Large part of our website copied

Advise needed on how to handle

[cwnet02]

Hi everybody,

Having lurked around awhile - and learned a lot - I need advise on the following situation.

I am the webmaster of a special interest directory (B2B - in profile) and have just found a website who simply copied the Europe part of our website.

They changed the colors but left everything else untouched. Even our linktracker code can be found in the source code! It is even working and counting on our server if I click on the link in question! They didn't even change the URL structure (our website is organized like dir/continent/country/city.htm).

Since there About Us page is just a blank page, and there is no contact address anywhere, I did a WHOIS search and wrote an email to the administrative contact (name & name Ltd. based in London, UK) requesting to remove all of the copied websites from there domain. For prove, I included a link to archive.org who has copies of our website since Nov 2000.

My question now is: Schould I give them the time to react to my email or should I go right to there ISP and request them to remove the files in question?

I feel, I have a real strong case with archive.org copies available and our linktracker code in there source code.

However, I am not sure if going straight to their ISP would be like catching fish with dynamite or if it is the appropriate thing to do.

In a way it is flattering to be copied - but certainly not in our interest.

Any advise from the experienced people on this board is greatly appreciated.

[heini]

Hi cwnet02 - good move to de-lurk!

I'm not usually the law & order type, but theft of a large chunk of content? I'd write to the ISP right away.

[richlowe]

If a thief walked into your house and stole the television, would you hesitate to call the police?

Whack them as hard as you can with everything you've got.

Richard Lowe

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld cwnet02

You were curteous enough to send them an email first. Now send one to their ISP and cc them. I wouldn't mess around, theft is theft.

[Michael Weir]

If there is a phone number, call the webmaster or the owner and let them know exactly what your problem with them is. If not, email them. Do a few minutes of research first....look up copyright infringement codes - be specific with your threats - make sure they know you mean it. Tell them that they have 48 hours to change their site or your "they will be hearing from your laywer" . Fibbing is okay. ;)

[cwnet02]

WOW!

Thanks a lot guys! And thanks also for the warm welcome.

I am going to write their ISP right now and I appreciate your support!

Having looked deeper into their site, I found they have actually copied some 500 pages from our website and I am getting really angry by now.

Just to let you knwo what we are going to do further than contacting their ISP.

Being weekend, our lawyers will be informed on Monday. Meanwhile we are emailing a "press information" to the 18.000+ contacts we have established over the last 2 1/2 years including some 300 editors of industry related news publications. A copy goes to all emails we have been able to research of the alleged company.

Thanks again and I will keep you updated on the process.

[cwnet02]

Just to let you helpful guys know about the outcome.

"Dear Sir,

Our customer has verfied your information regarding the use of parts of your website in their own site. The relative parts have been removed from the <URL> site yesterday and we and our customer sincerely regrets any trouble this may have caused.

Sincerely,"

Boy, am I happy to have that issue off my neck!

[jatar_k]

all's well that ends well.

congrats on getting it sorted cwnet02