Design stolen

[brakkar]

Hello,
I just noticed that a website stole my design.
They even didn't bother to remove some image calls to my site, thus they are using my bandwidth.

1) Is there any legal action I can threaten them?

2) How to use htaccess to prevent this website (and this website only) to use my bandwidth?

Thanks in advance,
brakkar

[jdMorgan]

Legal action would depend on your country and theirs. Consult with an intellectual-property attorney.

You can submit a claim under the U.S. Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) to U.S.-based search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. See their web sites for details. They will remove the disputed content from their search results.

You can report the person copying your material to their Web hosting service. Web hosts don't want to be involved in legal disputes, and will often remove the offending Web site.

As long as you are sure you can back up your claims with facts, those are effective steps to take.

See our Content, Writing and Copyright [webmasterworld.com] forum for many more posts on this subject.

Jim