wow timing!...

I have a client, business in Japan, who has been having issue with false negative (defamatory) posts on blogs etc that has cost him business. The site(s) in question have actually ripped off content (graphics mostly) from his site.

I've been looking into DMCA to have their content / posts removed or sites shut down. Most of the sites are hosted in the US.

Any ideas whether it's best to counter from the copyright or defamation angles? What's the process to send to both google and other engines like yahoo and msn to apply to have their content removed?

He's already spent several thousand dollars on lawyers but because the individuals are hard to find (they are international) the lawyers recommended to forget it. I'm thinking as the content is hosted in US, it may be possible to approach from that end and see if we can get the engines to remove the content?

Oh hosts have refused as they are friends of the site owners, still working on tracking down the datacenters on it and doing up cease and desist letters.

Any additional direction from anyone?

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Ron Boyd
Web design & site management :: Ron's blog