Strange goings on...

[philiporchardphiliporchard is verified member.]

Was looking at my webmaster tools today, and just noticed that our Cardiff site is being directly replicated on HartlepoolNow dot com ;(

I don't own Hartlepool Now, and have no idea what is going on!

I'm guessing its some kind of error, but interesting how this could have happened... Any thoughts?

 

[bensdbensd is verified member.]

That's really weird.

Looks like the domain is owned by the Hartlepool Borough Council, maybe give them a call.

 

[mojoco]

I typed hartlepoolnow.com without the www's and got a blank page with the word 'cherry'

shortly after the page had redirected to http://tincan.co.uk/

????

 

[mojoco]

http://www.hartlepoolnow.co.uk/ was designed by tincan.co.uk

 

[diablo]

I get the one word cherry too.

Maybe your Cardiff site is being considered as the ideal template for HartlepoolNow, although it would make more sense to redirect it to the .co.uk version than to promote cherries.

Give the Council a call if your site reappears.

 

[AssetDomains]

Yep sounds like they have copied your source code as a template considering there probably charging the council 1000's for design very naughty. Do you use the meta-tag option to validate your site in webmaster tool's that's why its showing up.

 

[jwm]

if you add the www to the address it is still there

 

[retired_member34]

Copy of Phil's Cardiff site - they've removed the logo but the rest is there? Weird, is it a redirect or have they scraped the entire site? I'd speak to tincan sharpish, and sharply.

And google have indexed the Hartlepool site

 

[DomainPortfolio.ukDomainPortfolio.uk is verified member.]

Just in case they change it and you haven't got a screenshot, here is one of each to show the council or for a general record:

 

[Ashton]

Worth noting that one is .com and the other is .co.uk

Copy of Phils: http://www.hartlepoolnow.com/

Main site: http://www.hartlepoolnow.co.uk/

However they are both owned by the borough council.

Give them a call, sure they will sort it - and if not - DMCA

 

[robrob is verified member.]

get on to the local press!

 

[Ashton]

How did they even get your source? I mean its straight copy of your DB etc...

 

[MCNM]

Very naughty that, id be straight on the blower to them.

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

From the IP, looks like it's hosted by http://www.melbourne.co.uk/ so that would be another approach - contact them to get the site taken off-line. Good luck getting this resolved - pretty shocking theft of copyrighted content!

 

[redbird]

How did they even get your source? I mean its straight copy of your DB etc...

If that's the case and it does look like it, then that is serious and I'd want to know how. View source won't give them that unless they have converted the whole thing to a static site. I'd be having a word with YOUR developers..

 

[robrob is verified member.]

It does seem the DB and scripts are running on that domain, not just a static site.

Very bizzare, and someone your end Phil probably knows why...

 

[jimm]

Right, Im going to do a bit of guess work here but i recon im right.
cardiff.co.uk is the default website for the server. It is on 109.233.51.60. fact.
I bet that server has 6+ usable IPs on it.
hartlepoolnow.com is cnamed to .co.uk which has an A record of 109.233.51.66.
There will be no vhost for hartlepool site so it is going to the default website
Probably use the same host selling space on the same server.
Woo im a genius!

 

[diablo]

Right, Im going to do a bit of guess work here but i recon im right.
cardiff.co.uk is the default website for the server. It is on 109.233.51.60. fact.
I bet that server has 6+ usable IPs on it.
hartlepoolnow.com is cnamed to .co.uk which has an A record of 109.233.51.66.
There will be no vhost for hartlepool site so it is going to the default website
Probably use the same host selling space on the same server.
Woo im a genius!

That would certainly explain the DB and scripts - didn't even think of them being on the same server! How unlikely is that?

 

[Ashton]

Yep, confirming what Jimm has:

www.hartlepoolnow.com A record is:
www.hartlepoolnow.com -> www.hartlepool.co.uk -> hartlepool.co.uk -> [ 109.233.51.66 ]

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

That's also a MUCH less sinister explanation (although still annoying, of course!)