Don Draper
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2008
- Messages
- 2,863
- Reaction score
- 1
Back when I first joined the forum Swirt and others had some really nice suggestions for dealing with a local competitor who had taken language from the "Specials" section of our website and copied it verbatim for his own. I used the suggested email to this competitor and the material, while not taken down and not changed sufficient to my liking, did at least get our competitor's attention and let him know that WE knew what he had done. The discussion is here for anyone who is interested in the info.
Last night we were looking at various b&b websites for our area because these few weeks coming up are going to be a bit slower than normal for this time of year, and we wanted to be sure we weren't the only ones who were slower (we aren't by a long shot, which is good and bad I guess). But in looking at a different competitor's site we saw that she had taken our ENTIRE home page language (how we describe our place and our location) and used it VERBATIM on her own.
I can't tell you how angry I was. This was our slogan, which we re-invented when we updated our site in early 2010. I remember vividly sitting with my sister, who works in PR, kicking around different phrases. She came up with this amazing slogan that captured the essence of who we are and what we do, it was just such a cool symbiotic moment for the two of us. And now this miserable LOSER gets to just take it word for word and use it for her place? This is sickening.
I just wanted to share one of the websites we found that helped us formulate a cease and desist email to her and her webhost, and outlined what steps to take next if our letter is ignored. FWIW, we would normally approach this kind of situation by talking to the individual on her own rather than jumping to legal solutions, but we have dealt with this person before and words like "reasonable, normal, logical" just do not apply, it's a waste of breath.
Link is here. We are not going to sit by and watch politely while our hard work is stolen from us. And to think JUST YESTERDAY I referred someone to this person, because they take young kids!
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.
Last night we were looking at various b&b websites for our area because these few weeks coming up are going to be a bit slower than normal for this time of year, and we wanted to be sure we weren't the only ones who were slower (we aren't by a long shot, which is good and bad I guess). But in looking at a different competitor's site we saw that she had taken our ENTIRE home page language (how we describe our place and our location) and used it VERBATIM on her own.
I can't tell you how angry I was. This was our slogan, which we re-invented when we updated our site in early 2010. I remember vividly sitting with my sister, who works in PR, kicking around different phrases. She came up with this amazing slogan that captured the essence of who we are and what we do, it was just such a cool symbiotic moment for the two of us. And now this miserable LOSER gets to just take it word for word and use it for her place? This is sickening.
I just wanted to share one of the websites we found that helped us formulate a cease and desist email to her and her webhost, and outlined what steps to take next if our letter is ignored. FWIW, we would normally approach this kind of situation by talking to the individual on her own rather than jumping to legal solutions, but we have dealt with this person before and words like "reasonable, normal, logical" just do not apply, it's a waste of breath.
Link is here. We are not going to sit by and watch politely while our hard work is stolen from us. And to think JUST YESTERDAY I referred someone to this person, because they take young kids!
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.