Our tutorials were copied and posted on other forum

I want justice

[webustaad]

Dear webmasters!I couldn't sleep properly for the last 48 hours. The reason is that someone has copied our 2 tutorials and posted that on another forum. The person is also claiming copyrights of that tutorials. We worked day and night and our "hardwork" was stolen.

I started my forum on 1st July 2003 and in the same month, we published two tutorials in our national language(not English) The tutorials were written by my best friend and we have the copyrights. In August 2003, these tutorials were posted on another forum by one of our visitors. We went on thier forum with proof and complained to administrator of that forum. We never knew that the administrator of that forum is the friend of the "senior member" who stole our content. The administrator replied in a rude way and told us that no one cares for copyrights on the internet. He asked us that do we not use illegal software cd's in our computer. Our post was locked and we were warned to shut our mouth or he will ban our whole team. I live in UK while those guys (admin & content thief) live in Pakistan. I am also a Pakistani national but not sure what action can I take against them.Our tutorials are listed in Google.com from July 2003.

[engine]

>He asked us that do we not use illegal software cd's in our computer.

That's nothing to do with it. It's the "...I don't care..." attitude which is the worst thing of all.

You've asked nicely, now try other methods. Whatever you do, keep the professional approach.

Look through some of the threads here in this forum where various forms of action have been undertaken.

For example
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

[webustaad]

Respected Sir Engine Thanks for your reply. I have checked the URLs that u have given in your reply. The administrator of that forum has also said that he is not responsible for the member posts. Does this give license to his members to steal content and post on his forum? Who is responsible for member posts? Will search engines, web hosts and ISPs treat forums in the same way as they treat websites. I mean content on a website is written by an individual or a team but forums can have thousands of members.

[trillianjedi]

Hmmm.... I know exactly how you feel - this has happened to me *so* many times.

The posts in a forum are the copyright of the poster, but the overal responsibility of the website rests with the websites owners.

This is your material, you own it and they are not legally allowed to steal it.

Quite how far you wish to pursue it is, however, a different matter.

TJ

[junaidkhan]

WebUStad can you tell me which site was it.

[rogerd]

Webustaad, enforcing your intellectual property rights in Pakistan may be very time-consuming, if not impossible. I have no direct experience with trying to do so, but it would seem like a daunting task indeed. I'd send a final, sternly-worded message to the site owner, perhaps even by a service like Fedex or DHL if the cost is practical. I doubt if that will help, but it might be worth a try. Unfortunately, it sounds like the site owner simply doesn't care.

Your next approaches should probably be to the ISP hosting the site (if it is an independent firm) and, perhaps, the search engines. Google DOES consider copyright violations and even if you can't get the stuff off the other site you could at least be sure they don't have your content indexed.

<added>Forgot the disclaimer - for REAL legal advice, check with your attorney/solicitor, and don't rely on forum postings by non-lawyers. :)</added>

[rcjordan]

>WebUStad can you tell me which site was it.

Not here, please, we do not "out" sites at WebmasterWorld.

[junaidkhan]

>rc jordan

cant it be PM

[engine]

The WebmasterWorld Terms Of Service [webmasterworld.com] Number 12 and 28 do not permit use of this board for such purposes.

Think about the consequences: It's not a good idea to share this information as it's confidential to the parties involved and could compromise any subsequent action between the parties.