My Website Design has been copied

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Karen Rothstein on January 8, 2012 at 9:45am

This happened to me, too.Even though I took it as a compliment (after all she wouldn't replicate bad copy) I contacted the owner and found that she did not put her website up, but paid someone else to create a website for her. I explained that I had the exact language on my page since 2003...and asked her to take it down. She did not.

I did two things: I focused on SEO optimization and left her in the dust in rankings. Two:  I went to a law school we have in the city and took advantage of their community drop in services. For a nominal fee an aspiring lawyer wrote a letter letting her know of the legal ramifications and the actions I was willing to take if she did not substantially alter her copy within a specific time frame.   

She complied.

Good luck. 

Permalink Reply by Sharon O'Farrell on January 8, 2012 at 9:52am

Hi Valerie, I'm sorry to hear you have experienced this.  As far as I know, in the legal field this falls under the category of 'intellectual property'.  I used to know a lawyer in Dublin who specialised in Intellectual Property.  He told me about a case where an internationally known angel healer sued an Irish woman who copied her website in similar circumstances to what you have described.  Perhaps search out a lawyer who specialises in this field and seek advice.

Best of luck,

Sharon

Permalink Reply by Mary M. Ernsberger on January 8, 2012 at 5:52pm

Hi Valerie -

Did you copyright the material on your site?  If so, you can sue her for copyright infringement.  Have you contacted her directly and found out if she did it or if she hired the work done like stated in the response below?  That might be the first step.  Good luck.

Mary

Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on January 8, 2012 at 6:50pm

All written text is copyrighted by the original creator at the time of the writing.  There is no legal need to "get something copyrighted" there is no necessary fee.

So in 2003 YOUR words WERE copyrighted, and any lawyer will write her a cease and desist letter if your first request is ignored.

You can of course, always sue her.

Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on January 8, 2012 at 6:52pm

Although this info is from the US copyright office, international agreements make this standard in almost all countries:    http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

Permalink Reply by Valerie Lloyd on January 10, 2012 at 9:34am

Thank you everyone,

I have gotten in touch with them and am told that the site will be changed and will no longer be a clone of my site.  If I don't see results in a week or so I will definitely take action. 

 I would have replied to this sooner but my computer keeps freezing up.

Oh, my site was copyrighted in 2009.

 

Val

 

 

Permalink Reply by Craig Eubanks on January 13, 2012 at 9:33am

Was it the design or the content or both that was copied.

Content is easily checked and if they don't comply, an official letter to their webhost can get pretty quick action.

Design gets a bit tricky to enforce.  If you had someone custom design it, then you might be able to use source code matching.  I would consult an intellectual property lawyer for this kind of problem.