Adsense on copyright infringing site

Can I get their account shutdown?

[jasonlambert]

I run a forum, we have about 11,000+ members and generally are doing rather well.

Start of the month or thereabouts, someone else has started a competing site, and has copied about 20 odd forum sections (not the content, just the names/descriptions) from my site.

They run Google adsense on their site. Can I get Google to consider shutting down their adsense account on the basis that their site is a rip off of mine? How should I approach Google? Do I have to go through the US courts and lodge some sort of official copyright claim?

I have a clear copyright notice at the bottom of ALL of my pages:

"<SITENAME> Copyright 2001 - 2004 <MYNAME>. All rights reserved. "

Is this sufficient enough?

I have tried (more than once now) to get them [the rip off site] to change their forum sections, but have not had much luck with this. They have said (quote) "How else is a <TOPICNAME> forum supposed to look like?". I am not even sure how to response to such a stupid excuse in all honesty. There are 3 other "big player" forum sites in my field and we all manage not to verbatim copy each other, so what is up with these people?

They are in India, and I am in the UK, so I dont hold out much hope of being able to take any proper legal action against them, or even getting their ISP to take them offline :(

I have put a lot of time and effort into getting my site to where it is today, and I am just so annoyed that someone can just produce a rip off of it and get away with it. I want to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible as dealing with it is just a complete waste of time IMO.

All suggestions appriciated.

Jason

[Jenstar]

Here is everything you need:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[wonderboy]

Forum titles are pretty standard though, I see you have "The Coffee Lounge" as your general chat room, I seem to remember the good people at a popular flash forum having this as their general chat forum name, but I doubt that they would bother to try and stop you making a living.
If you are doing well, why bother with someone in India who is setting up the same site, you already have 11,000 members! If they somehow managed to copy all the content of the forum, then I would say go kick them in the balls, but not just for some titles and descriptions!
W.

[jasonlambert]

Thanks Jenstar, having read over the DMCA page on google, I have a question about this text:

"Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights."
(http://www.google.com/dmca.html)

I cannot afford to end up with a huge bill for legal services, how do I know my claim is strong enough?

Their site is enough of a copy for several of my members to have sent me messages to the effect of "have you seen this site (URL) its a rip off ... etc", but does that make good enough grounds for legal action / DMCA stuff?

Is there anyone here that I could send the URL's to who could advise me on that?

EDIT:
"Forum titles are pretty standard though, I see you have "The Coffee Lounge" as your general chat room, I seem to remember the good people at a popular flash forum having this as their general chat forum name, but I doubt that they would bother to try and stop you making a living."

I dont recall ever visiting a flash forum, and certainly havnt copied anything intentionally.

The site I am having issues with I strongly believe HAS copied my site intentionally and has done so for multiple forum sections, even down to the order in which they are listed.

"If you are doing well, why bother with someone in India who is setting up the same site, you already have 11,000 members!"

I see where you are coming from on this one, and have thought about it also. I am worried that if their pages start looking like mine, I will get dropped from the serps for having duplicate content.

Thanks,

Jason

[Bluepixel]

I would ask him politely first, but I don't see that very copyright infracting.

I think you are a little silly, be happy somebody copied your titles. He wouldn't have copied them if they were crap.

PS.And please reply without using any word I used, because I own Copyright on them.
Copyright Bluepixel

[Sanenet]

Hi jason,

Probably you don't currently have enough grounds for an official complaint. The important thing is to keep an eye on the site to see if he tries to copy your messages, or actual site content. If he does, then feel free to complain. It's the difference between imitating the form, and blatent plagerism.

Unfortunatly having succesful elements of your site copied is par for the course - just remember that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!

[trillianjedi]

I'm with the others on this one - I think you're worrying unnecessarily.

I will get dropped from the serps for having duplicate content.

That's highly highly unlikely.

And from a member perspective (and I'm a member on your forum) everyone knows who the real one is.

Not worth losing any sleep over.

TJ

[jasonlambert]

Thanks for everyones input, I will go with the advice offered and drop the issue. Dealing with it is a big waste of time like I said in my first post, but its certainly been a good learning experience to know what my options are should there ever be a next time :)

Thanks all :)

Jason

[yosemite]

Bluepixel wrote:

I think you are a little silly, be happy somebody copied your titles. He wouldn't have copied them if they were crap.

Well, he may be overreaching since we're talking about forum layout and titles, but I don't think he's "silly" for being peeved at someone else's laziness and unoriginality. It seems obvious that they are lazy and ripping off his hard work.

Getting a little side-tracked here for a moment, I've never appreciated having my content (graphics, usually) ripped off, only to have someone tell me that I should be "flattered" or "happy," because that means that my stuff must not be crap. I guess theft or plagarism is some form of flattery, but I'm still not enchanted by it. It makes me very angry, and rightfully so.

[Sanenet]

I guess theft or plagarism is some form of flattery, but I'm still not enchanted by it.

That's why we try to delude ourselves into being happy over it - hey, I take my pat on the backs wherever I can!

[bobothecat]

If you have a registered copyright for your site, then you may have something - if you don't, it's not likely worth pursuing unless you have deep pockets.

And to those that say you should feel 'flattered' - steal my content/graphics and I'll feel very flattered while I sue you in Federal Court for copyright infringment. Honestly - there's NO right to theft of someone else's work.

[Bluepixel]

It's a different story if he has copied your text.
But the title, come on... this is silly. I just have the feeling everybody here only cares about the $.

[bobothecat]

Bluepixel wrote:
"But the title, come on... this is silly. I just have the feeling everybody here only cares about the $."

The $ doesn't matter as much as the theft of someone else's original work. I really can't see how anyone can condone 'borrowing/stealing/using' someone's work/site without their permission, or just compensation.

Many of us do this Web-thing as a business - as for me it's been my income for the past 10 years - bread and butter means a lot.

[jasonlambert]

To answer some of the more recent comments, yes, ok, they could have copied a lot more than they did, and yes, in the grand scheme of things the bit's they did copy are not the be all and end all of my site.

However, you can still go to their site, then visit my site, and draw the conclusion that "hey, these 2 forums look the same". (For the benifit of the flamers >> forum sections, not design, people, content etc). THAT IMO is the same as reading an article on one site, then reading an article on the other site (with maybe a few words changed), and saying "hey, these articles look the same".

Ok, maybe its not. Trying to get my wording right in this post and give examples to illustrate my point without getting flamed any more is getting boring and annoying :(

I will leave you with my final thought:

How much was copied, 10%, 50% or 100% still does not change the fact that the copying took place.

The whole issue is finished now anyway.