Wow!  This was an onformative post.  Our site was copied as well.  We have yet to hear from the person!  Thank you for all the details in how to resolve our issue.

Hi Marci~ Doesn't it just make you so mad? I hope the information is helpful to you..I Hope it will be for me;)

Laura,

Thanks for this step-by-step plan on how to handle this problem.  I discovered that contents of my site had been copied word-for-word and notified the offender (a real estate agent in my area who had a page on "staging" courtesy of my FAQ page!!).  Fortunately the offending content was immediately removed from their website.  If it happens again, now I'll know just what to do, thanks to your blog.

I don't blame you. I would be just as "pissed." You mention Josh Dorkin in your post and I wanted to tell you that his regular website is www.biggerpockets.com. I was honored to accept an invitation from Josh to write a weekly article for his Real Estate Blog as a contributor.
The thing that got me into his site was the fact that he personally patroled his site to keep spam and "no-gooders" away.
I am glad that you were able to fight back. It's a great feeling to know you got to slap someone who violated your work. I say this because a local guru where I am from, hijacked some of my textbook material and the copyright laws that you mentioned were enough to support my claim as the author.
Let us know how it comes out.
Jim Watkins - www.dfwmentor.com

My website has been copied on several occasions over the last couple years. I have sent them a "warning letter" which gives them 48 hours to take down or change the site. If they don't, I file the appropriate papers for the DMCA. Those websites were then dismantled and no longer appear on search engines. Google is very helpful and the steps are easy to follow.

I highly recommend your post. You did any excellent job telling people what they need to do to stop a thief.

Maureen~ I just can't believe how low some people can stoop...crazy! I'm glad it worked out in the end, and hope the same for me;)

Hi Jim~ Thanks for some more clarification on Josh's blog..I'll go in and update it to reflect his big blog;) Very cool..I'll keep you posted! 

HI Julie~ That is awesome that they dismantled the site..I never knew that, and it makes me feel like I got the search engines on my side. Thanks, too for the compliment;)

Laura,   Thanks for the enlightening post.  Lots of helpful directions for those of us not so techie types.

Bill~ You are welcome..I found it very helpful as well.

Sorry to hear about your situation.  I'm glad my post came in handy for you.  These guys who steal content are just trying to make easy money off of the hard work of others.  I have people stealing content almost every day and the steps that I outlined have proven to be quite effective - except, of course with foreigners.  They ignore threats and legal notices.  I think it just might be the price you have  to pay to play.

Hi Josh~ Thanks SO MUCH for your post! I'll let you know if it works. Thanks for popping in too.!

Laura-

Thanks for educating us on recourses available! I am saving this info and will use it!

 

laura,

This is a good 1st step but I still think we need a hall of shame site where these scumbags can sit in infamy forever. I also think that they should be banned from AR.

I can't believe that I'm this mad and I haven't even checked my website yet. 

Kathy~ Yes, please save this or Josh's webpage too. As business owners we often neglect to think about others stealing our stuff...our websites are our babies, our branding, and represent who we are...I don't want someone else impersonating that!

Susan~ Here! Here! I am ALL FOR THAT!!! Check your website. Personally, I was shocked.

Laura,

This happened to me too. Let me know what happens when you say "and getting my lawyer in on it." I always here of stories about this and would like to know if an attorney really helps. I find in cases that I have used attorneys I get charge larged sums of money and nothing really happens. Attorneys in my situations build a pretty picture on everything they can do to stop them but in the end the checks get written and nothing really happens. Please keep us posted. If your attorney works out I would love the referral.

Mike Lewis

Hi Mike~ I definitley will keep you posted. Hopefully we won't have to go that far;)

Laura- I'm sorry to hear that. Good luck with getting it all resolved. Sounds like you have a good plan. I'm going to bookmark your post just in case I need this information at some point.

Hi Jennifer~ Thanks~ Let's hope it works;)

Howdy Laura

Thank you for posting this info and the links.

Have a good one

Dale~ You are welcome, sir!

Now I know where a wet cat resides! Have you contacted this person? I'm just curious.

Great advice Laura..........

Just another wonderful day in Internet paradise.  Copycats should be tared and feathered.  Ooops  Wrong erra! 

Hi Dena~ I have and no word yet...hhhmmmm..this may have to get rough.

 

Roy~ You said it my friend! Maybe we should bring back tarring and feathering?

Laura - I've rated this a 5 and very much appreciate the detail you've gone into in describing the entire process.  I do have a question and that is, what can be done to ensure posts and photo's posted right here on A/R aren't copied?  How would you check that out? 

Please keep us posted on what happens.

 Jackie

Great Information, Thanks for this post!  By the way, I gave you a FIVE!!!!!  And I bookmarked it!

Laura, they can attempt to copy your content, but they can not duplicate you!  I'm sorry this has happened to you.  They are messing with a pit bull. 

Hi Jackie~ Thanks so much!!! I know posts have been written about how to achieve some privacy with blogs. Right off the top of my head, I would do a search (at the top right menu) for copyright, and it will pull some of the results on those blogs!

