somone just stole my new design

what can I do?

[stuartc1]

Hi,

Last night I was checking my logs and noticed several from some site. I checked this site and found it was almost identical in everyway to my site.

They stolen my layout, navigation, graphics and text - they have altered a few words here and there... but failed to change some references to my site.

What can I do about this?

at the bottom of the pages is states '< A Project of the Example.>' so I went to this site and sent an email to them. No reply as yet, but noticed a few differences on the site this morning (after my email) - so I'm pretty sure they received the email.

I've tryed finding the ISP/Hosting Company, but not sure If I have the right one.

I'm based in the UK, the company mentioned above seem to be in the US, but the domain in question is registered to someone in India.

Please can anyone advise what I can do about this?
Cheers,
Stuartc1

[edited by: engine at 5:16 pm (utc) on July 20, 2005]
[edit reason] specifics removed [/edit]

[alika]

1. Contact the site in question. Give them a couple of days or so to respond.
2. Make sure you have a printout or screen capture of the website to make it easier to prove the copyright infringement
3. Run tracert or other tools to get their IP address and check with ARIN for the webhost
4. Write a DCMA complaint to the webhost, to the search engines, even the domain registrar

We've been ripped off a month ago, and it took the webhost only 24 hours to yank out the site after receiving our DCMA complaint. It was an exact copy of our site, with most (but not all - they left a few) references to our site changed to their site's name. Google DCMA office responded in a week, and Google Adsense (site was running Adsense) responded in two weeks. The person only responded to our email after the web host yanked his site out of the web.

[stuartc1]

Thanks alika,

I managed to track their host and will be sending a DMCA off tonight. Fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Stuartc1

[Sari]

I had the same issue just last week. Here's the link to the thread I had started, [webmasterworld.com ]

Some members had cautionary words about using the DMCA, and they provided good links to information on how to file, so have a read through before filing.

I ended up using a cease and desist letter from my lawyer and that seemed to solve the problem (for now anyway!).

Good luck!
S.

[stuartc1]

Thanks Sari - I'll check out all my options before making the next move.
stuartc1

[MasonG]

I'm currently dealing with a South Asian company who replicated a portion of our content. We started by contacting their advertisers (agencies) who sent them emails. Our reasoning was, deny them revenue from our work. Once we see we've done as much as possible there we will ask a lawyer to send them the appropriate letter.

[stuartc1]

Just been told by the company that used my design, that they hired a designer and it was the designer that stole my design. They are stating that they also have been ripped off. Anyway the homepage is down for now, so hopefully this is the end of it :) I hope so.

Thanks for you suggestions folks.

stuartc1