The duly noted® blog

Duly noted®’s copyright infringed!

Well, the internet being what it is, we knew it was going to happen one day, so when we discovered evidence of a copyright infringement of content from one of our sites, we weren’t surprised. 

What did make us double-take and raise our eyebrows was the perpetrator. 

A copyright registration site. 

Yes, you read that correctly. 

US-based abccopyright.com registers their clients work with the US Copyright Office.  The opening paragraph of their homepage states, quote: 

“Welcome to abcCopyright; the online copyright registration solution for musicians, writers, artists, designers, poets… in fact anyone with intellectual property they want to register and protect. It takes just minutes to Copyright Your Work.” 

If that statement sounds familiar to our clients, then they may want to refresh their memories by taking a look at the homepage of our own registration service site; dulyregistered.co.uk.  There, our opening paragraph – uncannily – reads: 

“Welcome to duly registered™; the online copyright registration solution for musicians, writers, artists, designers, poets… in fact anyone with intellectual property they want to register and protect. It takes just minutes to register your copyrighted work for 10 years!” 

For the record, this opening text has been part of our copyright registration service pages since we launched duly noted^® on the web back in 2005.  

And the abccopyright.com website, launched after us, mysteriously has the same opening copy… 

Fluke?  Coincidence?  Simply the random combination of words conjured by an infinite number of monkeys at their keyboards? 

No, we didn’t think so either. 

How did we make the discovery?  The duplication was spotted by one of our team Sunday 7^th 2008 who was using the Copyscape service, which – in a nutshell – trawls the web, compares websites’ content and flags up possible plagiarisers.  (Use it yourself for your website.  You may be surprised/dismayed.)  And this is what it flagged up. 

Now as far as we can see, nothing else from our sites has been copied; likely due to the fact this is a US-based site, so their content will be dictated by filing procedures with the US Copyright Office.  This may prompt you to ask, “So?  What’s the big deal?  It’s just a paragraph they’ve lifted.” 

No, I reply.  No!  It’s the principle.  It’s the thinking that was behind this copying, not how much was copied.  It’s the fact someone decided, “I like how that reads.  I’ll have that” and used it to promote their own site as though they’d spent the time putting that paragraph together.  It’s passing off our work as theirs.  It’s lazy.  And in the law it’s theft.  But what especially staggers us with the blow of heavy irony is the fact it’s a copyright registration site, the owners of which really ought to know better.  They’re in the IP protection business after all.  I mean… D’uh!! 

So what action have we taken?  Well, as of Monday 8^th, I emailed the site’s owners a Cease & Desist notice, demanding they remove the infringing text.  Upon reflection, yesterday (Tuesday) I also posted the same notice via their “Contact Us” message page.  Good thing I did too; I received a message failure notice about the email we sent to their address Monday.  Not a good sign… 

Anyway, they have a deadline of close of business (GMT) Thursday 11^th December 2008 to act.  If they don’t then I’ll take it up with their internet service provider, whose Abuse Policy I have already perused.  It contains helpful text about what happens to their customers if they do things like infringe third parties’ copyright.  The ISP pulls the plug on their site.  And by US law, ISPs must take matters like this seriously.  So if I hear nothing from the proprietors of abccopyright.com by the deadline, at one minute past I’ll be contacting their ISP with details. 

I’ll keep you informed of the outcome. 

© 2008 Julian Boote  All Rights reserved.

www.dulynoted.co.uk

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