# How I Just Removed A Competitors Web Site in Hours



## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

So, I use copy scape on my website and this morning I found another roofer who felt that it was all good to take my content and use it without my permission.

Here's how it went down.

I found his site and saw my content posted. I called the office number and the owner actually answered the phone. I inform him of who I am and why I am calling.

I asked in a diplomatic way to either give me credit on the page or remove the content. He started back peddling a bit and asked me for my web site URL. He claimed that he took it off another web site, ( admitting guilt ) and I tell him that it is irrelevant which site he got it from, it is MY content not his.

So he acted alright at first and said he is really busy and can't remove it right now, I replied that I understood but I will check back next week and I expect to see it removed. Phone call ends at that time.

Less then 10 minutes later he calls me back. He says, hey man I have over 100 roofing jobs I have to build right now, and I don't have time to mess with this. He tries to put it on me like I am some kind of looser and that I must not have a successful business if all I have time to do is find people who use my content. He's getting kinda nasty on the phone by then and says he knows of 18 other website that have the same content on them also. 

I replied, I know and they are being contacted too! Then he hangs up the phone on me mid sentence.

I'm pissed now and so I go and do a whois on his domain and find that it's hosted by Godaddy, which is where my site is hosted as well.

I put together a DMCA complaint about his site and shot it to Godaddy. Two hours later I receive an email from Godaddy stating that ALL access to his site has been suspended. It will stay suspended until the site owner indicates to godaddy that he's ready to remove the content. 

I wonder what his 100 clients he's got going are going to think if any of them try and visit his site while it's under suspension!

I'm really laughing about it because I know he probably thought he would not get caught.

Lesson learned?
*DO NOT USE OTHER PEOPLES CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION OR GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!*

Use your own brain and come up with your own original content!


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## JonM (Nov 1, 2007)

So what is the URL...some of the rest of us might need somein :whistling...:clap:


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## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

JonM said:


> So what is the URL...some of the rest of us might need somein :whistling...:clap:


Exactly why I removed my url from my signature line a long time ago! :thumbsup:


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Did you ever bust anybody when you had the previous more detailed version of your site up?

For me, I liked that one better, but some of the documents were hard to find.

But, I guess KISS seems to be working for you, so carry on.

By the way, you tried to send me a message about a week ago. Here is my e-mail: [email protected]

Ed


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## Crete Buster (Dec 5, 2007)

Wow! Keep us posted on his reaction after he finds out what happened. Is copy scape a service, software or what? I will try and google it, as it may come in handy for us.


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## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

Ed the Roofer said:


> Did you ever bust anybody when you had the previous more detailed version of your site up?
> 
> For me, I liked that one better, but some of the documents were hard to find.
> 
> ...


The content was taken from my home page which was on the old and new version of my site. I used archive.org to prove my case as it showed that my content was on my site over a year before the offending sites domain name was even registered. Slam dunk case!


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

CopyScape and The Wayback Machine are great tools to use if you made a well established and informative site.

Good for you.

Ed


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## Thundercow (Jan 17, 2008)

Crete Buster said:


> Wow! Keep us posted on his reaction after he finds out what happened. Is copy scape a service, software or what? I will try and google it, as it may come in handy for us.


Copyscape is a website (just add .com) and you plug in the url of your page, and it returns any and all websites that bear a strong resemblance to the content on your page...give it a try, it's fun!


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## AboveAndBeyond (Dec 5, 2008)

nice work on resolving this. godaddy is top notch with their customer service. i think you went it as diplomatic as can be! as they say, plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

AboveAndBeyond said:


> nice work on resolving this. godaddy is top notch with their customer service. i think you went it as diplomatic as can be! as they say, plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.


Just checked your website...Dr. Poppy sounds like he's full of s***.... :whistling


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## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

Update,

Just received a phone call from the site owner. 

Very apologetic and told me that he had the page removed and that it is no longer on his site. I assumed that he had heard from godaddy already and took action. 

So i opened up my browser and entered his url. Still blocked. I said, so you took it off your web site? He replied, yes I'm looking at my site right now and that page is no longer on the web. 

