Hello,
I know I've seen this problem before, but I couldn't find where...perhaps someone can help...I just found another website that copied one of my pages WORD FOR WORD from my own website. I mean, the page is set up EXACTLY the way I set mine up and they copied it. I didn't even know they existed until I was just cruising around Google and MSN. Actually, I was at MSN when I found it.

What does one do in a situation such as this?

DianeD

contact them and ask them remove it.

Email the webmaster (or the highest-up person in the company that you can find based on published email addresses) with this. You may want to CC the site's host as well, if you're feeling really froggy:

To whom it may concern,

My name is Diane, and I am the owner of {domain}. It has been brought to my attention that you have copied the following page(s) from {domain} and used them on your {their domain} website:

{list pages here}

My company has a CD in a sealed envelope postmarked {9/1/2004 or earlier} and verified by a notary public that establishes that the offending content was indeed published on {domain} on or before {postmark date above}, and I will be providing my attorney with this evidence should the offending content not be removed within five (5) business days. Please advise when you have removed said content.

Please note that I am also carbon-copying your web host, {host name}, in order to help ensure that the offending content is removed.

Thank you,



Diane {your last name}
{Company name}

I've done this three times now, and it's worked twice. The third time, the idiot got the bright idea to try and sue me for something unrelated and not only lost, but had to pay me $50 (plus his lawyer fees, which was especially funny because I didn't have a lawyer representing me since I didn't need one.)

Thanks for the advice, but I don't have such a CD that I mailed to myself. Darn...at the time I created this site, which was awhile back and have changed and tweaked a few times since. I completely forgot to print it all out and mail it to myself, too. Now I'm angry at myself!!

How would I go about proving my case then? I guess I'll have to contact a lawyer, huh? This kind of stuff really pisses me off.

You don't actually have to have the CD. You can always poker bluff it. (I do, but it's not necessary). Most people would rather change the content than to deal with legal BS.

Mind you, that's something that obviously has a potential downside (i.e. if your bluff gets called.) But give it a shot. You'd be surprised.