What to do about copyright infringement of your website?
They say that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." But not if you're a site owner! I've seen designs copied, content copied, even entire sites copied. It's so easy for someone to "view source" and take whatever they like, without regard to copyright.
You can locate copyright infringers pretty easily with Copyscape if they've lifted some of your page copy. It's much more difficult if they've limited their sticky fingers to just your design.
So far I've discovered by tip-off or by chance that our Netconcepts.com site design has been "pinched" at least 3 times. One of them was a fairly big company. More than a year and they finally stopped using our design, but the evidence of their misbehavior is permanently archived in the Wayback Machine (hint: pick a date in 2004 and compare with my company's site). In fact, the Wayback Machine is quite useful in that it can serve as indisputable proof of who is the source and who is the copy: whichever site shows the design in use before the other is the source.
The way I see it, you have five options for dealing with an infringer:
- Do nothing,
- file a DMCA infringement notification with Google, to get them yanked out of Google,
- contact the infringing company's CEO,
- "out" them on your blog :-)
- have your lawyer send them a nastygram.
I have to admit that we've often done nothing, just because we're so busy. Eventually they'll redesign (maybe pinching another design from somewhere else?). Of course that's not a great option if you're serious about protecting your IP (intellectual property) rights.
With our most recent infringer, we've taken a more active role. We spoke to their CEO. He asked for 2 months to redesign, which we've granted them.
So, what would you do? What's the most legally correct response? The most pragmatic response?
1 comment, 1 pingback
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Much to discuss, not much time.
I've been a victim of plagiarism over 400 times in the past four years alone and I've developed a system to handle it that's both both effecient and effective. Kind of a requirement when dealing with such a frequent issue.
First, I'm going to assume that by "nastygram" you mean cease and desist letter. I find that's usually a good first step. However, if you wish, there's no reason to involve a lawyer in that process. Anyone can send a c&d and there are many templates for doing so on the Web, including some linked off of my site.
Second, it's impotant to note that DMCA notices can be sent to hosts of sites that are using infringing material. This gets the work removed from the Web, not just the search engines, and usually makes a decent second step in the event that the plagiarist/infringer isn't cooperative.
From there, one can target second-level hosts, search engines and even domain registrars with DMCA notices.
The long and short of it is that there are many, many ways to handle copyright infringement but there is absolutely no reason to have it take a long time or require much effort. Most everything can be templated and handled on the fly.
If you need any help with it, feel free to contact me using my site's contact form and I'll see what I can do.
I try to make myself available to anyone who needs it.
Hope that helps out a bit!Comment by Jonathan Bailey [Visitor]
· http://www.plagiarismtoday.com —
06/21/06 @ 05:03
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[...] However, while the DMCA removed a tremendous burden off of Webmasters trying to get their works removed, it also created a decent amount of confusion. The law itself and the requirements contained in it are not easily understood, even by lawyers, and many Webmasters have produced well-intended but misguided "how tos" that teach either incorrect techniques or only tell part of the story. [...]
Pingback by PlagiarismToday » Proper Use of the DMCA [Visitor] — 06/22/06 @ 17:47
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