Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
My website is an UK based directory.
The site features affiliate links strongly, and as we were planning to dip our toes into the American market, it screws us up totally. Would it help to notify the ASPs of this scam.
I know imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery but this is beyond a joke.
Any suggestions - please
Then get the whois information and write to the person doing the site, telling them that it's your copyrighted property and requesting that they remove what's your intellectual property and use their own created materials for their site.
In the U.S. it costs $30 to register an official copyright for a site, including code and graphics, but laws vary from country to country, so the best thing is to go to the site of whichever Government agency deals with these things in your locality to find out what protection you have there.
The person may or may not be aware of wrong-doing, and may just take it right down. Give them a chance to respond, but meantime in your place I'd see who their web host is and take a look at their conditions and terms of service. That's what I believe is the step after if the person won't comply.
In addition to Marcia's recommendations, you can also notify the site's hosting company, let them know that there is a copyright infringement and add that you will hold them co-responsible. Many hosting companies have strict rules about infringement and generally have guidelines for filing a complaint. Using a Whois lookup, check their DSN to find the host. But to emphasize Marcia's point, documentation is VERY important. Be advised, for copyright infringement in the US, you have to apply for the copyright BEFORE you can take legal action. It can also take up to eight months before you get your copyright certificate from the government.
I'm going through the same thing and even filed a formal complaint with the web site and hosting company. They won't budge, so I'm still waiting on my certificate. It's been six months now. Hope you patient. What's important though is that the copyright takes effect at the time of creation, not when they issue the certificate. Just a tip - when I create a new design, I do it as a sub-web on my company's main web site. This way the computer records the date the file was added plus I have an independent copy of the design. What's funny in my case is that I have <!-- Copyright - My Company Name - 2001.... --> in the HTML and they copied the entire page without removing it. How stupid can people get!?
That's under U.S. law, which is where the offending company is, and yes, a lot of hosts are sticklers for that. But I think there may be a side issue with UK/US jurisdiction in this, which would be a more complicated matter, especially if the other site goes up first using suet's content.
The more documentation the better; in fact if possible, it's not a bad idea to have a third party gather some. Even in the early stages, it shows that you're serious and gives more leverage to the argument to let the other party know you're collecting evidence. It could show them you're liable to take action and get you some early remedy voluntarily.
>The site features affiliate links strongly
Almost missed that - more to document! There could be recourse with the companies involved with the affiliate programs; I think I'd try to impress the offending party that those companies will be involved. In fact, there might be some posted policy - a lot of them have to approve the sites first, before they're included in the programs.
Of course, we're not lawyers here, so anything we say is only our opinion and relating what we've read, not to be considered legal information. It's best to contact an attorney.
Possibly if they think they'll be excluded from affiliate programs they'll reconsider without a hassle. Let's hope so.
You are right. You can take action, but you are limited to recovering actual losses and not entitled to attorney fees or punitive damages. [loc.gov...] should have all the answers.
I always take screen shots of the other persons infringement as well and send them to the SE's. They have always removed the infringing site.
This is one area where Google comes in very handy. Taking a screenshot of the cached pages, with the computer-dated record of when the graphic was saved is one element. Then, in the event of an offending site under construction, doing a Google search on their domain name, also doing a screenshot with date saved, shows a further timeline if they're not yet listed. Then, if they were to be later included in the index, it would show evidence of efforts on their part to continue to promote the site with the materials in question still in place.
