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Subject:Re:copyright and the web From:"Sierra Godfrey" <kittenbreath -at- hotbot -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Tue, 16 May 2000 13:09:46 -0700
There used to be a good article on web site copywrite laws on www.htmlgoodies.earthweb.com.
As I remember it, the US recognizes web page copywrites as simply as just placing a copywrite symbol, your name, and the year on the web page.
Of course, your situation is a good example of the best and worst part of the web. Best because you can study otehr people's pages to learn how to do cool things, but worst because some unscrupulous houligans steal pages.
It sounds as if the perpetrator is using your site on his--linking to it, on your server. You can do a few things: Contact his ISP and get his site shut down, move your own site and make the page he's stealing into something else (I like the previous suggestion of writing "Content Theif" all over it), or contact him/her yourself, which is the least successful method. Sending a lawyer's letter will not only take too much time, but accomplish little.
In addition, a lawyer's email does nothing. I used to work for Looksmart and a lawyer for a Catholic Chruch in Iowa wrote us to cease and desist linking their web site name to a porn site (we weren't; the site had been hacked on purpose by someone), or "else". He had no legal grounds and we could do anything we wanted, should we want to.
