.com

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
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    jeeeez!

    i just did a google check and found some companies who have stolen our entire terms page!

    http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:L...hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    UNBELIEVABLE!
    if you haven't considered chapter 7 bankruptcy, maybe you should.
    eliminate your debt, keep the property you want, most people qualify.
    contrary to popular belief - no attorney is necessary!

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