Comments on: Dealing with Copy Cat, Plagiarizing Websites. http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/2009/02/03/dealing-with-copy-cat-plagiarizing-website/ Discussing DIY Projects, Home Improvement & Other Fun Stuff. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:35:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Steve http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/2009/02/03/dealing-with-copy-cat-plagiarizing-website/comment-page-1/#comment-742 Steve Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:43:20 +0000 http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/?p=279#comment-742 Gail: When someone is stealing your ideas it feels no different than having your car stolen. When they steal your ideas and sales text by scraping it and then twisting it around, it feels like you been burglarized in the middle of the night. In my case, I've spent years to distinguish myself from my competitors by doing something unique. I suspect that the one competitor lost his civil engineer job and now wants to take the fast track over the top of me, using my own site concept and ideas. He can continue to follow me into the quagmire, because each step builds my case against him. If he thinks we stopped watching or are too intimidated to stop him with a DMCA, he's dead wrong. It sounds like your case is very similar to ours. There are always unimaginative losers out there who can only steal ideas, never create their own. You have one good thing on your side, the fact that the plagiarizer lives nearby. I wish I could say the same. While time may be on your side, don't wait too long. I would at least warn the competitor. Anyone wishing to shared business ideas with friends should think twice or put a non-compete in writing before you speak a single word of advice. Gail:

When someone is stealing your ideas it feels no different than having your car stolen. When they steal your ideas and sales text by scraping it and then twisting it around, it feels like you been burglarized in the middle of the night.
In my case, I’ve spent years to distinguish myself from my competitors by doing something unique. I suspect that the one competitor lost his civil engineer job and now wants to take the fast track over the top of me, using my own site concept and ideas.
He can continue to follow me into the quagmire, because each step builds my case against him. If he thinks we stopped watching or are too intimidated to stop him with a DMCA, he’s dead wrong.

It sounds like your case is very similar to ours. There are always unimaginative losers out there who can only steal ideas, never create their own. You have one good thing on your side, the fact that the plagiarizer lives nearby. I wish I could say the same.

While time may be on your side, don’t wait too long. I would at least warn the competitor.

Anyone wishing to shared business ideas with friends should think twice or put a non-compete in writing before you speak a single word of advice.

]]> By: Gail http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/2009/02/03/dealing-with-copy-cat-plagiarizing-website/comment-page-1/#comment-741 Gail Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:43:03 +0000 http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/?p=279#comment-741 Thank you so much for taking the time to write this very informative article. I was feeling so very alone, frustrated and searched for \"dealing with websites that copy\" yours is the first I\'ve read and I don\'t need to go any further. I feel for you that you needed to write the article. Unfortunately who is doing it to me is a so called close personal friend within 1/2 mile of me who I\'ve helped in numerous ways with online business development. The question was for a while, what to do. I took the bait the fish approach feeling somewhat secure that they will not catch up as the antiquated pricing model, stubbornness and greed hasn\'t allowed them to offer their products within the market average. A good friend posed the question “what happens when they do?” I will have a true competitor. This is my main income as well as for employees. Theirs is a hobby with a spouse that brings in the families base income and provides a good living. They have taken everything else. For years I\'ve switched it up, changing web platforms, manufacturer\'s and items offered, all only to find they copy what I change to. I now find myself not mentioning manufacturer\'s names because they will target the new line I carry. Your Wild West analogy is awesome and oh so true. This is where I\'ve been the past couple of weeks and I\'m exhausted. I\'ve hired more people to get ahead and they are now copying their work and they are complaining of plagiarism. I\'ve hinted at the \"nice\" approach only to hear their reply \"copying is the greatest compliment\". Is it? Or is it \"poor me, I don\'t have time to do my homework with all the things I have to do\" for the self brought on drama infected life. I\'m told I\'m single, don\'t have other obligations, and have more time which equates to; I owe it to them because they\'re my friend and their time is prioritized elsewhere. hmmm Excuse me, don\'t target my business and financial livelihood due to your poor choices on the home front. As I\'ve said, \"make a decision, you don\'t have time for both.\" Well, obviously the decision was they can have both if they use my hard work. I know where the cease and desist will lead. Not where the one I received did. It was an honest mistake on my part, directed by a manufacturer to go to their site for photos. I felt horrible, they learned that the manufacturer was sending their competition to their site, and we became friends with respect for each others businesses. They started to carry some of the same product line I do but that\'s business. They made it their own, in their words, business model etc and I have admiration and respect for them in doing so. I\'m not sure where all my ramblings are leading... just putting my thoughts down has helped and I thank you for providing a form to do so. I\'ve always been a firm believer in setting the bait and reeling the fish in, my kids hated it. One thing on my side, I have patience, knowledge and the drive to be successful on my own whereas the other party is trigger happy in the snap of a finger. I\'m sitting back waiting to see what is going to make them snap and click the delete button on their site all on their own. I\'m as sure I know the sun will rise tomorrow; they just don\'t have what it takes in the long run. I think of the Rolling Stones lyrics \"time is on my side, yes it is.... ; ) Thank you so much for taking the time to write this very informative article. I was feeling so very alone, frustrated and searched for \"dealing with websites that copy\" yours is the first I\’ve read and I don\’t need to go any further. I feel for you that you needed to write the article.

