stevenha - 4:42 am on May 4, 2002 (gmt 0)

Hello everyone,
I realize that webmasters commonly find text and page designs they like, and copy some (or even all) of the content into their own websites. It may not be entirely proper, even a copyright violation, but it seems to be common behavior nonetheless.

But if a particular page contains clearly unique original content, that is clearly marked as copyright, What can be done?

Afterall, duplicate content on the Internet not only steals traffic, isn't it also possible to harm search engine rankings? And if one site steals content, and removes the copyright notice, others will steal it from there, and on it goes.

So, what can be done? Could a search engine be persuaded to ban a site that can be shown to be violating copyright? Is it effective to email all the sites that link to the violator, and ask them to remove their links?

I'd like to hear whatever suggetions and experience other people have had. Thanks.