This raised my eyebrow as I know that if he were telling the truth he would not be really looking at his site online. 

So I called him on his statement and asked him if he had heard from Godaddy today, he said no. 

I said, well after our last phone call I contacted Godaddy and proved my case and they blocked your site from being viewed on the internet until such time as you let them know you intend to remove my content.

He exploded on the phone again! Well you gave me 72 hours to remove it! I said yup I did, until you called me back and acted like a total jackass towards me on the phone, at which time I changed my mind but you hung up on my before I could inform you to take it down immediately.

He said, I see how you are, and I replied. Yes this is how I am, you acted like an ******* towards me about it so now its my turn. Bye bye.

End phone conversation


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## Handymanservice (Mar 1, 2009)

That's bada$$. I love the Internet. I hate it when people are idiots.


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

He's lucky you're not suing him... There are lawyers who could get you some money out of his liability insurance...that is if he has any...


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## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

ChrWright said:


> He's lucky you're not suing him... There are lawyers who could get you some money out of his liability insurance...that is if he has any...



Yeah I think the fine is up to 150k per incident so that's basically the average profit on his big 100 jobs he said he was trying to manage. LOL

UPDATE: Just checked his site and it's back up and the page with my content is no longer available on the internet! WOOT!


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## ForumNomad (Mar 19, 2009)

I love it. People that steal need that kind of a lesson taught to them. Good work.


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## bob_cntrctr (Jan 30, 2008)

RidgeWalker said:


> I put together a DMCA complaint about his site and shot it to Godaddy. Two hours later I receive an email from Godaddy stating that ALL access to his site has been suspended.


Just curious - how does Goddady know for a fact that the content is yours?


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## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

bob_cntrctr said:


> Just curious - how does Goddady know for a fact that the content is yours?



Archive.org archives web pages from all web sites it crawls. It shows the date and the actual page content of the page. 

In this case I easily proved my content was published 18 months before the offending site owner even registered his domain name. This goes for all the other 15 roofing web sites who have stolen my content. So if your one of them reading this thread your on notice right now. Not you bob just saying in general. = )


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## StairJunkie (Jan 21, 2008)

hmm, i just found someone using pictures from my brochure on their website without my permission, hosted by godaddy as well, think godaddy could help if for example i send them a digital copy of my brochure and then show them the offending website? things like this is what gives the contracting and subcontracting business a bad name with consumers


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## A W Smith (Oct 14, 2007)

Which is a good reason NOT to block archive.org from crawling your site with a robots.txt file. I see many sites that are no longer archived. No archive? no evidence.


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## bob_cntrctr (Jan 30, 2008)

RidgeWalker said:


> Archive.org archives web pages from all web sites it crawls. It shows the date and the actual page content of the page.
> 
> In this case I easily proved my content was published 18 months before the offending site owner even registered his domain name. ...


Very cool.


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## buildpinnacle (Sep 2, 2008)

ChrWright said:


> Just checked your website...Dr. Poppy sounds like he's full of s***.... :whistling


I guess I don't get the joke. Is Dr. Poppy's testimonial supposed to pull up in German, or French, or Yiddish....whatever that is? Or is my computer screwed up?


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## lbsrdi (Apr 1, 2009)

My site is new and I need feedback but I am unable to post links. Will you view my homepage and give me some tips? thanks


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## tinner666 (Nov 3, 2004)

Awesomw job Ridge!:clap::clap:


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

lbsrdi said:


> My site is new and I need feedback but I am unable to post links. Will you view my homepage and give me some tips? thanks


Start your own thread for this and you'll get more feedback.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

lbsrdi said:


> My site is new and I need feedback but I am unable to post links. Will you view my homepage and give me some tips? thanks


 
Is this your homepage?


