Website Plagiarism/ theft of I.P.

[Caring1]

HI I'm try to help a friend that has a website selling a simple product, a competitor has started the exact same business and is using her designs, fonts, products etc right down to a typo on her site. He seems to be copying everything she puts up, original artwork as well, then claims on his site he "created" it.
I want to know is there some form of software to prevent this I.P. theft apart from the obvious disabling right click copying, and watermarks?
It's obvious he is copying her work and removing watermarks so something stronger and harder to work around is needed.
A cease and desist letter has already been sent to him, but my friend can't afford a lawyer as it's only a small home based business, just enough to get by on.
Any suggestions and help is appreciated.

 

[evernessince]

It's possible to encrypt the website code but the visual content will never be 100% protect-able. Even if you protect the file, anyone can win + shit + s.

Google has a report form for copywrite theft, that should definitely be usable. After that you can lookup who provides their domanin and report the IP theft to them. Last, report the IP theft to their server host. If it's a service like shopify, notify that service. You might want to look up invisible water marks as well. They essentially embed data in the image by slightly modifying color values of a few pixels to a sequence that can be identified. You can't visually see it either.

It should be pretty easy to prove who made, your friend should have the source files (adobe psds and whatnot) while the other guy doesn't.

 

[newtekie1]

Use the istock watermark method, put a watermark over the whole image that is almost complete transparent.

 

[Regeneration]

* Use PHP-based CMS to prevent code theft.
* Place large transparent watermark within images.
* Send cease and desist letter to their webhosting company for copyright infringement.
* Post about it on social media in the local groups, forums, and communities.
* Pretend to be a legitimate customer, waste their time on the phone, and then cancel the order because "you don't like copycats".
* Post negative reviews on services like Google Maps, rating and local websites. Create fake accounts and Gmail accounts if necessary.
* Sink down their their level and beat them in their own game. If you can't do it, hire a professional troll or hire a lawyer.
* Make fake orders on their website with fake email accounts. Prank calls too, including to their private cells at 3am.
* Harass them obsessively 24/7, make them think you're a complete lunatic, so it will be wiser for them to keep a distance from you.
* Switch to interactive/portfolio/Adobe Animate CC/UI/UX website so it cannot be stolen that easily.

 

[Caring1]

Thanks everyone, I'll pas this on and see what happens.
Since both stores are on Shopify that site has been notified already and I hope they close him down, but there wasn't anything stopping him from opening a new site elsewhere and continuing.

 

[Regeneration]

You're welcome. I'd offer my dedicated trolling services, but unfortunately can't accept any new clients at the moment.

 

[evernessince]

Thanks everyone, I'll pas this on and see what happens.
Since both stores are on Shopify that site has been notified already and I hope they close him down, but there wasn't anything stopping him from opening a new site elsewhere and continuing.

There are a few other parties you can notify as well if you have their personal information (which you should be able to get from shopify)

You can file a complaint with the FBI: https://www.ic3.gov/

You can file a complaint with their local police station.

You can file a complaint with Visa / Mastercard: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/report-problem-shopping.html

Shopify payments uses Visa / Mastercards networks and IP theft is certainly against their TOS. Now if mastercard / visa bans them they'll never be able to process a payment through their networks and that's essentially 95% of all online commerce. Every payment provider aside from crypto uses visa / mastercard including paypal, ebay, ect.

I would personally at least let a lawyer look at it, you could find one that will take on the case for free unless you win (which if everything we're being told is true it's likely a win).

 

[W1zzard]

Send a DMCA notice, that should help and go fairly quickly

 

[ElizabethS]

Yep, I had almost the same issue with one very dishonest guy. He stole my personal information and acted like a soab. I sent a notice to DMCA but it didn't help much.

 

[Jism]

Send a DMCA notice, that should help and go fairly quickly

This ^

I deal with it for 13 years, people ripping work i make. I file a DMCA and their website is no longer able to compete in search. If it happend in the country i'm resident i can even file for damage.

submitting to FBI? Lol.. They really have better things todo then small scale stuff like this.

 

[the54thvoid]

^^ Just a point - the thread has been dormant for 8 months. I'd imagine the actions have been taken already.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

^^ Just a point - the thread has been dormant for 8 months. I'd imagine the actions have been taken already.

Yep they won the case are now rich after filing for damages got married and now hang with the cool kids on Reddit, or so I heard

 

[R-T-B]

Yep they won the case are now rich after filing for damages got married and now hang with the cool kids on Reddit, or so I heard

This is the kind of content we are trying to avoid.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

This is the kind of content we are trying to avoid.

Humour? Wow ok then.

 

[W1zzard]

I file a DMCA and their website is no longer able to compete in search

That's indeed a good tip that I learned only recently. You can submit a DMCA to Google, to request removal from search results. This is often more effective than trying to chase sites through their Cloudflare/proxies/anonymizers to find the actual host to send the DMCA to.

 

[qubit]

Hope they nailed those scammers to the wall.

@Caring1 do you have an update for us?

 

[Frick]

I also hope someone went after their family members, especially the kids. They small and can't defend themselves well, so they're approriate targets. And if everything was sorted out, remember revenge is a dish best served cold.

 

[R-T-B]

Then again without moderation things would be a disaster, they tread a fine line; it is a thankless task.

Also this. Don't forget it.

 

[bogmali]

Accidental LQing fixed, got the right one this time.

If you replied to a post that was LQ'd, it will either be edited or deleted

 

[bogmali]

Why is that comment flagged as "low quality"? because of the multiple Haha reacts?

If I were to quote it would my comment be gone? why tho? legit questions, not sure how that system works.

Because of this "I also hope someone went after their family members, especially the kids. They are small and can't defend themselves well, so they're appropriate targets. And if everything was sorted out, remember revenge is a dish best served cold."

Low-quality posts do not need to be replied to and if they did, yes we will delete them or remove the quoted post/s. They tend to escalate things and that is why we do it

 

[eidairaman1]

Thanks everyone, I'll pas this on and see what happens.
Since both stores are on Shopify that site has been notified already and I hope they close him down, but there wasn't anything stopping him from opening a new site elsewhere and continuing.

Hire a Red Hat.