Plagiarism – What can I do?

[Bedinabox]

If they haven’t copyrighted (your) content on their website. I believe that if you send yourself a sealed envelope with all of the text on your website, it can be used as proof that you had the text before they did. That is the only thing I can think off. I may be wrong, but that is what my brother had to do when he started playing shows before he had a record deal.

[fuzzydd]

You can go legal, but this happens far too often, especially on the internet, to chase after every case.
Take preventative measures!

[bucketsandbubbles]

Joe,
Send them a cease and desist notice, I beleive that would be your first step, do you have your site copyrighted? and your logo trademarked? If not it'll be a little more difficult to go after them, like it has been mentioned you still have your rights to your site with proof of authoring.

[WaspHunter]

Someone please correct me if the law i different in the U.S., but at least in Commonwealth countries Copyright is implied. First come, first served with no disclaimers required on any piece of Intellectual Property.

As bucketsandbubbles mentioned, the first course of action would be a cease and desist notice. If you can afford an attorney (polished any cars for one lateley? ) they'll be able to help you if it needs escalating. It's usually a simple matter for them, especially given how obvious the infringements are.

Of course we here know there's only one "Superior Shine"

[bucketsandbubbles]

Yes you are right on the copyright being implied, although it is recommended that works of this nature be registered.

The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See following Note.) There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. See "Copyright Registration."

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. "Copies" are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm. "Phonorecords" are material objects embodying fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the "work") can be fixed in sheet music (" copies") or in phonograph disks (" phonorecords"), or both.

If a work is prepared over a period of time, the part of the work that is fixed on a particular date constitutes the created work as of that date.

[OctaneGuy]

Sorry to hear that Joe. I got a PM from a person seeking permission to use the copy on my detailing site and substitute the make of the cars I described i.e. MINI to Ford F150. That's just completely ridiculous. I suppose in my case, atleast he asked for permission.

I would suggest contacting one of your customers who is lawyer (I'm sure you have many) and see if they will write a cease and desist letter. I've had my brother do that for me (he's an attorney), and it works wonders. I've had complete websites copied. Amazing people in this world.

Re: Local Detailer Copying Info

I found it too, and it kind of questions the detailers "honor" since he says he also was a Marine and served in Vietnam. But heck his phone number, photo, and address are all right there, so should be easy enough to get him a hold of him.

Originally posted by gbackus
Wow, actually, the "theft of thought" is so bad I found at least 2 pages with the blatant ripoff, including the local one I believe Joe is talking about.

[zr123]

Joe, not sure if this has been suggested already, but have you thought about putting a light watermark on your pictures? Something like "Superior Shine Mobile Detailing" in really light transparent gray would probably work pretty well. This way anyone who copies your pictures also takes your name along with them.

[5Hondas]

Has anyone e-mailed the "copy-cat" website yet? I was curious to see if any one received a response.

BTW, Joe, your website is much better than that "copy-cat" site. I've actually never been to your site until today, and it looks pretty good.

I guess your site was good enough for other people to steal from. Good luck with getting them to remove what they stole from you!!

Also, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!

[magnus]

Hi Joe!

Welcome to the unfortunate events of the World Wide Web. Many think of it as this wonderful conglomerate of information and don't see any of the downsides. I'm sorry that you had to experience one of the downsides personally.

I work for a private 9-12th grade boarding high school. About 7 years ago, we had a few 'upset customers' that were dismissed from the school start copying photos and text from our website, as well as make some very nasty (read: gross) and untrue statements on their website. With a little bit of sleuthing on my part, we tracked down most of the culprits and asked out conference-retained (school district equivalent) attorney to send cease and desist letters. Things were modified quite quickly.

But more to my point. A previous post mentioned putting a sublte watermark on your pictures. That is a great idea to start with. Something small with your business name and/or logo that is in a font and color that is easy to read but unobtrusive.

Another idea that many people who write freeware scripts and pieces of code for the HTML source code do. Around their code, in the raw HTML, they will put copyright information, their name, and specifics of whether it can be copied and what instances it can be used elsewhere.

Another popular option that almost all 'businesses' have is a Legal, or Copyright, page that outlines what is or is not permissible for others to use.

An option that won't necessarily assist you with copyright issues, but will help with the legitimacy of your site is to have an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number. This is a number that is assigned to periodical literature, and applies to weblogs (blogs) as well. If you turned your site into a blog, you could apply for an ISSN number, which may assist in providing some legitimacy in cease and desist letters, or litigation if it came to that.

ISSN Advantages
Official Library of Congress ISSN site

[Superior Shine]

Thanks everybody for the support and great ideas.

I will let you know how it goes.

[ajbarnes]

Sorry to hear about that Joe!

That mofo dedicated detailing services my area?!?! Great, another company I have to put out of business!! J/K

I actually never heard of this company and he does exactly the same areas I do except NY/NJ. I'll look more into it.

[tron1974]

I think your site works well to support your business. I am not sure it is really worth it to lose sleep over.

Proving to an ISP or pusuing legal action because someone stole your tag line is possible, but it could be costly and in the end not really worth it.

I guess if you are actually losing business to these people it would be something to pursue. If they are showing pictures from your site as their own work, then that's another issue.

What it does say is that you are driving traffic to your site. This is a lot harder than you might think (I do web development for a living). People see that your site works, and they want to capitalize on it.

You do a hell of a job and it shows.

[Superior Shine]

Re: Plagiarism – What can I do?

Another one!!!

Makes you wonder if he stole all the pics on his site!

http://www.mobile1detailing.com/index.html

[Murr1525]

Re: Plagiarism – What can I do?

It was nice of him to put you in the picture........

[Superior Shine]

Re: Plagiarism – What can I do?

Maybe he thought my smashing good looks would get him business!