Copyright infringement by a Canada competitor

no response and their host won't do anything

[nancyb]

Just discovered a site that copied 20 of my pages, including my original photography.

Sent them a C&D which they ignored, so I sent a DMCA notice to their hosting provider. They are in Canada and so is their host.

Received an email back from the host indicating I should send "...Statement of Claim or other litigation originating document issued from a Court of competent jurisdiction (or suitable similar adjudicative body) filed by you or your organization.."

Unfortunately I can't afford to go after these guys (I'm in the US).

They have superceded me in Google ranks by copying my original work.

Any other suggestions?

[AlexMiles]

Are they hosting the images themselves?

[nancyb]

Yes. They just added an "s" to the end of my file name.

[pmac]

[google.com...]

[nancyb]

Thanks pmac, that's why I posted this thread [webmasterworld.com].

I am also trying to find out how to get the "prior approval" to send the DMCA by email as you can do with both Yahoo and MSN.

[BigDave]

As was pointed out, going after them in Google and Yahoo will be your best bet.

You should keep in mind that the DMCA notice to google should be based on the text of your pages, not the pictures. The complaint about the text is what will get them removed from the SERPs, because it is the text that is in the snippet. The pictures would just help support your claim when they go and compare them.

Of course, complaining about the pictures will get them removed from google images, but I'm guessing that it is not your main concern.

But as a side note, I recall reading something a few years ago about photographs in Canada having less copyright protection than other works.