Anyone Have Experience With Digital Copyrights?
So someone took it upon themselves to create an exact copy of my website (change the com to info in the URL). I want it to go away, because I’m sure it will just be converted into a load of advertisements or something of the like after it starts getting hits on search engines instead of the real site. Does anyone know what I can do? I know there’s the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but I have no idea what I have to do or where to submit to make sure it goes away. Thanks. Update: That site is now down, hopefully for good.
That is just low. I can’t believe slime like this even exist
Sorry, I am not familiar with the problem and can’t offer any good advice, just my hopes that you get it resolved quickly and that those a**holes get shut down quick.
Contact Dreamhost to start with. You are/were a customer of theirs, and the .info site is registered with them.
This is basic copywrite law he is breaking, not DMCA. I’d start by finding out who his hosting company is and sending them a note including a link to the archived content from your site. If they don’t respond in 3 business days the next step is to figure out if his hosting company is with a co-lo company and contact them or go after his ISP.
It’s my future digital pr0n site. Be on the lookout!
lol that ass even copied the forum
google DMCA complaint.
whois the domain
send to host
done
First inform Google that this site has stolen your content, give them the URL. Google should then ban the URL from their search engine. You might want to do this with Yahoo, MSN and Ask as well. If Adsense shows up on the site later, report that to Google too. I’m pretty sure it violates their terms of service and the perp might just get his adsense account banned too.
Find out who the domain registrar is and lodge a complaint with them. Some will take action.
Check with a lawyer on this, but I’m reasonably certain you can claim the site name as a trademark or branding of some sort. If this is the case, there is a lot of precedent for domain squatting and you just might be able to be awarded control of the domain. Might be possible, but could be a longshot. As I said, check with a lawyer.
Finally, this sleaze may be using your RSS feed to swipe your articles. There’s a wordpress plugin that allows you to put a link back to the actual blog article as well as other links in your feed. That way, even if your article gets swiped and you can’t do anything about it, at least you’ll get a link back. This also helps Google determine the originality of the article, something they use to work out wherein the search engine listing your article will fall.
Hope this helps.
you can also report it to internet explorer/firefox as a web forgery
They even copied your copyright
If you start to see ads, most ads have a unique number associated with them for the ad host to tell who they need to give any payment to (some kind of account identifier) If you see any ads i would find that number and contact the ad display company and figure out how to keep them from earning money for one thing. Then also google DMCA and contact the host. As mentioned though someone said it was hosted at dreamhost just like your blog, I wonder if something may just be funny with a DNS entry or something somewhere? It looks like an exact replica of a previous state of your site. I almost might call dreamhost to verify something isn’t configured correctly?
I’ll start commenting there, that’ll drive down traffic
Welcome to the club man. After this have happened to us so many times with people actually trying to profit off of our properties, I can give you a few suggestions based on my experiences. We’ve gone thru the domain names that are different extensions, different spellings of the same name, people stealing the website design and just changing the copyright to their name or company, and 50 other things that make you shake your head in disbelief.
I did a little looking around to see what was going on with the domain and comparing the two sites. Here are just a few things off the top of my head. First, the domain is privately registered it looks thru dreamhost. So I would contact them and explain what’s going on. If they refuse to help, don’t worry. They will after a few more steps depending on how far your willing to go. First, the website is violating your copyright that you have on the design and content of the website. As for trademarks, that’s kinda iffy unless you have some filings. But, I would send a cease and desist to the email associated with the domain. I would add a demand to transfer the .info domain to your contro as you control the .com. Because the person is using your name, domain (with just a .info instead of .com), and design, it would be safe to say that he/she is trying to confuse your users into thinking that their site is your “real” site. We’ve had many domains registered that we’re just a few domains or letters different than our domains over the years trying to profit on this deception. It is actionable and will find the other person in a world of hurt for being that stupid. Also, I would pay attention to where that paypal donate button goes on the other site. If it is changed to anywhere but you, now we are entering the wonderful world of Fraud and criminal charges. Also, if they made .01 cent from the site, that according to some lawyers that I’ve dealt with in the past, also constitutes as a criminal act that could be prosecuted in both civil and criminal court.
Now this is where you need to decide where you want to take this. If your just wanting the site down and don’t get any responses for the cease, you should contact Dreamhost and explain to them what’s going on. Say words like Copyright infraction, trademark violations, and legal action, they will tend to just shut it down. If they give you crap, my lawyers would threaten to include the provider in the legal action seeking damages for hosting the site after they had been informed of the copyright violations. But that is very very rare. If you want to file a small claim against the person who registered the site, get a court filing and have Dreamhost release the domain register information due to legal action against them. Then you can take them to court and seek damages for the copyright violation and a few other things. You can also petition ICANN for the .info domain for the confusion basis and the copyright violation, but it’s not cheap. It’s better to just have them release the domain to you, because either way, they are going to loss it in the end. They just have to decide do they want to loss the $7 they spent on registering it (which you have to wonder why they did it in the first place) or do they want to pay the amount of money you’re going to be rewarded in court for the violation of copyright, legal fees, filling fees, associated damages to the domain, etc…. And don’t forget, possible jail time for fraud if they try cashing in.
But, the good news is you know you’ve got a great site because everyone tries stealing it. Welcome to the club and we’ve got a jacket for you.
Thanks for all the help. I sent an email to Dreamhost, who appears to both host the domain and to be the sponsoring registrar, and I’m sure they’ll take it down quickly.
Let me know if nothing happens in the short term. I’ve had to send out my share of DMCA takedown notices and can help you, Ryan. Just drop me an email.
You should have contacted me directly. I did co-edit a book about business and legal issues….
Isn’t copying the most sincere form of flattery?
Sometimes you needs to involve the legal society to aid you. Then you get charged through the nose on hopes and maybes in an uncetain field. Sometimes you have to put the old ego aside and swallow the pride.
Unless he is changing what you have said, just see him as a mirror to save you bandwidth. If it becomes an adsite, so be it – googling ‘nerfbat’ gives more than 1 result. IMO Save your money.
If it was really a viable option, wouldn’t FOHSS have been shut down a long time ago? Wouldn’t IGE be closed down for using copyrighted graphics?
Or is .info blackmailing you with nekkid photos?!
Just by talking about them, you have increased their traffic. I think your knee-jerk anger has just made their day. Surely someone in 38S could have given you some advice?
Best of luck Ryan, in whichever route you decide.
I notice the site is down. Good going.