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Copyright Question

Discussion in 'General Board' started by bens, Feb 27, 2011.

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  1. bens United Kingdom

    bens Active Member

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    Afternoon all. Looking for a bit of advice....

    I have an established directory (.com) which has been running for the last 3 years and currently has over 2,500 active members.

    This afternoon, i have been informed about a site with my domain with the .org.uk extension registered 3/2/2011. The site contains most of the text off our site, slightly modified but it's quite clearly ours. Meta tags and Title tags have also been copied.

    The domain is registered on the LIVEDOMAINS tag but the domain is pointing to ns1.genelab.co.uk.

    I have contacted fasthost and i'm waiting a reply. I have also contacted google to ask them to remove the copied text from their search but i'm unable to find a contact information for genelab.co.uk.

    My question is really, is there anything else i should/can do?

    Domain available by pm.

    Thanks
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. Alien

    Alien Well-Known Member

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    Blimey, that's annoying.

    Seems the IP of 174.121.133.226 belongs to genelab.co.uk?

    From whois of genelab.co.uk:

    Name servers:
    ns1.genelab.co.uk 174.121.133.226
    ns2.genelab.co.uk 174.121.133.227

    Gives IP : 174.121.133.226
    Host : sigma.websitewelcome.com

    IP : 174.121.133.227
    Host : e3.85.79ae.static.theplanet.com
    Country : United States

    Dunno if that helps, but thought I'd post it anyway. :)
     
  4. bens United Kingdom

    bens Active Member

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    thanks.

    I did look at this and it seems that theplanet.com have been aquired by softlayer.com. Do you think it's worth contacting them?
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2011
  5. Ashton Canada

    Ashton Well-Known Member

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    DMCA to hosts? :)
     
  6. wb

    wb Well-Known Member

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    Does the WHOIS on the copied website domain give any additional information regarding who has registered and owns the website?

    Not sure if it helps however the domains below are the only ones I found with the same genelab nameservers and they are all also registered to the same name ;)

    qwut/com
    gbcns/com
    ufology/org/uk

    If the details on those matches up with your copied website, then the WHOIS on the .com's will provide you with an email/address/telephone number.
     
  7. bens United Kingdom

    bens Active Member

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    Does anyone have any experience with dmca.com?
     
  8. Ashton Canada

    Ashton Well-Known Member

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    Send your own DMCA, sure there are templates out there. No point using a paid service.

    If they are hosted in the UK dmca law doesn't apply here - but the hosts will still pay attention to a DMCA even if they are UK
     
  9. bens United Kingdom

    bens Active Member

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    Yes. That's the one. The owner seems to use a couple of similar addresses and several different names to register them.
     
  10. wb

    wb Well-Known Member

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    Getting the host to take it down may just get the website moved elsewhere.

    Have you tried making contact directly? There is a telephone number on the WHOIS or alternatively a nice legal letter should do the trick.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2011
  11. bens United Kingdom

    bens Active Member

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    Thanks. Link if anyone ever needs one: http://www.getfreelegalforms.com/dmca-notice-to-host/
     
  12. bens United Kingdom

    bens Active Member

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    I've not tried yet but I'll definitely be contacting them via my solicitor tomorrow.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2011
  13. anthony United Kingdom

    anthony Well-Known Member

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    There's an address at chriswhitlock .co.uk too.
     
  14. crabfoot United Kingdom

    crabfoot Active Member

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    This comment is "after the event", but it can help to use the syndication-source and original-source metatags on your site so Google knows the content is yours before someone nicks it.
    http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?answer=191283

    When you have separate pages on a HTML site, the canonical is preferred:
    http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

    If the burglars don't have such tags installed, get them on your site quickly and Google should downgrade their content as duplicate.
     
  15. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

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    It looks like a hostgator account to me.

    Grant
     
  16. mat

    mat Well-Known Member

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    Send them a severed horse's head in the post. Works a charm.
     
  17. aZooZa

    aZooZa Well-Known Member

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    Mat you're indomitable. LOL.
     
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