Some bugger copied my website

[1234dist]

and didn't do a very good job of hiding the fact either.

Now ordinarily i wouldn't be bothered but this site stands me at just over £14k in design for someone to use a site ripper and try and pass them selves off.

I won't post web address's for confirmation unless a mod says its fine but still...

[m220syg]

how do u own a website? and £14.000? thats a dear website. is there nothing u can do mate?

[1234dist]

Its more the database desgin behind the scenes.

They stole the front end and made it look carp...

[TheRealStig]

14k?

Lets see it then

[1234dist]

P*SS off stig

[*ASHY*]

Don't get annoyed, but would have thought that with a chance to plug your website you'd have put the link up anyway.

[1234dist]

also a chance to advertise but considering i am not a paid trader that would have been a little rude to the mods and owners of the site.

Hence if they say its ok i will post my site and the robbing B*stards site.

[mike88]

Post it already

[*ASHY*]

I see what you mean, that is pretty cheeky.
At least there is one thing, you are a higher ranking on Google on the first page and they are nowhere to be seen. Still bang out of order though.

Why not contact and see what they have to say, maybe they will be willing to take it down or give you some recompense?

[1234dist]

I phoned them this morning to let them know they have the legally allowed 14 days to sort it. Then legal proceeding for copyright infringement and intelectual property theft.

[*ASHY*]

And their reason for stealing was?

[1234dist]

their reply was more

erm, ah, erm......

Didn't even get a sorry.

i do have a DOS (denial of service) program ready to runin 13 days 8hrs

[mike88]

i do have a DOS (denial of service) program ready to runin 13 days 8hrs

[evolotion]

And their reason for stealing was?

fairly common thing, rip off a legitimate site, host google adverts on the site, divert traffic to the site, gain in revenue from adverts. not a lot of revenue, but it adds up if your running 100+ sites like this. next time theres a major iphone release for example, google it and see how many shite sites with no real content appear!

hope you get it sorted! oh aye and if they are running adverts provided by the likes of google... tell them. its heavily frowned uppon.

[1234dist]

i have pm'd you the link.

there are no untowards add's and i have no problem with competition but be original in your design.

[Beaker]

Is there a link?

[*ASHY*]

Is there a link?

No, but Google does if you look for sellyourlaptops or sellurlaptop...

[1234dist]

[*ASHY*]

Chill, no rules been broke as far as I know.

[evolotion]

I see so there actually working the business rather than fronting? just do whatever you can to mess them up then, fair game as far as I'm concerned, the site is your IP(intellectual property as opposed to the other meaning in internet speech) and your "brand" and just as important as solid goods in any business.

[1234dist]

too true, but the legal route is 14 days from verbal notification then subsiquent 7 days from formal written notification.

The longer they leave it the more i will be able to claim as loss of potential earnings ect.

[Punx0r]

I have just one question: is your website MGR related, or should I move this thread to the lounge?

[1234dist]

nope nothing to do with mg

[DRover620]

There is just blank page with: Comming Soon

[1234dist]

power to the people!

I did get told this morning that we did manage to get a site rip of their site and apparently it is still going through legals because they used one of our trade mark logo's on their page.

Leave it in the hands of the solicitors now, my work here is done.


You know where i am if you want rid of your old laptops because you got shiny new ones from Santa! (or need a new one before christmas because Santa is skint)

[*ASHY*]

What the heck do you do with old lappy's? Is it like the old mobile phone thing? What's the going rate for old laptops and does it matter if it's duffer/incomplete e.t.c.?

[1234dist]

A lot of it is recycling, we are one of the few companies that accept broken, cracked and generally FCUT machines.

We have some of the largest spare parts storage in the north west. Almost any computer shop in the northwest and a few down south round and about by their parts from me.

[Punx0r]

nope nothing to do with mg

No worries. I wasn't sure if your site was a forum or parts shop or something.

[*ASHY*]

A lot of it is recycling, we are one of the few companies that accept broken, cracked and generally FCUT machines.

We have some of the largest spare parts storage in the north west. Almost any computer shop in the northwest and a few down south round and about by their parts from me.

So you're the man to come to for bits and bobs + RT discount?

[1234dist]

defo, we hold approx 500,000 spare parts instock from screens to screws and everything in between.

[MarkCoupe]

And their reason for stealing was?

fairly common thing, rip off a legitimate site, host google adverts on the site, divert traffic to the site, gain in revenue from adverts. not a lot of revenue, but it adds up if your running 100+ sites like this. next time theres a major iphone release for example, google it and see how many shite sites with no real content appear!

hope you get it sorted! oh aye and if they are running adverts provided by the likes of google... tell them. its heavily frowned uppon.

Damn right it does, my mate gets about £60 a month from google for his one site. If he had 100+ sites hed be bloody minted.

[1234dist]

The algarythem on the back end of the site is almost as complicated as google's search criteria. Glad that has no front end links to it, you can only get to it because you know where it is (in a pirates of the Caribbean style compass).

The database designers thought they could bat it out in a couple of days ended up taking them 3 month.

[Null_Byte]

Judging by the landing page for both sites, there has been some copy and paste going on. I'm not really sure I understand why unless somebody is involved with both companies, as it would surely be easier to knock up a fresh page then try and alter an existing one. Especially if you don't want it to be entirely obvious where your source has come from. Whoever it is hasn't been smart enough to remove or alter the copyright notices and meta data tags, which is like copying somebody else's exam paper and leaving their name on the top.

I would say that if you really did pay 14k for the site, then you have bigger problems than somebody trying to steal your content. A fair price for the entire design including graphics and backend would be around £1400, not £14,000. You were ripped off. About the most complicated part of the sight that I can see is inputing the comparison data for the different models, which doesn't look to be to complex at all. Most similar sites use similar data anyway, so it would be very difficult to prove one way or another.

You may have a legal claim over the content of the pages, but actually pursuing this would be another matter. Regardless any form of DOS attack on another site is illegal and likely to land you in trouble with your ISP/Host who are far more likely to take some form of action as it is their network you are abusing. Attacks also very rarely work.

A solicitors letter is actually probably the best option, regardless of how watertight your argument is, the threat of legal hassle probably carries more weight than the outcome of any judgement.

The algarythem on the back end of the site is almost as complicated as google's search criteria.

It really isn't. If that is what you have been told then it is a lie.

The database designers thought they could bat it out in a couple of days ended up taking them 3 month.

I think you have been had. There is not much more than a few days worth of work in that. if there is then they are not very good at their job.

It also doesn't really make sense to create the application in .net either (you probably want to handle your errors more elegantly btw ), an open source technology would be a lot cheaper to host.

Finally the broken links on your front page don't give a great impression. If you can't fix them, remove them - nothing more off-putting to potential customers. It is also not a good sign your website designers don't appear to be in business anymore.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but hopefully you'll take this as constructive criticism. I've been doing this a long time and seen a lot of people shafted over the years.

Never heard of your company myself, but if you are interested in trading on Rovertech, more details can be found here

[mg55]

i dont no much about ownig websites. but 14k that carnt be true

[Semproxion]

I have to concur with Null-byte.

There's no way that there's 14k's worth of work in that site.