Stop Thief!!! What You Can Do If Someone
Steals Your Website's Contents
By Jeff Coburn
©2006 All rights reserved
It seems that a week doesn't go by that someone doesn't ask me, "Is there any way to keep people from stealing the
contents of my website?"
Honestly, no. You can slow them down or make them work for a useable copy, but if someone wants to take articles, artwork
or a photograph from your site, they can. There's even software designed to help people steal website content.
I use Adobe GoLive to make my websites, but it has a function that lets me download entire websites. In a matter of a
few minutes I can download almost any website on the net.
If you see your artwork, article or slogan on another person's website, is there anything you can do? Absolutely! Your
material is protected under copyright laws in two ways. First, each piece is protected individually under copyright law
upon completion of the material. When you create an article, photograph or piece of art it's automatically protected.
Secondly, your website in whole is protected under copyright law. It is a good idea to put a copyright notice on the
bottom of each page on your site. Simply put Copyright © 2004 Jeff Colburn, or Copyright © 1999-2006 Jeff Colburn, and
for added safety put All Rights Reserved.
I often have people contact me to use my articles on their website or in publications. If I give them permission to use
the article, I include the following paragraph just to be sure they know what I expect: "Also, the article can not be
edited in any way and the resource box at the bottom of the article must be included when you publish the article on
your website or in your newsletter." A resource box is a paragraph plugging me and my website, and includes my email
and website address so the reader can contact me.
If someone does take something from your website without permission there are several steps you can take, each a little
more high pressure than the last.
Before you can take any action, you must find the thief and how to contact him. If contact information is not listed on
the website, then go to http://www.Whois.com and enter the thief's website address. This will show you who the Registrant
(owner) is and how to contact him. Whois.com will also show you who the administrative and technical contacts are. These
may be the same person, or different people. You can also look at the HTML in the site by simply going to the menu bar
and selecting View and Source. Many website designers and webmasters list their name and contact information here.
Other sources you can use to locate a person are:
The first, and easiest, thing you can do is to contact the thief. Mail, or email, a letter to the person telling them
about the copyright infringement and ask them to immediately remove the stolen content.
Clearly explain to the person what was taken, where it was taken from and that you want it removed immediately. Go easy
here. Don't fly off the handle and make threats or come across as angry. Just be very businesslike. Or, instead of asking
them to remove the stolen material, you could ask them to put a link to your website with the material and possibly a
resource box, or to pay you a fee to use the material. Realize that some people don't know it's illegal to take and use
things from websites. Be sure to give them a time limit to respond. Five days is standard.
Keep copies of all correspondence between both of you, and take a screen capture of the web page with the stolen material.
Just press the Print Screen button, then paste the image into a Word document.
Many thieves will remove the stolen material after being contacted, but others won't. If the material is not removed,
then kick it up a notch.
Contact the advertisers on the person's site and tell them that he's refusing to remove the stolen material. Ask them
to pull their advertising so they are not supporting a site that steals material. I would suggest going a little easy
with throwing words around like "thief" and accusing the webmaster of stealing things. Just say that the site contains
material that was obtained in violation of copyright law, and that the webmaster refuses to remove the material. Again,
be businesslike. Hitting the webmaster in the wallet will get his attention, as will having advertisers contacting him
to find out what the heck is going on.
You should also contact the hosting company where his website resides. This information should also show up in your
Whois search (http://www.whois.com). Inform them about the stolen material and ask them to remove the site from their
server. Many hosting companies will remove sites like this.
If nothing happens after a few days, send a Cease and Desist letter to the thief, any advertisers on his site, the web
hosting company and anyone else listed on his site. You can find templates for Cease and Desist letters online that will
help you know what to say.
You can find sample letters here:
In the letter include the following, and anything else you think is important.
- Tell them you intend to send copies of the Cease and Desist letter to advertisers, and everyone else on your contact list.
- Let them know that if the situation is not resolved, then legal action will be taken.
- Ask for an accounting of any income generated from the stolen material and that you expect full compensation of this income.
- Tell them how you want them to contact you with a response (email, phone, etc.) and give them no more than 72 hours to
respond.
You can also contact the major search engines, like Google, Yahoo and MSN and tell them what's going on and request
that they ban his site from their search engines. Mention the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA protects OSP's
(Online Service Providers including ISP's) from copyright liability if, after being notified by a copyright holder or their
agent, they promptly block access to a site that is involved in copyright infringement.
Of course, the final step is to hire a lawyer. However, this will take lots of money for legal fees, so save this as a
last resort.
Unfortunately, as a copyright holder you are responsible for monitoring when, where and how your works are used and for
enforcing the law when your rights are infringed upon. So pin on your badge, grab your ten-gallon hat and go enforce the law,
Sheriff.
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