Forum Moderators: not2easy
Actually, the story is a bit more convoluted. In 2002 we granted a one-time, non-exclsive agreement to a print publication to use this material in their magazine. The pdf is actually a copy of that print version of our material.
The Way Back Machine shows a cached page of our material on our website as early as August of 2002. It also shows that our competitor provided a link to the material on our website as recently as February of 2004.
So, it has been sometime in the past 11 months that the link was removed and replaced by this pdf file.
The site in question is a cash cow, have hundreds (perhaps over a thousand) users paying $250-$1000 anually, as well as advertisers, etc.
So, should I be looking at my normal Cease and Desist letter, or in this case should I be contacting an attorney to seek damages. I am considering the latter because:
1. These are not Internet amatuers blindly walking into copyright infringement
2. The removal of the link, replacing it with a pdf is indicative of forethought and clear intent to misuse our materials
On the other hand, their pockets are a LOT deeper than ours. I have no experience with fighting a battle over copyright.
Any advice from the experienced members of WW would be gbreatly appreciated.
WBF
I'll just add that you may get business advice from experienced webmasters, but for legal advice you need to check with an attorney familiar with the laws in your jurisdiction and with the ability to review the specifics in your case.
Having said that, I think a C&D would be the fastest way to get the content removed; sending a C&D wouldn't necessarily eliminate the possibility of pursuing a claim for damages. If your attorney contacts them they will be more likely to respond quickly.
Seems that there is a natural progression with a website. First you can't be found. When you do get some visibility competitors start noticing. Snippets appear here and there on the web. Titles and metas get copied. Photos/graphics turn into avatars or get lifted for other sites. Then whole articles start appearing. Then materials are outright stolen and posted for profit.
In the past, for us, this has usually been the little guys just trying to move up the SERPs, and I have been able to deal with it myself (except for the odd foriegn - read Asian - site on foriegn servers here and there that remains non-responsive). Those folks are often uninformed about copyright issues and respond pretty quickly, especially if the host is cc'd the C&D.
This one was just too blatant, and played out by folks too sophisticated for it to be a "mistake".
I'll be contacting our attorney later today for a referal to someone experienced in this issues. Wish us luck.
WBF
Maybe you could spin some media exposure out of it.
Seems every day the newspapers and tv run new stories about life on the net.
Is this site a direct competitor, or just in a similar field?
Do you want those links back, for the traffic that they brought you?
If it was me, AND I didn't care about getting the links from them, I would start with a takedown notice, and file the lawsuit (you did mention deep pockets). Forget a C&D.
If I wanted to have them put the links back in place, I would go with what you could call a friendly C&D, explaining my position instead of threatening as the first step. They may not have even considered the implications to you or your site and just thought the pdf was a nice way of showing the information to their users.
It all depends on what your real goal is.
You don't want to start a legal action and have them be able to show that somehow they actually had rights to your work.
If the publication did not sell them reprint rights, then they too will have a claim against your competitor. If they did, and you did not give them that right in the contract, then I would think that the dead tree publisher would be the primary infringer.
