Other company has copied our website texts.

Would like to resolve the situation amicably...

[Griffstar]

Yes - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, it is frustrating to spend time and effort on coming up with the right text for our website only to have it copied (word for word) by new company who offers the much the same product in the same geographical area.

They have copied our product description text, our product ordering text, which is my greatest concern. They have copied our entire links page with my link descriptions. They have the same style of tables we use for km and prices, even in the same color. It seems only place names and some services are changed. Practically every page of their website has a paragraph or more of text that I wrote.

I plan to give this company a call or send them an email about this and am looking for ammunition.

Some I thought of are:
1. On the bottom of every page of our website we have a copywright symbol and the year.
2. [archive.org...] to prove that we used the text first.
3. Letting them know that they are damaging their and our website rankings by using duplicate content and alerting them to CopyScape.
4. Saying politely that professionals use their own texts to build a quality website.

Is there any other ammunition I can use for a planned phone call or email to them? Would it be worth getting my lawyer to call them. Can a lawyer do anything (cease and desist)? Thanks for any advice and recommendations.

[SteveWh]

First, tell your lawyer everything you told us here. You seem to have good grounds for filing a DMCA complaint. You can also file a complaint through Google and with the other site's webhost. You might have grounds for a damages lawsuit if the infringement is costing you money.

Remember that things disappear from the internet. Take screenshots of the archive.org pages and screenshots and possibly source code copies of all the infringing site's pages.

In this case, it may be that a friendly complaint with the site owner will be like catching a burglar in the act and saying, "Excuse me, sir, but do you realize what you're doing is against the law?" I doubt this will be news to them, and also doubt that they will care. Maybe the friendly complaint approach "couldn't hurt", but since you apparently do have a lawyer, don't do anything until you have discussed it with them.

The way you phrased your question makes it sound like you are somewhat miffed that your content is being copied and would prefer that it stop. What's really happening to you is theft of intellectual property. It's illegal, and there are laws protecting you.

[HRoth]

It happens to me regularly that some webmaster takes whole pages and pictures from my site and puts them on theirs. I generally send them an email saying, "You are using my copyrighted material without my permission. [give where it is] Please remove it immediately. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter." Usually I will get an email back saying that some employee or web designer took the material and they, the owner, didn't know about it. That is okay. I don't care what the story is; I just want it off. If they don't answer back or take it down in a day or so, I email them again saying, "You are using my copyrighted material without my permission. If you do not remove it in 24 hours, I will report you to Google for copyright infringement, and your site will be removed from the search results. I will also contact your webhost and show them that you are infringing on my copyright, and you will lose your hosting. This copyrighted material was created by me, and I did not give you permission to use it. So please remove it immediately. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter."

Occasionally someone has written me back and said, "I only took it because it was so well written." In that case, I tell them they should retell the material in their own words, not use my words. This does work.

In 8 years (no evil eye) I have never had to send an actual DMCA (although I have had to go to ebay and file a verio complaint or whatever they call it). Normally, people just take the stuff down. I have never called anyone. I don't want to hear the excuses or get all involved with it. It is okay, IMO, to just be businesslike.

Yes, people do know they aren't supposed to do this. That doesn't mean they won't quit it if you ask them to stop it.

[lynder]

Though it is just a virtual community, they are copying your hard work. The internet is rampant nowadays, and with it's ever expanding uses, people will need more material to keep up with the daily web surfers.
It's not outrageous to call another company whom has copied your foundation for success in the industry.