plagiarism, pinching text from website

frank

frank

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Just finished updating my sisters website for her villa rental. Another villa owner nearby to her place has always been found to pinch blocks of text from other villa owners websites. It is so blatant you can see it is a straight copy/paste job, one villa owner started using one single very unusual word on his homepage knowing it would be copied just to prove a point.
Plagiarism is the word for it I believe. I'm not sure on what copyright laws there is for it, as it is just as easy as nicking a photo from a site is there any measures that can be taken?

I have put a small badge on the site from www.copyscape, I never knew this site existed, not that I suppose it will help. I have also saved all the pages from the site which is not many, opened them up in MS Word and entered details of dates names etc into the Properties/summary and custom sections, more as a reminder when it was done if this person who no doubt will strike again. Each time there has been a change in the text on my sisters site the block of the same text appear on the lazy sod's site soon afterwards. The owner is so lazy that her gallery is a link to the Google Images webpage.

Is there any other steps that can be taken to protect your text on your website?
 
One way is to create the text and convert it into a jpeg, I had similar problems on my photography site with another tog in Salisbury about a year back, she even copied my Bio but changed it to a female persona!
 
If it's a WordPress based web site try a plug in called WP-Copyprotect. It's basically a plug-in that ‘locks’ your site so text and images can’t be highlighted, copied and pasted. It works on the assumption that anyone who may want to steal your copy too lazy to re-type it out for themselves.

I can't vouch for it, as I've never tried it.
 
I had this issue ten years ago when a couple of large companies stole the text - word for word - and images from my (non-photography) business web-site. One of these companies was as far away as Durban in South Africa! The other was a large national concern here. All they did was replace my business name in the text with their own.

To begin with, I wanted to take all sorts of legal action but I was advised that this was a waste of time. Quite often, the companies concerned had outsourced their web-site and it was the developers who had plagiarised my site without their customers knowledge.

In the end, I was told that imitation is the best form of flattery. When it comes to cross-border disputes (or cross-continent in the Durban case) there is little that can be done in law anyway.

One thing that could be done was to replace the images hosted on my site with others which would be somewhat more embarrassing to anyone using them! In other words, replace one image with another but keep the name the same and then change the image link on my site only. That way, the thieves wouldn't know anything had been done until someone told them about the unsavoury image being displayed on their web-site.:lol:

At the end of the day, life's too short. You know you've been robbed and they know they are thieves. You can sleep soundly.:thumbs:
 
FourRingCircus said:
One thing that could be done was to replace the images hosted on my site with others which would be somewhat more embarrassing to anyone using them! In other words, replace one image with another but keep the name the same and then change the image link on my site only. That way, the thieves wouldn't know anything had been done until someone told them about the unsavoury image being displayed on their web-site.:lol:
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Very good. Now how do you find out if anyone has been using your images?
 
Flightphoto said:
One way is to create the text and convert it into a jpeg, I had similar problems on my photography site with another tog in Salisbury about a year back, she even copied my Bio but changed it to a female persona!
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If you create a JPG and use that you'll lose out on the SEO front.

Text is just as protected as images under copyright law
 
wibbly said:
If it's a WordPress based web site try a plug in called WP-Copyprotect. It's basically a plug-in that ‘locks’ your site so text and images can’t be highlighted, copied and pasted. It works on the assumption that anyone who may want to steal your copy too lazy to re-type it out for themselves.

I can't vouch for it, as I've never tried it.
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Thanks guys and thanks Dave for the wp-copy protect link, the plugin works fine and can even leave a message about theft etc if you want. Might not stop screen grabs but if they want the text badly then at least they will have to type it all out which might put the lazy folk off stealing it in the first place. :thumbs:
 
frank said:
Thanks guys and thanks Dave for the wp-copy protect link, the plugin works fine and can even leave a message about theft etc if you want. Might not stop screen grabs but if they want the text badly then at least they will have to type it all out which might put the lazy folk off stealing it in the first place. :thumbs:
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:thumbs: Glad to be of help :cool:
 
Of course, if the person "borrowing" the blocks of text isn't a native (or fluent, colloquial) English speaker, a fake site could be set up for them to pinch from extolling the virtues of the (insert derogatory terms here) landlord...
 
blue max said:
Very good. Now how do you find out if anyone has been using your images?
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The company in question took my entire text and images which were still being hosted on my site. They only replaced the business name with theirs in the text. They didn't even bother to copy the images to their own site.

Easiest way to find the plagiarists is to take a complete (unique) sentance from your site and Google it in quotation marks.......:cool:
 
First of all, I wouldn't advise that you do anything to your site that will affect usability of genuine users and SEO.

As pointed out, turning text into images will seriously damage your SEO, so forget that option.

I'm not sure about the WP plugin, but I know that other tools like that can affect the usability of your website for genuine users.

