cloning websites and copywrite infringement how does it work

copying kewords

[julie_light]

I live in a small touristy town in the Italian Alps. We have basically one choice in picking an Internet Service Provider. One smart guy saw the potential in Internet and register as many domain names imaginable related to this area. He has around 4 million hits a year. That may seem like small cookies for most of you but for us it is a lot. The main problem is that he provides a service that "FA SCHIFFO" is disgraceful. However most of the hotel owners subscribe to his service because they feel that they have no other choice.
I instead write for a local newspaper and am trying to figure out what he is up to and if it is legal. From what I understand, he now uses the name of the hotel along with other keywords so that when a person puts in a search engine the name of the hotel they go directly to his site even if they are not registered to his service. He than goes to these people and shows them how many people contacted him asking info for their hotel, and often gets a new subscription to his site. It is like (tell me if I am wrong) stopping the mailman at the entrance of an apartment complex and taking the mail than redistributing it to the tenants asking a fee for receiving the mail.

[Marshall]

Hi Julie and welcome to WebmasterWorld.

Since you are in the Italian Alps (wish I was right now), I know US copyright laws would not apply. And I am sorry to say, I am not familiar with Italy's or EU's copyright laws. That being said, generally one cannot use another company's name in a way where they profit without the consent of the owner of the name. I know many affiliate programs do not allow you to use their name in meta tags, as an example.

Unless someone else on WebmasterWorld chimes in with advice, I suggest starting with your country's copyright laws and, subsequently, contacting owners of businesses and notifying them when their company name is being used.

I would be remiss if I did not add that this could cause you a lot of headaches, so I suggest treading lightly. And remember too, this is not legal advice, just an opinion.

Marshall

[HuskyPup]

We have basically one choice in picking an Internet Service Provider.

Why? There are several Italian ISPs available.

Are you referring to web hosting services?

However most of the hotel owners subscribe to his service because they feel that they have no other choice.

Just as easily as you have posted here the hotel owners could use alternative hosting providers and create their own web sites if they wanted to.

I visit Italy a lot and know many hotels that have their own web sites however I must admit there are a lot of extremely good Italian hotel directory sites.

he now uses the name of the hotel along with other keywords

This is very common on all hotel web sites, how else would they promote them in the search engines?

It is like (tell me if I am wrong) stopping the mailman at the entrance of an apartment complex and taking the mail than redistributing it to the tenants asking a fee for receiving the mail.

Not really, why shouldn't the directory charge a fee for services they are providing in promoting a hotel, after all, his charge is optional, he's not forcing anyone to subscribe.

How much does he charge for this service Euro 10-20-100 per month?

My non-legal opinion would be that so long as he does not attempt to pass himself off as the owner of all these hotels that he would be seen to be what he is, a directory provider. After all, what difference is there between what he offers and pagine gialle (yellow pages)?

[julie_light]

Perhaps I should explain better using examples, I hope that I am using the correct terminology. Lets say that I own a new hotel called "Hotel xzx" and I have a web site constructed called www.xzx.it. When I look myself up on google writing hotel xzx, I come up in first place. A week later I come up in second place because this web hosting service has registered a web site www.xzx.com and the words used in the description are almost the same as mine.

[Marshall]

You might find this thread [webmasterworld.com] useful. You can also check icann.org and look at the complaint form under "abusive registration [reports.internic.net]." Not sure if this falls into that category. Otherwise, if they registered the name in "bad faith" e.g. with the intent to mislead or financially gain, there may be legal recourse. However, there are other people more qualified than me to speak on this particular subject.

Marshall

[LifeinAsia]

web hosting service has registered a web site www.xzx.com

This may be a domain squatting issue, in which case people may be able to do something about it. (But it would have to be the owner of Hotel XZX who files the complaint.

words used in the description are almost the same as mine.

Possibly a copyright issue- as others have suggested, you will need to contact a local agency who understands the local laws.

However, there is absolutely nothing to stop anyone else, including you, to take him on and provide a similar, but better (and posisbly cheaper), service. Instead of registering thousands of domain names, especially since he's already done that, pick a good domain name and just make hotel pages on that domain.

[HuskyPup]

Naughty, naughty, naughty!

Probably a DMCA issue [copyright.gov...]

I would have thought that a direct complaint to Google with all your pertinent details etc would possibly have them doing a manual review and definitely so if this has been done for several hotel sites therefore you'll need to get everyone organised and co-ordinated to present a complaint en-masse!

However it is also possible that one very strongly worded letter from a local lawyer to the "smart guy" with a copy to his ISP/hosting company may also have the desired effect!