Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Design and Content : [RESOLVED] DevFly content issue

[the_pm]

Not a good move, DevFly.

See this "Site Credits" page placed on PayQuake.com? https://www.payquake.com/web-design-credits

It is a verbatim copy of the standard site credits page we place on our customer sites (site credit pages give appropriate credit without competing with the customer's site - I highly recommend this crediting technique to all designers!).

We've contacted the site in question to have the offending page removed. In the event it disappears as quickly as I hope it will, I'll document the stolen content here. Feel free to use Copyscape or Google a sentence of the blurb to see where it is in use legally.

Originally Posted by Stolen content

web site credits

The payQuake web site (www.payquake.com) was constructed in strict accordance with W3C WCAG and XHTML/CSS validation guidelines in order to make it as usable and widely accessible as possible. Visitors using any browsing configuration are welcome to peruse this site. This includes visitors with enlarged or reduced default font size settings, text browsers, screen readers, any Web browser released within the last five years, PDAs, cell phones, tablet PCs and other alternative browsing devices. This site honors user-specified style sheets, and is optimized to load in a timely manner on dialup connections as well as broadband.

The payQuake web site was designed, developed and is being maintained by DevFly.com, a division of Nerdec Internet Consulting, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and Montreal, Canada.



We recommend upgrading to one of the following free browsers to get the most complete viewing experience:
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Shame on you, DevFly. Write your own content.

[eclouds]

Copyspace is wonderful. I never heard of it until now and I must thank you! I just found someone who copied verbatim the corporate page that I personally wrote.

[the_pm]

Oh yes! Copyscape is fantastic! You can do the same thing by strategically searching phrases in Google, but Copyscape is much more efficient and accurate. We've taken down a handful of pages and sites as a result of searches on Copyscape (with 100% takedown success rate thus far). It's truly a blessing to have around.

[the_pm]

Update: I received a phone call earlier today from Pay Quake assuring me they would get this sorted.

About a half-hour ago, DevFly called me to let me know they were aware of the issue and were resolving it immediately. They attributed the infringement to a content writer who was no longer with the company. Fair enough. Every company's hired shady employees, and they took swift action and apologized.

They asked me to contact them directly if I noticed anything in the future. I hope they understand I had to contact their customer in this instance, because the customer is the owner of that content. If there were going to be any issues getting resolution, I would need to show we attempted to resolve the matter with the actual content owners, which is precisely what I did. Since DevFly's given its commitment to work with me to ensure there are no similar issues in the wild, I'll gladly contact them directly the next time around.

I hope they will review all sites containing content written by their ex-employee to make sure no one else has fallen victim to similar theft. Since it's been brought to their attention, due diligence would be the natural next step, I believe.