Hi All,

Now that I have an established website with unique content (which has taken quite a bit of work on my part), I'd like to know if I have any legal protection such as copyright on my text and photographs/diagrams etc.

The reason this is currently in my mind is that the product which I retail online is also being retailed by some 'fly by nights' on ebay, they have taken my own text from some of my technical pages (they haven't even re-written it - probably cut and pasted) and also taken some photos which I took myself. It seems to me like I'm doing the work and they're behaving like parasites.

I'd like to 'nip this in the bud' if I can. One of my biggest concerns is that someone could simply download my entire site and use it as their own - changing my prices to undercut me. Of course the duplicate content wouldn't look good to the search engines either.

Anyone got any observations/experience of this??

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

RobH

Rob:

You can indeed copyright your website and all contents, and I strongly recommend that you put copyright notices on all pages. You don't have to actually register the copyright in order for it to be effective, but if you're going to pursue legal action, you might have to.

However, that alone will not protect you, as our company has all too much reason to know. In the past month we've found no less than 3 websites that have pirated our copyrighted work, in one case taking 4 of 7 pages and reprinting them word for word. One of these sites is actually perpetrating a scam, which makes it worse still. We got 2 of the sites shut down by complaining to their hosting company, and are working hard on the 3rd one.

Your first step is to contact the people who have stolen your material and inform them that it is copyrighted, they are in violation, and you are aware of that fact and will pursue action against them if necessary. If they have live websites, you also need to contact the hosting company for the websites and let them know. A reputable hosting company will shut the site down immediately. eBay also has some helpful information about pursuing copyright violators (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...opyrights.html). I would strongly suggest contacting eBay as well and bringing the violation to their attention. If you can prove your case, they should take down the other listings for you.

Good luck!

__________________
Laura Seeley
www.sharpnetsolutions.com
sharpnet.typepad.com/search_engine_optimizatio

Laura, thanks for your excellent advice! Much appreciated.

RobH

Rob:

You're quite welcome, I hope it helps.

Of course, I just noticed that you're in the UK (it's early here, I blame the lack of caffeine in my system!). Copyright laws may be a bit different there, but the basic principles still apply, particularly in terms of the hosting companies and the eBay listings themselves.

Again, good luck! Now it's time for me to write yet another nasty letter to the hosting company for our latest site-pirating, so wish me luck too!

__________________
Laura Seeley
www.sharpnetsolutions.com
sharpnet.typepad.com/search_engine_optimizatio