Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
The importance of metas are questionable at best. I have pages that rank #1 that have NO metas present.
You might send them an email and let them know that you know. It's been my experience that people that lift tags from sites won't really care about the email either but they may alter the tags a bit.
Proving damages in court over a copyright issue concerning metas may prove difficult.
As a first choice, I would wait and see if the stolen metas help their position. If they don't help, let them waste more of their time stealing metas elsewhere. :)
DNS attacks, altering their site through illegal entry, page jacking, etc, are all options that are highly unethical and likely to result in legal action on the behalf of the offending party.
Unless you have the expertise to carry something like that out yourself you are getting in way over your head by asking someone else to do it for you. Typical contacts that would even consider it tend to use words like dewd and skillz and are likely to grab a script for DNS attacks they run from their Dad's PC, secure in the knowledge that as long as they are running IP-SpoofIt they are safe.
Want to make life miserable for them? Beat them in the ranking game.
DigitalGhost
>I told someone this before, and my post was killed.
There's also been some content removed from this particular thread right here, since while we appreciate the aggravation of having content or tags swiped and want to lend support, the TOS points out that the board isn't a venue for personal vendettas.
That would include and prompt removal of posts suggesting anything illegal, malicious or similarly questionable, or anything that would cause legal problems for the person posting or heeding their advice. I think all would admit that's a prudent way to go, for all concerned.
digitalghost, you are right on. Thank you!
digitalghost, you don't expect others to compete against themselves, do you?
Don't worry though, I'm gonna keep the contents of this post fit for a Telly Tubby.
thomwien,
Start out with the basics, e-mail the offending site and the ISP first. Demand that your content be removed immediately. If they're linking to you, use a javascript sniffer to detect the referrer string in the visitors browser and let that visitor know (via alert box) that the site they just left has stolen your content. Make copies of all copyright infractions. If you have an attorney use 'em. They just send out registered letters (most of the time) but it really helps to put the message across that you are serious.
If that doesn't work, build a web page on your site detailing the copyright violations and make sure that it is indexable by spiders. Also, make sure it contains the offending sites domain name but do not link to it. This way your page will show up on searches for their domain. Hint, you'll remove the page when they remove your metas.
Found any other content that they stole from other sites? Let those webmaster's know. They'll appreciate the notice and there is greater strength in numbers.
The problem is similar to copyrighting a script that will only function give a particular order and instruction set.
If you used 21 words in your meta description tag and they used the same 21 words in the same order you can argue in court. If you used 3 words for your keyword meta and they used the same three words in the same order Fair Use would more than likely be claimed and result in dismissal.
In any event, damages might be extraordinarily hard to prove so the results of a successful court visit might only be the slight altering of the tags in question by the offending site.
I'd wait on the reply from the competitor. The site owner may have no knowledge of the issue and the person(s) responsible may find that the tactics used cost them a client.
If the description merely states facts, facts cannot be copyrighted and articles are considered fair use to structure sentences.
There are other considerations. I still find it difficult to believe that merely taking the meta tags improved ranking as there is a definite order involved for using meta tags effectively and simply using someone else's meta tags isn't the wisest course of action. Given that meta tags are largely ignored, I would look for other changes that might have been implemented that improved the ranking of the site that lifted your tags.
I don't think the metas make that much difference in the ranking.
I certainly wouldn't add content to my site that had NOTHING to do with my site content nor would I devote much time to diverting the attention of my surfers from that content with alert boxes, copyright infringement notices or anything else that detracts from what the surfer EXPECTS to find there.
Personally, I'd remove the meta tags, develop additional relevant content and make sure my site was always above theirs in the ranking game. If they started lifting large pieces of content from my site then I would pursue legal action.
DigitalGhost
Does this detract from Google's site? I think not.
[google.com...]
If that page popped up as an alert if I went to Google for a search it certainly would.
Since links from the site that lifted the tags to thomwien's site aren't evident the discussion regarding the use of alert boxes is pointless.
I agree that the tactic of stealing ANY content is unethical, but in the instances of similar transgressions I am familiar with, an email usually cleared things up in a timely manner, didn't require adding any script to any pages, lawyers, alert boxes, the creation of a page detailing copyright violations or anything of the sort.
Hail Occam.
thanks.
Someone took an entire site I'd done for them, including optimization and design, placed it all on another server, removed my copyright notice from all the pages and replaced it with their name. Their reply when I wrote demanding that they do their own original content, optimization and design and remove my intellectual property was "Make me."
Someone was "working" to promote that host, who hosted AND gave unlimited maintenance and updates for sites along with hosting for $30 a month, including retrieving the files and "moving" the site for them. I knew in advance it was happening because I watched it in the logs.
After "Make me" I gathered all the documentation (screenshots are great for this), and wrote this host, providing links to the copyright office and Ivan Hoffman's site, bless his heart :) My design was replaced as well as my text by the host immediately.
Screenshots at search engines and screenshots taken of the Google cache showing where the shot is taken as well as the copyright notice on the bottom of the pages are very effective and convincing that you mean business.
I think that may be taking a bit too far unnecessarily.
The very safest thing is to copyright the site, which in the US is only $30 for the whole site. But there's a technicality when it's a matter of whether the designer or the site owner have the rights. Keeping copyright by by the designer and granting the client exclusive license may be the answer for that.
It does not pay to sue, since unless there's been a copyright registration done officially it's only actual losses, not damags that can be sued for.
If you copyright the site, when changes are made are those covered by the same copyright or would you need to pay again?
>>should I sue the design group now that they have admitted the violation
What would you hope to gain from this? Have you noticed a severe drop in visitors since you noticed the violation? Can you prove that there has been harm done by your lowered position?
I wrote to the person but the email was bogus. I then contacted the hosting company (it was a freebie so there were banners galore) and explained that we weren't happy.
The entire site was removed the very next day with an apology from the host.
I think you should count your blessings and let the issue go. Chalk it up to a learning experience. You'll be better prepared the next time it happens. Best of luck to you! :)
However, stolen meta information? To me, that's trivial. When they snag your whole site - that's a problem.
