Theft

Is the truth always told?

[JudgeJeffries]

I recently had a success, sueing for the theft of 40 pages and I received what to me was substantial damages in a matter of a few months with no outlay. I publicised it here and invited stickies for anyone who wanted the name and address of a rare breed of UK lawyers who would deal with an IP case on no win no fee. Only one taker!
Just how serious are the (uk) moaners and groaners here on actually taking action? If a whole bunch of you do then the theft may decrease or is this forum all talk? (and no action)

[rogerd]

I absolutely loved hearing your story, JJ, and in fact made a comment earlier today along the same line as your current post, i.e., more aggressive action might cut down the amount of content theft.

The biggest barriers to bringing suit as you suggest are, in my observation:
1) Perpetrator is based in a remote country and it's not practical to sue unless one has major resources to burn. Even then the outcome is uncertain.
2) Perpetrator is too small/poor to sue. (I've known any number of small business owners who engaged in risky behavior because they had no assets. Their attitude was, "Let 'em sue - they can have the company, for all the good it will do them.")
3) Attorney won't take the case on a contingency basis. Attorneys in the US tend to accept two kinds of contigency cases - easy "slam-dunks" for smaller amounts, or somewhat riskier cases for very large sums. Stolen content cases tend to be relatively small in value, so they have to be easy - conclusive proof, defendant with ample and accessible assets, and nothing that could get in the way of a quick, out-of-court settlement.

Most content theft situations tend to not be slam-dunk settlement opportunities. :(

I think your story provides great encouragement, though, that not only can wrongs be righted but that the perpetrators can be made to pay. I do hope more people take your advice. Even if legal action is out of the question, I hope they pursue shutting the thieves down in other ways (ISP/Host complaints, SE DMCA notices, informing other theft victims, etc.)

[JudgeJeffries]

The silence from the pommie whingers is quite deafening.
Where are all you cowards?
Take some action or stop complaining!

[edit_g]

I've never had to do anything more than send them a stern email, apart from once, when a stern letter from our solicitors was required. Who wants to go to court if you can sort it out with a few emails? I know that you said "with no outlay" but I can imagine you spent rather a lot of time thinking, stressing and getting angry about it.

Saying that, I wouldn't hesitate to instigate legal action against anyone who did not desist after a few prods.

[rogerd]

Who wants to go to court if you can sort it out with a few emails?

Maybe someone who can score a tidy settlement [webmasterworld.com]? ;)

[edit_g]

Good point, well made. ;)

But - the only times this has happened to me the offender has been in an underdeveloped country and been of questionable financial standing. I wouldn't scoff at 20K though. :)

[JudgeJeffries]

Well...yes I did get stressed and angry but the alternative to doing nothing was to let someone walk away with my business and income. A strong letter threatening action was ignored and followed up by a phone call whereby I was basically told to stop wasting their time. It wasnt necesary for me to show my lawyers that this was some rich multinational, just that there were enough asetts to cover a judgement ie did they own a house or did they have resonable income. I was astonished by the overall valuation of each optimised page which on a time spent basis was in excess of £700 and just borrowing a page for a day made them liable to pay or in the alternative to pay what they actually made out of that page if it was more. They paid up without a wimper because they were wrong and could be proved to be so.
Certainly in the UK its well worth doing and I hope that more people try it. Believe it or not it costs nothing on no win no fee with the right lawyers.

[PatrickDeese]

Thanks to the new Yahoo, I discovered that some idiot in Michigan copied my entire design website and pasted in his own info. However, since he didn't change most of the meta description and alt tags I found it under one of a couple standard searches that I do when I am checking SERPs.

The only thing that is preventing me from sending a C&D is the fact that the site appears to be completely offline now (though the offending pages are still in cache).

Pathetic. My new hobby is checking if he's put it back online every 15 minutes. >:(

[logiclamp]

The Judge is right.

Too many "ask forgiveness rather than permission" thieves out there. They rely on the fact that when they are caught nothing will happen .. meanwhile they have made some money.

If forgiveness involves a 'tidy sum' this sort of thing will stop and rather fast.