Unfortunately who is doing it to me is a so called close personal friend within 1/2 mile of me who I\’ve helped in numerous ways with online business development. The question was for a while, what to do. I took the bait the fish approach feeling somewhat secure that they will not catch up as the antiquated pricing model, stubbornness and greed hasn\’t allowed them to offer their products within the market average. A good friend posed the question “what happens when they do?” I will have a true competitor. This is my main income as well as for employees. Theirs is a hobby with a spouse that brings in the families base income and provides a good living. They have taken everything else. For years I\’ve switched it up, changing web platforms, manufacturer\’s and items offered, all only to find they copy what I change to. I now find myself not mentioning manufacturer\’s names because they will target the new line I carry.

Your Wild West analogy is awesome and oh so true. This is where I\’ve been the past couple of weeks and I\’m exhausted. I\’ve hired more people to get ahead and they are now copying their work and they are complaining of plagiarism.

I\’ve hinted at the \"nice\" approach only to hear their reply \"copying is the greatest compliment\". Is it? Or is it \"poor me, I don\’t have time to do my homework with all the things I have to do\" for the self brought on drama infected life. I\’m told I\’m single, don\’t have other obligations, and have more time which equates to; I owe it to them because they\’re my friend and their time is prioritized elsewhere. hmmm Excuse me, don\’t target my business and financial livelihood due to your poor choices on the home front. As I\’ve said, \"make a decision, you don\’t have time for both.\" Well, obviously the decision was they can have both if they use my hard work.

I know where the cease and desist will lead. Not where the one I received did. It was an honest mistake on my part, directed by a manufacturer to go to their site for photos. I felt horrible, they learned that the manufacturer was sending their competition to their site, and we became friends with respect for each others businesses. They started to carry some of the same product line I do but that\’s business. They made it their own, in their words, business model etc and I have admiration and respect for them in doing so.

I\’m not sure where all my ramblings are leading… just putting my thoughts down has helped and I thank you for providing a form to do so. I\’ve always been a firm believer in setting the bait and reeling the fish in, my kids hated it. One thing on my side, I have patience, knowledge and the drive to be successful on my own whereas the other party is trigger happy in the snap of a finger. I\’m sitting back waiting to see what is going to make them snap and click the delete button on their site all on their own. I\’m as sure I know the sun will rise tomorrow; they just don\’t have what it takes in the long run.

