Copyright Theft
If you find that someone appears to have stolen content from your site, the first thing you need to do is BE SURE that this is the case. First of all, if it’s textual content and you know you wrote it all yourself and, for example, you see it copied word-for-word on another site, then you have a right to be irritated, at the very least. But how do you prove it?
Logically, if you’re site has been around longer than the copycat thief’s, then it shouldn’t be hard to prove. You can query WhoIs, which is a directory that lists where a domain was registered, the name of the owner, the host’s name, the IP address, etc. Just type Whois into a Google search box and you’ll find many WhoIs directories. But here are two to get you started.
You can also verify that your site has been around longer than that of the copycat thief’s site by using the ARCHIVE site’s search tool (also known as the “way back machine”). You just enter your URL and it will show you archived versions of your site for a period of many years. In so doing you can prove you have been the owner of the material in question ,and the length of time ownership.
You also need proof of the copied content, and I’d recommend digital and hard (paper) copies of any of the copied works. For the digital copies, one good way is to create screenshots of the copied works. Screenshots are easy to create.
- First open your browser and navigate to the page on your site that has been copied.
- Find the PrtScrn/SysRq key on your keyboard.
- Press the Alt + PrtScrn keys. This places a copy of the screen on your clipboard.
- Open up MS Paint and open a new image.
- Click Edit and then Paste, and this will paste in the image you copied. Now you have your screenshot!
- Save the file, naming it whatever you like.
- Repeat this process to copy the screen on the copycat’s site.
You can also verify stolen content on the Copyscape website. This site is a must visit for any website owner.
Once you have all of your evidence of coyright theft, you’ll need a course of action. So here are some recommended steps for how to proceed.
- Email the offending party. Provide your name, your website name, and links to the pages on their site and your own site that show the duplicate content. Politely ask them to remove the content in question. You might even send them links to the pages on this website that deal with Copyright issues, so they can be better informed of the applicable laws. Note that most recipients will be less than pleased by your email; some will be highly offended, and some will get down right ugly about it. Be polite, but firm. And if the content is not removed within 5 business days, go to step 2.
- Email the offending party again. This time, remind the offending party of your initial request and explain that you have not seen any changes. Politely ask them again to change the content, but this time give them 3 business days to comply. Tell them that if they don’t then you will do the following. You will contact their web host to notify them of the copyright infringement; you will file a complaint notice with Google that they are in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; lastly, you will contact your attorney. Let them know that their web host has the ability to shut down their website, and that Google will: remove access to the offending party’s website URL’s that contain the content in question; document the offending party and its offense, and publish the offender’s information at ChillingEffects.org, and they also have the ability to ban the offending party’s URL from its search engine index (meaning–their website can disappear from Google’s search engine results pages) and other SE’s may follow suit.
- Notify the offending party’s web host, and file a complaint at Google. via the link above. Only follow through with this step if steps 1 and 2 are ineffective.
- Pursue legal action. If the first 3 steps are not effective, which is very unlikely, then your only recourse is to pursue legal action. So if it gets this far, it’s really up to you to use that extreme if you need to. But hopefully, one of the first three steps will be enough to prompt action from the offending party. After all, even though copyright infringement is very easy to prove, it is not necessarily an inexpensive undertaking. However, if it gets to that point, your attorney may be able to get legal fees included in the judgment, so if you’re lucky, the offending party would end up footing the entire bill.
Note that I am not a copyright attorney, nor am I any kind of expert in copyright law. I am simply an online business owner, who has been a victim of copyright infringement numerous times, and who made it a priority to learn as much about copyright law as I possibly can.