Michael~ You Rock, thanks a million!

Dave"My Main Man"~ What a drag, huh? Can you believe I'm working right now? Paragon 4 live and online!

Laura, UNBELIEVABLE!!  Wow. I like the hall of shame idea.. in a way.  Another of my favorite blogs (totally not real estate related) said this the other day in a discussion about how to get people to change their bad behavior or unethical business practices: 

" Do you know what improves most human behavior? It's not the law. It's the fear of social censure. Fearing that one's friends and family and (worse yet) adversaries (and I'll say competitors) will know that you did something bad and scorn you because of it is a far greater inhibitor to bad behavior than any law on earth. Almost everybody feels the need to "fit in" and be liked and thought of as a good person. "

Hi Catherine~ Can you believe it? I think you are right, with that quote too. It takes more social embarrassment to deal with this kind of thing. Hey next time I come up to the Bay Area, lets go for lunch, ok?

Hi Laura - glad to see you are taking more than virtual action, We had a guy from Florida contact us last year. He was impressed by our site design and wanted to know who created it. My son. He never contacted my son, but lo and behold, his site looks so much like ours, I thought I was seeing double.

It's not an exact replica, but the design elements and the color scheme are used to the point where it is obvious who he copied.

Busy, busy - see you this year? 

Laura, would love to go to lunch with you! Do you have plans anytime soon to come down here!?  Lug Gena down with you!  Or when I pass thru next, I can maybe meet both you and Gena.

Hi John~ Long time no talk...I miss ya! Well with way your son does web design...its no wonder! He has great designs. Let's chat soon;)

Catherine~ I don't have plans yet, but they can easily be arranged. I supposed to be planning a Nor Cal AR get together very soon...maybe we can roll it all up into one..? 

 

Ok, because I'm the curious sort, I copyscaped you :)  and I see that your offender has removed the content, but the internet can live forever thanks to cached pages.  Reminds me to check my pages more often.

This page seems to have recently removed your content. Click here to see the cached version.

YES! I just caught that Catherine, thanks! I kept checking through the afternoon, and it looks like they took it down. Good move~ I will call off the dogs;)

No this does not surprise me.  It is happening more and more, in-fact someone contacted me recently and said that I had copied their site.  I emailed them back and said that the page that they were referring to had been on the net for 3 years and if they were new to Staging.... how did they get MY info on their site?  I see that they have changed their page.... hmmmm :) Great post Laura and very timely.

Lori~ I think you are right, and it really is just so unprofessional, and makes you mad. I spend months trying to tweak and get stuff the way I want it to be, then poof...copy/paste, and no credit. It chaps my hiney:)

I have a funny thing to share... not that I haven't hijacked your thread here enough... but when I was new to the whole real estate website thing, and learned of copyscape, I realized several people copied my site... how dare they! I thought... :)  LOL, HELLO.. earth to Catherine.. I had a template site, and hundreds, if not thousands of people had my same site!  Ummm duh.... glad I didn't act on it.   I've learned a lot in 6 years.

Course I did realize in that , that people even without template sites.. COPY template sites...  real braniacs out there I tell ya.

 

Cathy~ SOOO true, templates make it easier for us to have websites up and running, but there is definitley a side effect to that!

WHAT A GREAT POST! I didn't think of taking a photo before. These are great advices we all can use to protect ourselves.

Cheers,

Cindy 

Hi Cindy Girl! I know...definitley take screen shots...the proof is right there. Again I have to thank Josh Dorkin for that blog...it certainly helped;)  OT: Yes, let's blog together!

I think it's disgusting that people have to steal content from others. What happens when they get a client and they don't have anybody's work to copy? The client is unhappy. This hurts not only them but us as well.

I have read several posts by people who have had a bad experience with a VA and it makes all of us look bad, because when they post they don't say "I had a bad experience with person X", they say "I had a bad experience with a Virtual Assistant". I don't know about you but it offends me to be lumped into a category with liars and theives. I have a legitimate business with a good reputation and I don't want that damaged by someone else's shortcomings.

Rebecka~ Amen to that, and I agree 100%. When I see posts of real estate professionals who have been burned by dishonest VAs, it makes me that much more determined to work hard, be professional, and really have a conversation with prospective clients if they have/haven't worked with a VA before. It's hard not to take it personally though:)

Laura,it has taken me all morning to read this with all the interruptions...I am SOOOOO sorry that this happened to you. I know how it feels and you are being proactive especially by following thru and by educating others of their options.

Can't believe that someone on Active Rain would stoop that low...

Hi Gena~ I didn't think I was feel so bad if it happened to me, then it did..GGRR! However, the offender did take down the site, thank goodness. Plus, this site was for a VA in Granite Bay...too close to my territory!!! 

I too was glad to note the site was taken down.  On another forum, I mentioned how NOT complimentary this is. How, instead, it is much more like stalking, IMO.   Perhaps someone else pointed out the stupidity and felonious risks of not acting.