I think of the Rolling Stones lyrics \"time is on my side, yes it is…. ; )

]]> By: Steve http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/2009/02/03/dealing-with-copy-cat-plagiarizing-website/comment-page-1/#comment-734 Steve Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:20:26 +0000 http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/?p=279#comment-734 Mark: Well, it is commentary AND a personal account. The site you mentioned in your email is indeed the copy cat. It's good to see a third party validate my claim. Ours is an ongoing process involving our attorney. The bolder the copycat gets, the worse his case becomes. There is never a defense for this type of plagiarism. It was funny to see how this chimpanzee of a competitor first copies our "easy" concept, then our 10 easy steps (offering less than 10) it reminded me of the Something about Mary scene with the psycho hitchhiker wanting to start a business competing with 8 minute Abs...he was going to call it, get this...7 minute Abs. That's the mentality of this dick head copycat competitor. He's no different from a pocket picking thief. He copied our instant access, and downloadable plans concept, the our 3D claim, then he figures out how we do our membership site, so copies that exactly, adds the identical flash slideshow to his home page, adds a protected forum, adds a protected gallery, adds a blog, uses exactly the same anchor text highlighting to appear like our site, hijacks our sales copy, Jesus Christ! this guy has no originality at all. But that's not all...not only did he copy the same scripts we use, he's so uselessly lame that he placed them in an identical directory structure. I don't mind someone eating next to me, but keep off my damned plate you fat greedy f*ck. I take this as a malicious attempt to duplicate my site. Them to top it all off, this spineless worm then hides all by blocking ai_archiver. He's going to find out eventually that he's screwin' with the wrong guy. But by then it'll be too late. Mark:
Well, it is commentary AND a personal account. The site you mentioned in your email is indeed the copy cat. It’s good to see a third party validate my claim. Ours is an ongoing process involving our attorney. The bolder the copycat gets, the worse his case becomes. There is never a defense for this type of plagiarism. It was funny to see how this chimpanzee of a competitor first copies our “easy” concept, then our 10 easy steps (offering less than 10) it reminded me of the Something about Mary scene with the psycho hitchhiker wanting to start a business competing with 8 minute Abs…he was going to call it, get this…7 minute Abs. That’s the mentality of this dick head copycat competitor. He’s no different from a pocket picking thief.
He copied our instant access, and downloadable plans concept, the our 3D claim, then he figures out how we do our membership site, so copies that exactly, adds the identical flash slideshow to his home page, adds a protected forum, adds a protected gallery, adds a blog, uses exactly the same anchor text highlighting to appear like our site, hijacks our sales copy, Jesus Christ! this guy has no originality at all. But that’s not all…not only did he copy the same scripts we use, he’s so uselessly lame that he placed them in an identical directory structure. I don’t mind someone eating next to me, but keep off my damned plate you fat greedy f*ck. I take this as a malicious attempt to duplicate my site.
Them to top it all off, this spineless worm then hides all by blocking ai_archiver.
He’s going to find out eventually that he’s screwin’ with the wrong guy.
But by then it’ll be too late.

]]> By: Mark http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/2009/02/03/dealing-with-copy-cat-plagiarizing-website/comment-page-1/#comment-732 Mark Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:12:20 +0000 http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/?p=279#comment-732 Yeah, we hear ya! A competitor is doing something similar to our site. These guys are usually fat, lazy, flat top wearin’ slobs or pencil neck geeks who can't think their way out of a web paper bag, so they steal another sites sale copy, pricing, packaging and site business model. I like the “lower than whale shit” comment. It’s so true! I was not sure if this was general commentary or a personal account. I searched Google and I think I know which site is copying yours. It’s pretty obvious. Yeah, we hear ya! A competitor is doing something similar to our site. These guys are usually fat, lazy, flat top wearin’ slobs or pencil neck geeks who can’t think their way out of a web paper bag, so they steal another sites sale copy, pricing, packaging and site business model.
I like the “lower than whale s**t” comment. It’s so true!
I was not sure if this was general commentary or a personal account. I searched Google and I think I know which site is copying yours. It’s pretty obvious.

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