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## RidgeWalker (Nov 1, 2006)

lbsrdi said:


> My site is new and I need feedback but I am unable to post links. Will you view my homepage and give me some tips? thanks


Dude that's just rude! Don't hijack other people threads! :no:


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## Bone Saw (Feb 13, 2006)

good on ya ridge:thumbsup:
Ive had stuff stolen off of my site several times, once by a ct member
been using copyscape for several years now, very cool


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## Bone Saw (Feb 13, 2006)

just found a thief check it out
http://www.silcasystem.com/index.html
these aholes have been spaming the $h!t outta me lately as well, go figure


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## Astrix (Feb 23, 2009)

buildpinnacle said:


> I guess I don't get the joke. Is Dr. Poppy's testimonial supposed to pull up in German, or French, or Yiddish....whatever that is? Or is my computer screwed up?


No joke. It's standard sample text used in the typesetting and webdesign industry so that you focus on the font and not the text. 

from: http://www.lipsum.com/
*Lorem Ipsum* is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.


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## Astrix (Feb 23, 2009)

ChrWright said:


> He's lucky you're not suing him... There are lawyers who could get you some money out of his liability insurance...that is if he has any...


Even if he has liability insurance, it wouldn't pay for knowingly plaguarizing someone else's content. Here's a sample from a liability insurance wording (most insurers' wordings will be similar to this as it's pretty standard). Any of the three exclusions copied below could be applied in this situation.


*COVERAGE B. PERSONAL and ADVERTISING INJURY LIABILITY*

*2. Exclusions*
This insurance does not apply to:​

​*a. Knowing Violation Of Rights Of Another*
"Personal and advertising injury" caused by or at the direction of the insured with the knowledge that the act would violate the rights of another and would inflict "personal and advertising injury".​

​*b. Material Published With Knowledge Of Falsity*
"Personal and advertising injury" arising out of oral or written publication of material, if done by or at the direction of the insured with knowledge of its falsity.​

*i. Infringement Of Copyright, Patent, Trademark or Trade Secret*​
"Personal and advertising injury" arising out of the infringement of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights.


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## buildpinnacle (Sep 2, 2008)

Astrix said:


> No joke. It's standard sample text used in the typesetting and webdesign industry so that you focus on the font and not the text.
> 
> from: http://www.lipsum.com/
> *Lorem Ipsum* is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.


Thanks for the explanation...I think. However, I still don't realize why it is there. Is it an incomplete part of the site?


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## Astrix (Feb 23, 2009)

It appears to be a work in progress. The URL did have */test/* in the name.


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

That was the joke.

Most web templates come with dummy text for you to replace with your content. I was surprised to see it on his working site.


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## contract223 (Mar 23, 2009)

Someone mentioned "how does GoDaddy know that the content was yours?". The answer given was incorrect. GoDaddy, or for that matter, any Internet content host such as Google, Yahoo or your Web site host - none of them look at Archive.org nor do they do even one thing to check on the validity of the DMCA claim.

The DMCA is a law that is designed to *protect content* hosts if they take prompt action when complaints are filed. Since GoDaddy has no legal authority (they are not a judge or jury) to determin if you actually own your content - *they simply follow the law*.

When a DMCA complaint is properly filled out and submitted ALL content hosts will remove the content. That is almost automatic.

YOUR SITE COULD BE ATTACKED

Anyone can file a DMCA. I could file a DMCA complaint against every Web site listed in this thread and they would all be removed from Google or GoDaddy. That is automatic. I have been involved with both sending and receiving DMCA complaints.

*Counter Notice*

Your defense after a DMCA complaint has been filed is for you to file a Counter Notice. This is another legal document and is part of the DMCA. It basically is your response saying that you really own the content. Once GoDaddy/Google receives this they will put the content back online in around 18 days.

I could write a LOT more on this subject, but just remember that it is often much better to give someone time to remove your content from their site. If they get too angry and find out about the DMCA they could actually do it to your site.

Ultimately, the court system, if someone were to sue, would determine who legally owns the copyright. Unless you have actually registered your copyright you will not actually win much at all. The $150,000 mentioned in this thread is only for people that have actually filed a legal registration of their copyright. Everyone owns their copy the moment they publish it, but the big damages ($$$) are only given when one has registered.

Scott


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## tyler durden (Jan 12, 2008)

*Dang*

I just found a guy stealing my stuff.
It looks more like a lazy internet compant though.


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