Copyrighted Material - Is This Illegal?

Bob,

That's a lawyer question and without seeing the two sites it's impossible to give an opinion.

Martin

Unless they have copied things word-for-word or actually taken your content there isn't much you can do.

"Look and feel" and "ideas" aren't protected.

Are you using a PLR or Resell Rights minisite template? If you are there is a good chance you will have other sites with your look and feel.

I'm not a lawyer, but . . .

Your content is copyrighted whether you post a copyright notice or not, AND
Your METADATA is also copyrighted by default.

I know a Intellectual Property Attorney who gives free initial consults. Good/smart guy -- interviewed him for my last book.

PM for details

Yes. This is called copyright infringement and it is illegal.

1. Consult with an attorney and have your attorney send them an appropriate DMCA take down notice via certified mail.
2. Consult with your attorney about whether you should also send the infringer's host a DMCA take down notice.

Without knowing that much about what it is exactly, I would say forget about it. It's not worth the time if it just "look similar". That happens all the time. Every time something gets successful everyone copies it and change a few words here and there. Just look at all the survey sites and ****/green tea blogs.

You're right about that when you are talking about the specific situation which is why he needs to contact an attorney before sending the DMCA.

However, this is what I was responding to:

If some one copies your work rewording it and also using chunks of the original text and you are the original author and copyright holder...

That is called copyright infringement.

The end result of a copyright infringement lawsuit... well that is for the courts to decide.

Why people are so afraid of calling the kettle black when it comes to this subject I will never understand.

The person who started this thread definitely has recourse and rights and should contact an attorney regarding sending a DMCA to the infringer and their host and the possibility of additional legal action if necessary.

If nothing is identical then it still is potential copyright infringement... but much harder to prove. But if as you said earlier the infringer copied blocks of your text and reworded other parts leaving the end result to be a substantially similar work obviously derived from your original work then you definately have grounds.

If the person is infringing your goal should be to get the advice of an Attorney on whether you have sufficient grounds to send a DMCA to the individual and if they do not comply to the Hosting company.

In a case such as this where the work is not identical it will be important for you to have the advice of the attorney first before sending a DMCA take down notice.

Also sometimes you can get results by emailing and calling the individual and letting them know that they are infringing and requesting that they cooperate and take down the infringing materials.

Hi Josh, I think we're having a grammatical misunderstanding here...

He said:

I understood this to mean that the site is not identical NOR does it have chunks of text verbatim.

It appears that you understood it to mean that it was not identical but DID have verbatim chunks of text.

The correct interpretation is....I don't know! Not sure what he meant.

But yes, if there is verbatim copying going on...go get the *******.

That's not entirely true even though a lot of people tend to say and think that.

I would see if you can get a free consultation from a lawyer first. There's a lot more protection than some people think (a lot of advice in forums can be misleading at best when it comes to legal matters).

You also have to ask yourself if it's worth the time and effort, if the competition is really effecting your sales (you might find that they aren't at all), etc.. In some cases, it's just not worth it even if you want to slap the guy around for copying you (if that's the case), but other times there are legit reasons for why you want to do that.

Brian

Can you post a link to both sites or is that not allowed?

HEY! Buy their product!

See if it's really YOUR product. Then you'll be ready to rock and roll.

What state are you in? I might be able to help?

Jack, I wasn't sure if your message was agreeing or disagreeing with me, so I don't want to jump to any conclusions in case I read it wrong. However, there are several ways of protecting things like software.

People always say that you can't get protection with those things, but that's FAR from the truth. Not only have I worked with lawyers on some of my own stuff before, but I also have a relative who is a lawyer that specializes in JUST software patents, copyrights, trademarks, and the like. There's a lot more out there than you might think, but you have to ask yourself how far you want to go.

I would, as I said before, talk to a lawyer first on it. And make sure that it's a competent lawyer who specializes in this.

Brian