4 ms·

I'm an attorney and I've done quite a bit of work relating to copyright law, so I'll chime in. Copyright to your work is established immediately when your work

I'm an attorney and I've done quite a bit of work relating to copyright law, so I'll chime in. Copyright to your work is established immediately when your work becomes fixed in its ultimate form. You don't have to worry about losing it. Assuming that your site existed before theirs, they MAY be found to be infringing. Emphasis on "may" because you don't have a copyright on ideas, only on the expression of the ideas, and it has been ruled that the "look" of a site isn't protected. So, for a court to rule that the they are infringing, it will have to find that significant portions of the copy, code, or presentation must be a near duplicate. I haven't viewed the two source files or CSS, so I can't even an opinion on the significance of the replication in this case. Regardless, there are several reasons why pursuing this in court may not be a good idea. First, your copyright isn't registered, so you have the burden of proving that your site existed first. To do this you'll have to meet with an attorney several times, file to have their ISP provide evidence that you will need to prove you case, suffer through the other side's discovery, depositions, etc. Basically, it will waste a lot of time. Second, even if you win you will have to show that you suffered some loss due to the infringement, and any monetary award will be based that loss. You're loss would likely be found to be the percentage of their revenue derived from infringing on your copyright. It appears that in this case, that would be negligible. All this being said, it wouldn't hurt to have a lawyer write a cease and desist letter, and another if necessary. At the very least, that will force them to reword there sales copy, and rework their markup.

lunaru 17y ago
I think at this point we're leaning toward the C&D. Is it absolutely necessary to have a lawyer do this or can we just contact them directly? Right now our inclination is to just "shake hands" with them, tell them what they did was not cool, and ask them to change their direction.
- imajes 17y ago
  get a lawyer. - do it badly and you risk being sued yourself.
- skwiddor 17y ago
  Use the one that Apple sent to Microsoft when they were suing for the look and feel of Windows being a rip of MacOS. oh
- rodyancy 17y ago
  It isn't absolutely necessary, but having an attorney send the letter will amplify the force of your demands. Also, as mentioned below, if you decide to contact them yourselves, you may unknowingly produce evidence that can later be used against you, or you may lose your head and make a threat you shouldn't make. It shouldn't take an attorney more than one billable hour. Having an attorney send the letter may save you money, if you consider how long it would take you to research and write, depending on at what rate you value your time. One thing, and you probably already know this, when you say "ask them to change their direction," don't expect to succeed in keeping them from competing with you. They have a right to express the idea that you are expressing, they just have to write their own copy and markup to legally do so.

lunaru 17y ago

I think at this point we're leaning toward the C&D. Is it absolutely necessary to have a lawyer do this or can we just contact them directly? Right now our inclination is to just "shake hands" with them, tell them what they did was not cool, and ask them to change their direction.

imajes 17y ago
get a lawyer. - do it badly and you risk being sued yourself.
skwiddor 17y ago
Use the one that Apple sent to Microsoft when they were suing for the look and feel of Windows being a rip of MacOS. oh
rodyancy 17y ago
It isn't absolutely necessary, but having an attorney send the letter will amplify the force of your demands. Also, as mentioned below, if you decide to contact them yourselves, you may unknowingly produce evidence that can later be used against you, or you may lose your head and make a threat you shouldn't make. It shouldn't take an attorney more than one billable hour. Having an attorney send the letter may save you money, if you consider how long it would take you to research and write, depending on at what rate you value your time. One thing, and you probably already know this, when you say "ask them to change their direction," don't expect to succeed in keeping them from competing with you. They have a right to express the idea that you are expressing, they just have to write their own copy and markup to legally do so.