Website text copyright issues

[neilyoung1]

Hi,

I have recently discovered that a local rival company has copied a large proportion of the text from my website (which I wrote myself) and used it on their own - most of the copied text is identical word for word. The website is different than mine, and they have presumably written a lot of it themselves, but some whole sections are exactly the same text as my website.

I have evidence that the text is mine, but am not sure how resilient it would be as proof - both my web designer and I have archived copies of the website and emails, both of which are dated.

It is a larger, privately owned, business than mine (I am self employed) and I am concerned that potential customers who may compare our websites will think I am the one who has copied it and will think badly of my business. Does anyone know where I stand with regards to haviing it removed or changed? Who would I contact or what would I need to do to go about this?

Also, less importantly, would they be liable for a financial penalty for the theft of my intellectual property?

Thanks for any help

Kind Regards
-Neil Young

[Stationery-Direct.co.uk]

You could send them a cease and desist letter, however, if they don't comply then just leave it, as taking this through the courts will be VERY costly.

[neilyoung1]

Thanks for your help. I'll look into getting a solicitor to send a cease and desist letter letter to them. I wouldn't personally know what one looks like, and it would look better comming from a solicitor.

If they ignore it, I suppose the next step could be to contact their ISP or web host and issue a take down notice for breach of copyright?

I know it would be expensive, but its so annoying that its a competitor who had the cheek to blatently lift my text.

Thanks again
-Neil Young

[Stationery-Direct.co.uk]

No worries, in the majority of cases ISP's/Web Hosts will want a letter from a Solicitor to remove content, often they will not do anything without one.

This has been my experience with them anyway

[TWD-Tony]

Originally Posted by Stationery-Direct.co.uk

No worries, in the majority of cases ISP's/Web Hosts will want a letter from a Solicitor to remove content, often they will not do anything without one.

This has been my experience with them anyway

That isn't always the case - most decent webhost's will have terms and conditions that prohibit copyright theft on their services, if you can prove your case then they may well get the offending website to remove the content by threatening them with termination for breach of T's & C's...

It just depends on who the site is hosted with - if you PM me the website of the other company I will be able to find out for you