What if a customer needs to copy the contact details before they travel to your sister's villa for just one example?

Maybe someone loves the look of the villa and wants to ask thee partner about booking it and they normally copy and paste website text into an email? Too many downsides if you ask me.

I would go legal instead.

Have a look into the new small claims track of the Patents County Court. It is the equivalent of the small claims track of the County Court (popularly known as the 'small claims court').

It is a relatively straightforward process which allows for claims of up to £10,000.
 
MarcM said:
Have a look into the new small claims track of the Patents County Court. It is the equivalent of the small claims track of the County Court (popularly known as the 'small claims court').

It is a relatively straightforward process which allows for claims of up to £10,000.
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But what would the claim be for? There is no real loss involved with copying descriptive text as it doesn't have any real value.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
But what would the claim be for? There is no real loss involved with copying descriptive text as it doesn't have any real value. Steve.
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So all those copy writers are just making money under false pretences.

Sometimes Steve, your desire to drag business discussions down to a basic level ends at ridiculous.
If it had no value the person stealing it wouldn't feel the need to do so.

The written word has been covered by the same laws as a photograph, painting, sculpture, poem, song etc for as long as there's been copyright laws.
 
Phil V said:
If it had no value the person stealing it wouldn't feel the need to do so.
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My point is that unlike a photograph which can earn money for a photographer, some descriptive text on a website cannot be sold or licenced for a profit. I'm not sure how you would determine a monetary value for such text in a legal claim.

I just don't see the point in putting too much effort into asserting a right when there is no real benefit in doing so.

I'm aware that written words have the same copyright protection but that is usually only of benefit to artistic literature such as lyrics and poetry.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
But what would the claim be for? There is no real loss involved with copying descriptive text as it doesn't have any real value.


Steve.
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Steve Smith said:
My point is that unlike a photograph which can earn money for a photographer, some descriptive text on a website cannot be sold or licenced for a profit. I'm not sure how you would determine a monetary value for such text in a legal claim.
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Theres atleast two very practical points with this you're missing.

1. Google hates duplicate text, both of you (the infringer and the copyright holder) will be penalised.

2. I paid a lot of money for a copywriter to come up with original wording for me. How that has no value is beyond me :shrug:

Ask an author, a copywriter etc if their words have no value. Of course a photo is just a bunch of pixels with no value either :thinking:
 
boyfalldown said:
2. I paid a lot of money for a copywriter to come up with original wording for me. How that has no value is beyond me
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It might well have value for you and you might get some recompense if you went for compensation.

However, I was answering the OP's comments rather than yours. He has had some lines of descriptive text copied from a web advertisement.

Sure it's annoying but is it really worth the effort of legal action?

Legal action should always be a last resort. The first thing to do if you want to pursue it would be to contact the infringer and ask him to stop and/or pay for use. You shouldn't charge in straight away waving lawyers at him.

And the OP was only really asking for advice on how to stop the copying from ocurring rather than how to pursue it.


Steve.
 
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wibbly said:
If it's a WordPress based web site try a plug in called WP-Copyprotect. It's basically a plug-in that ‘locks’ your site so text and images can’t be highlighted, copied and pasted. It works on the assumption that anyone who may want to steal your copy too lazy to re-type it out for themselves.

I can't vouch for it, as I've never tried it.
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Just discovered the wp-copy protect dosn't seem to have any effect on daughter's Iphone, she could still copy/paste
 
frank said:
Just discovered the wp-copy protect dosn't seem to have any effect on daughter's Iphone, she could still copy/paste
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The chances are that disabling JavaScript could render such protections methods useless in any case.
 
Guessing that the villa and the copyright infringer aren't in the UK so normal rules (such as pursuit through small claims etc) don't apply. However, similar laws may well exist where the infringement is happening so seek local professional advice.
 
Nod said:
Guessing that the villa and the copyright infringer aren't in the UK so normal rules (such as pursuit through small claims etc) don't apply. However, similar laws may well exist where the infringement is happening so seek local professional advice.
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The villa owner is uk based as is the copyright infringer one on in England one is Scotland
 
MarcM said:
and the whole point is that you don't use or need a lawyer. Maybe you should read up on it?
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I know that. I just liked the phrase 'waving lawyers at him' when I read it it on another forum and wanted to use it!


Steve.
 
I would think the first port of call would be the infringers ISP or host. Make sure that every page on your sister's site is marked © (not that it needs to be to be copyrighted, just makes it harder for infringers to say they weren't aware that it was...)
 
Perhaps have the professional copywriter drop the offending site a note.

That might be enough to make them aware that is has been noticed. Might be enough for them to think twice.

Perhaps be more specific in your copy, so that it is more unique to your properties.

Then maybe embed your images with your web address. If they are that lazy, they might as well advertise your site.

I can see how annoying it must be.
 
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