How would you like it if you found your website duplicated on someone else’s website?
What if they copy your Titles, Descriptions and Keywords!
It will make you made as hell! There are ways to post content from other websites along with links to the other website that aids in the link building process, but not in this case. These people are thieves!
Well, I found such a company today and I am appalled at what they did.
Not only did they copy every single word from my website, they stole my Title, Description, and Meta Keyword list. Essentially, they stole my website ID as far as the search engines are concerned. When I did a search on my domain, I saw my title on their domain link!
Now if that was not bad enough, they claim they are offering a rating system for your website, while advertising all over the web page with Google Adsense ads of competitors!!!!
I have already notified their web hosting company, I documented everything and contacted my attorney.
If you work as hard as I have, to get your website ranked, you will realize how much time, effort and money it takes to get decent rankings. Now I find my all my content and website is being duplicated. They are using a narrow frame to allow people to view my website while is not a link, but another effort to steal my images and content to display in an unauthorized way on their website.
There is an important note: please realize that if you are conducting link building program, many times you may be giving people the right to use your content from your website. I never submitted my website to this site! They use a web page harvester to steal content, including the meta data.
Fortunately, there is a Digital Millennium Copyright Act:
General Highlights:
- In general, limits Internet service providers from copyright infringement liability for simply transmitting information over the Internet.
- Service providers, however, are expected to remove material from users’ web sites that appears to constitute copyright infringement.
- Limits liability of nonprofit institutions of higher education — when they serve as online service providers and under certain circumstances — for copyright infringement by faculty members or graduate students.
- Requires that “webcasters” pay licensing fees to record companies.
- Requires that the Register of Copyrights, after consultation with relevant parties, submit to Congress recommendations regarding how to promote distance education through digital technologies while “maintaining an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright owners and the needs of users.”
- States explicitly that “[n]othing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use…”
It is this point – that I want to emphasis:
- Service providers, however, are expected to remove material from users’ web sites that appears to constitute copyright infringement.
Copyscape can save you a load of aggravation and help you locate duplicate content from your website. There are also a good set of guidelines to use in the event you do find a copyright issue:
http://www.copyscape.com/respond.php
You can also contact Google that will remove offending websites and they do follow the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as long as you contact them in writing or by fax.
http://www.google.com/dmca.html
Steps you should take in the process of resolving this type of issue:
- Contact the Website owner and ask to have it removed – if you can
- Immediately notify the Hosting company and explain in detail what you found (you can use a whois)
- Contact your attorney and document the copyright issue
- Send Google a written notification of the event
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The offending website, which I will not list, can be blocked using their IP Address. You can prevent this illegal listing – using your htaccess file.
simply add:
deny from 66.40.10.24
They have on their main web page that they have over 5 million websites in this illegal content stealing ranking process along with Google Adsense ads.
I will not promote or post their website, but you can e-mail me and I will reply with it if you want to check if your website is there.
Tags: Copyright Infringements
