Another scumbag copying my site.

[The Medway Handyman]

suppose I should be flattered that this is the second company to steal my copy word for word.........

Anything I can do?

[Mogga]

Send a DMCA to google about them. Fax them and their hosting a breach of copyright notice and send them a bill per day for using your words. Fill in the small claims court papers and send them a copy giving them

48 hours to cease and desist using your content else you'll serve papers on them.

You can do something with style sheets/divs to stop your text being as cut and pastey but they'll just save the page and rip it then (if thats not what they're already doing) so prob not worth the effort.

[grumpyat]

Bustards!!!

Legally....can't help, sorry.

Advertising wise,

Promote yourself as the 'Original Medway Handyman' stating that you are so good that people are hitching a ride on your coat tails / reputation. As the 'Original and still the best' you can provide years of practical experience and support this with references. Reinforce the fact that you do not have to 'Copy people' etc etc

I am sure there must be some legal / copyright redress, but I am only an Engineer so almost certainly wrong!!!!

[OG]

I don't really see the similarity.

[The Medway Handyman]

Just one ecample;

My site; Flat Pack Assembly is charged at our normal hourly rates, which makes us extremely competitive. You can keep the time & therefore cost down by making sure the boxes are in the room where they are to be assembled, and that we have a clear area to work in. Flat pack furniture varies in quality enormously. If you want advice before you purchase, please give us a call, we are not involved with any retailers and can be unbiased.

The scumbags site; Flat Pack Assembly is charged at our normal hourly rates, which makes us extremely competitive. You can save time & so Save Money by putting the boxes in the room where they are to be built, and make sure that we have a clear area to work. Flat pack furniture varies in quality enormously. If you want FREE ADVICE before you purchase, please give us a call. (we?re not on a commission!)

Clear enough for you?

[The Medway Handyman]

Whats that?

I've e-mailed them with a notice of legal action.

Nice idea - thanks.

[OG]

to a certain value of 'word for word' I suppose; but I agree it's very close.

[ARWadsworth]

Buy 20 cheap SIM cards and use them to book the scum in for fictitious jobs.

Kneecap them

Get a mate who has got the clap (find a mate with the clap if you do not have one) and get him to sleep with scums daughter.

Adam

[Brian G]

Digital Millennium Copyright Act!

[tim.....]

Digital Millimum Copyright Act.

Though god knows what "sending one" means

ISTM that the similarity is not sufficient for you to win a case for compensation.

So the guy has used similar section headings as you, but his list of things that he does is different. You work in a small area (by which I mean the type of work that you do). Anyone else working as a Handyman is going to have the same list of things that he does, as you do. You can't stop him from advertising this by copyrighting the format of a web page.

tim

[The Medway Handyman]

I appreciate that, but some of the wording is actually identical.

For example, my site;

"Ever wanted a PC workstation, but couldn't find one to fit that alcove? Ever wanted a pergola for the garden but couldn't get the size you wanted? Or shelving that was either too big or too small?"

The scumbags site;

"Ever wanted a PC workstation, but couldn't find one to fit that alcove? Ever wanted a pergola for the garden but couldn't get the size you wanted? Or shelving that was either too big or too small?"

Thats intellectual property theft in my book.

Bastard.

[Steve Firth]

Since the OP is not American, nor is the copyright infringer, nor is the site in question hosted by Google, that would be a waste of time.

[Steve Firth]

There's no such thing.

It may be an infringement of your copyright, but it's not theft.

Since this seems to be regular, you really need to consult a lawyer. You can send them a notice to desist, you can dress it up all fancy, but if they decide to stick two fingers up to you then you will need a lawyer to pursue them.

[harry]

I have looked at both sites - I am unsure what they have "copied" - can you give a bit more info.

[dom]

Get a registered trademark.

Then, rather than your site having cut-and-paste-able text, your text could be incorporated into an image that contains a pale background of your logo/trademark - so the whole thing is a jpeg or gif image.

If your trademark is registered with companies house, you may then have a straightforward case against rip-off merchants (i.e. by stealing even part of your trademark, they suggest some association with your business - so you can claim doing so could harm your business)

Someone else may be able to give a proper explanation, but I believe the law is clearer-cut in relation to a registered trademark (otherwise it's only passing off, and more difficult to prove).

See

- there's a big feature right on the front page as the law changed to improve trademark protection on Oct 1st.

Explanation of the protection a registered trade mark gives you here:

the front page link disappers, see

[Bob Eager]

Pick an activity (e.g. flat pack assembly). Then compare the text in each case.

[Mogga]

Google has some info on what info they want.

If they're copying your site word for word google might see one of them as a duplicate and you need to make sure it's not yours.

>> Fax them and their hosting a breach of copyright notice and send them

[Mogga]

If google kills off the OP site because it thinks its a copy of the new one then he's in google-trouble which needs sorting out.

[Grunff]

However, if you do this, you will damage your search engine visibility significantly.

[Andy Burns]

Which then looks like (or is) amateurish web design, not to mention causing DDA issues.