Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Design and Content : Found a plagiarist site, what next?

[sash]

Hi,
Here I go again with plagiarism and copyright questions.
After the Google Book Search issue I was asking advice for, I've checked my wife's business site for plagiarism, the texts for which I've written myself.
I found a site which ripped off the whole text of her site, as well as a site which ripped off parts of the text, without bothering to camouflage it more or less (I mean rewriting etc.).
The first case is clear. But what should I do in the second case, when just parts of the text have been ripped off? Is there some more or less standard procedure? Filing a DMCA right away seems excessive.
Thank you,
sash

[MichelleH]

Contact the site owner first, if they get caught they might be willing to change it so there is no legal action needed, you could always contact their host too. If all else fails a DMCA is the way to go. I've had people contact me about clients before and 99% of the time we got it resolved with no need for a DMCA.

[sash]

Contact the site owner first,
Thanks! I've just did that with a request to move all the copied text.
Is there any other archive service like web.archive.org? While our site is visually traceable there since 2002, the site in question isn't there at all.
sash

[MichelleH]

Best thing you can do is google some of the text.. take the first sentences on the site and google it, see if anything else comes up. If anyone copied your site the text should come up. I've done that before

[sash]

Best thing you can do is google some of the text..
Yes, that's how I found that site.
I've already got the reply from the site owner.
If I may believe her story, all the texts and techniques used on the site (grey as well as black) were delivered by her webhost -- in order to improve its position in the SE indexes.
Which actually is quite ludicrous and clumsy, I mean such methods of SEO...
Should I provide the name of this (Belgian) host? At the moment though, that's just the site owner's story, I can not prove her host is guilty of anything.
I warned her that, if so, her site may contain plagiarised material also from other sites.
Thanks for your advice, TheHosted!
sash

[MikeDVB]

That's very interesting, I've never heard of a host providing content for the web site of a client to improve SERP/SEO...

[3dom]

Don't listen people who use other's intellectual property without permission - they aren't too smart and at best their mumbling will sounds like Bart's "I didn't do it" or "it wasn't me".
Just see if the texts was removed and if not - write copyright infrigement notice to their provider (see DMCA policy on provider's site for description/content of such notice). Sad part is there are some providers (like XLHost in 1 case for me and iWeb Canada - 3 cases) who ignores such notices or whos policy in copyrights infringement cases is "show us court's warrant or we won't do anything".

[sash]

That's very interesting, I've never heard of a host providing content for the web site of a client to improve SERP/SEO...
Me neither, but they are offering these 'services' on their site:
http://www.ris.be/nl-business-development-solutions-cybermarketing-search-engine-consulting-uw-seosea-budget-onder-kontrole.asp
It's in Dutch though. They call that consultancy, providing design and copywrite services etc.
sash

[RandyE]

Don't listen people who use other's intellectual property without permission - they aren't too smart and at best their mumbling will sounds like Bart's "I didn't do it" or "it wasn't me".
Just see if the texts was removed and if not - write copyright infrigement notice to their provider (see DMCA policy on provider's site for description/content of such notice). Sad part is there are some providers (like XLHost in 1 case for me and iWeb Canada - 3 cases) who ignores such notices or whos policy in copyrights infringement cases is "show us court's warrant or we won't do anything".
At least in the US, if you provide written notice of copyright (email or DMCA notice, or letter from attorney) and the host doesn't remove the content within a reasonable time (whats reasonable to them may not be reasonable to you, the judge will decide what he/she thinks is a reasonable time) the host is pretty much loosing their immunity from a law suite (I know there is case law somewhere on the internet, just don't have the time to find it). Thats something you may want to consider. The host is not really legally responsible to check each and every client, however, they can. But once they receive the notice they have to act or loose legal immunity.

[sash]

In the meanwhile, that's about 4 hours after admitting being at fault, and it's still online. I almost can't believe that.

[3dom]

In the meanwhile, that's about 4 hours after admitting being at fault, and it's still online. I almost can't believe that.
Technical stuff may be involved - which is not available immediately. As mentioned above "reasonable time" to remove materials may be more than you expected - it doesn't mean people don't want to cooperate (it was 10 days in one case for me)

[SenseiSteve]

In the meanwhile, that's about 4 hours after admitting being at fault, and it's still online. I almost can't believe that.
Shouldn't have been copied in the first place, but I'd give them more time than 4 hours to change this ... possibly 48 hours. Keep us updated, please.

[RandyE]

Yeah, to me, a reasonable time is 2-5 days. Depending on the situation. Thats going with no response. I would give about 6 hours after I received a response. I'm sorry, but once you've been notified that I know your copying my site, its up to you to get it down immediately. Unless I'm made aware of a situation right away (can't access my server right now, it will take X hours for me to get it down, etc.) then I'm going to assume after 6 hours I've been given the shaft, and will possibly look at civil court alternatives.
When you notice someone using your content, I always advise to take a screen shot of both the site, and all the source code. This way if it takes them too long to take it down, you can still take legal action. Most people will take it down after they've been served.

[sash]

When you notice someone using your content, I always advise to take a screen shot of both the site, and all the source code.
Yes, it's done. Actually, I send an email to the site owner first and then made the screen-shots + grabbed the source code. I assume, the smart way would be visa versa. But as nothing has been changed in the course of the day, that doesn't matter that much.
It could be a curios situation though if the texts indeed have been delivered to the site owner by the hosting provider. I presume, in such a case the site owner would have to struggle with the host to get the content removed and to receive the money back (as this content is still online, I'd think the owner has no access to the site). Copywriting is quite an expensive joke, although in this case you can not speak about copywriting, it's rather copystealing.
sash

[sash]

Well, the page has been moved today -- with all its content, not only mine.
Thank you all for your advices!
sash