Hi JudyAnn~ Yes, stalking that is exactly how I felt..I didn't expect that:( Where have you been lately anyway;) miss you!

Laura, GRANITE BAY? You've got to be kidding. How stupid is that? At least take it to a different State not just minutes away. Good Lord. I think I read that this is an AR person...did you notify AR?

I know how you feel, I feel your pain.

EXCELLENT blog. I rated it a 5!!!

We recently found out (this past week) we wre BANNED from GOOGLE and it's all because NUMEROUS HOME STAGERS have COPIED OUR WEBSITE!!!

Believe me we're taking the steps you have mentioned above and more.  I'm fuming now! that I know it may hurt our business!

In fact, one is someone who poisted on craiglist in TN.  Check out these two pages on our web site:

http://www.stylishtransformations.com/home_stager_services/home_staging_services.html

http://www.stylishtransformations.com/home_stager_faq/home_staging_faq.html

Then look at this post someone did on craiglist. How do you prove who had the info first??? Anyone happen to know who Residential Artist is? Argh....

http://nashville.craigslist.org/rts/439153568.html

 

WAIT!!!! I jsut found him myself. Anyone care to help me think of what I say to this imposter tomorrow?

He doesn't seem to have a web site, but DID have another post on craiglist with his contact info. YEAH!

http://nashville.craigslist.org/rej/427868198.html

Man...don't think he knows who he's dealing with. I have lots of friends in Nashville. Some who aren't always so nice and have training in dealing with imposters. 

Just an update...sorry for so many posts. I just talked to the creep. After hangin up on me once - and after only saying I was claling about the information on his craigs lit post...he calls me back. He says "HIS FRIEND" posted the ads for him and that he'll pull them right away. HA...his FRIEND!

 

 

I occasionally run into myself (my stuff) and sometimes they at least give me a quote - that is nice. Sounds like there are lots of people running into this problem. Was this , Laura, where they directly took your writing and just inserted their name? I see where I surely don't want to mess with Beth - have you seen her Meez?

Hi Beth~ Wow Beth, I can only imagine how furious you are with being banned from Google. I hope that you can remedy the situation with them and please let us know how it all turns out. That is a perfect example of why we all need to protect our branding and content on the web.

I'm glad that you confronted the creep that called you too...that is almost exactly what happened to me. If I hadn't put 2 + 2 together, I wouldn't have realized the full extent of how this person was getting my info. You go Girl! 

 

Hi Kathleen! You must have slipped in when I was commenting on Beth's issue:)

And yes, copy/pasted verbatim! If you look at my website bio, then look at the bio in the photo above you can see it very clearly. MY BIO!!!!! Copy my services, but doesn't this person have anything interesting to say about themselves..???!!

If only people understood that a website's content is not done overnight, so taking the time to regularly work on ones content would stop people from having to steal from others that are putting the time and effort into their websites. Or even outsourcing your content to another person that has a flair for writing, this is far less expensive than being embarrassed on the Internet.

Agnes~ You are so right. But sometimes I think hired web-designers themselves that steal others content as they take their clients money...then try to pass off the content as if they had written it themselves. That's like a double whammy. In my instance, it may not have been the VA, but the designer of the website. (according to the contact I had with this person). So, this "web-designer" is setting up this VA to be liable for copyright infringement...!

Oh, Laura everyone wants to be you because you are so beautiful.

Yep, looks just like your stuff - we had a new stager come into our area with Craig Schiller's room photo on her web page - it is gone now - but maybe her  web designer found it for her. 

Kathleen...:) you're sweet.. this is crazy stuff. Now we have to add "website protector" to our our business specialites,yikes!

Hi Laura,
This is serious business and it's time we take notice and protect ourselves and our material.  (I am guilty of not doing so).  Thank you.

That is amazing.  Given your screenshot, it was a direct cut & paste, not much attempt to change things there.  You have a wonderful VA site Laura, with a breadth of services that is quite impressive to agents/brokers. Wonderful organization, good content and navigation, lots of time and effort on your part.

Good grief Laura, I can't believe that people have the nerve to do that these days. Are they not aware that there are services like copyscape out there to monitor this type of activity. It amazes me that people think they can get away with that. I was glad to hear the site was taken down. Way to stand your ground.

I hate hearing these sorts of stories, Laura. I feel badly for you. I'm glad we have these tools to use ut don't like having to police my work all the time. And wonedring if somehow the tools are missing something I should know about. Good luck getting it resolved.

Jeff

Hi Cynthia~ I had checked it occasionally, and always thought I wouldn't ever see something so blatant. It is your branding they are stealing.

Hi Marc~ Thanks for the support and compliment, it means alot;)I'll be calling Tami today:)

Jen~ I had a stiff martini when it all went down, LOL! Thank goodness I have steps to take.

Hi Jeff! Nice to see you;) It is a shame we have to police our work, sucks big time! Looks like it worked though, but I'll be sure to check more often;) 

 

May i know What are the problems faced by customers from their Virtual assistants and customer's expectation from there Virtual Assistants?.

Regards,

Jose, RA