Forum Moderators: not2easy
The site got copied by a program. The program re phrase some words automatically, such as from "We" to "I". Fonts also changed. Background changed. Images are downloaded and post from their local hard drive exactly as ours. We email the owner a letter, but he replied that All prices/shopping ideas are public domain. The images he stole from my friend are rezied from original pictures from Amazon, so we don't have a copyright from a none original work...
What can we do? Next step contact ISP or google?
What options does my friend have?
First you contact the website owner, who will probably ignore you. Then you would contact their ISP, who will generally look into the matter unless it's one of those shady spam-friendly outfits.
I emailed the ISP, and they sent me the website owner's contact information and tells me that there is a counter argument that I copied his. His exact words are:
"Our content look similar but not exact. They are from the same or similar source. I feel you copied from my website. If you don't stop bothering my web hosting company, I will sue you for damages." Now, this guy is claiming the stolen content is his.
It doesn't sound like your friend had a very unique site to begin the way you describe him reusing images he downloaded from amazon. If he did create a good amount of unique descriptions than he does have some chance. But if it is just the price, an image from Amazon and a short general description, I don't know what you can do. You can block the ip of your competition from accessing your site in the future.
Most contents are from newsletters from Dell, Overstock. But I did put a lot of my own words into it, such as "This is one of the best products on the market. The price after mail in rebate is the lowest seen this year. Don't miss it."
I do see exact words of mine on his site.
I made changes of the images I downloaded from Amazon to change them to samller sizes. Do I have copyright of those modified smaller sized product images? The theft's images are exactly the same as mine: same size, same name etc...
Uh, in a word, no.
Then file your copyright registrations (assuming that you are in the USA), which will give you the presumption of ownership if they are filed within 5 years of the creation of the content.
That means that the other guy would have to prove that you did not create the works. But if he does succeed and shows that you filed fraudulently, you will not like the results.
Also, having the copyrights registered will be an automatic defence against any suit he throws at you. They would be stayed or dismissed until he invalidated your copyright. And the ISP and Google will take your takedown notice much more seriously with those registration numbers.
Now it sounds like you need to go out and get a lawyer and get a real legal opinion.
