Blatant Theft Of Copywrite Material

[andyadam]

Take a look at this http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...eal-estate.html.  Then take a look at this - http://lannarealty.com/faq.php #4.  They are the same!  I wrote the text for lannarealty.com but I now see it in lostinthailand's website.  They copied it directly from me without giving any credit and when I contacted them I got the standard answer "we are looking into it and will get back to you" which they never did.  Is there anything I can do?

I notice this isn't an isolated incident - http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...chiang-rai.html and http://www.thailand-lawyer.com/land_purphase.html - probably lots more!

(Sorry, title should be copyright not copywrite)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, firstly your website is NOT the same ! Yours is a pile of crap compared to the "accused" !

Secondly when I click on the accused site I see no resemblance to yours. OK, you might say "but if you click here and look there" I might see it however, I have already made up my mind ! Yours is so bad I would be embarrassed to come on here and accuse someone of copying it !!

What the accused has done is simply used some other fools time (and maybe expense) for his own gain, who’s the clever one ? Not you !!!

I have just done the exact same thing where I have just created (or not as the case may be) a website myself which I copied from another, not just a bit of text but the whole thing ! Saved me about 10,000 baht !

The only way you can stop them is if ..... 1) You are a Thai registered company, 2) You copyrighted the website as a "brand" of your company, and C) The accused is also a Thai company.

My guess is its going to be neither of these so.... its A) get over it or Moan and groan about it on internet forums hoping that someone feels sorry for you..... and guess what ?....... we dont !!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try scrolling down, I took about 2 seconds to find it!!!

And you're the "smart" one??????? Before you post next time, see if you can borrow the family brain cell!!!

[mbkudu]

There are IP laws here in Thailand to cover the content of text within a website. The author of the text is the owner of said text.

If anybody has questions regarding this, just PM good ole DJ Pat. He has loads of experience doing this. He's not very good at it though; he's been caught out by several posters here.

[Koh_Chang_Farang]

If it's any consolation the same website also ripped off some stuff I wrote about Koh Chang real estate for my site.

However, they have now - after a couple of emails - removed the paragraphs I complained about. In the initial email from them they stated :

"I could not understand how this could have occurred as we endeavour to seek permission from any site with which we share information with."

Obviously didn't do this in the OPs case.

Guess they just forgot.

[GuestHouse]

You have copyright from the moment you write something down.

I've had work stolen in the past and had mixed results when trying to get a resolution.

My advice would be to use a service provider search, like 'Whois.com' to find out who hosts the offenders website and then write to the service provider, informing them of the copyright theft and asking for the page to be removed.

It will of course help if you can provide evidence of when you wrote the text, I log my work with a copyright solicitor when I publish, but any recorded evidence of date will suffice.

I have had several successes with that route.

Incidentally, I occasionally 'google' text from my own work to see who is using it, you'd be surprised how often unauthorized usage comes up.

[samran]

Alright, so do our Moddies have to have Work Permits then....after all they're working on a Thai website

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't need one!

[Galong]

Take a look at this http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...eal-estate.html.  Then take a look at this - http://lannarealty.com/faq.php #4.  They are the same!  I wrote the text for lannarealty.com but I now see it in lostinthailand's website.  They copied it directly from me without giving any credit and when I contacted them I got the standard answer "we are looking into it and will get back to you" which they never did.  Is there anything I can do?

I notice this isn't an isolated incident - http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...chiang-rai.html and http://www.thailand-lawyer.com/land_purphase.html - probably lots more!

(Sorry, title should be copyright not copywrite)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A former employee if mine copied many pages from my websites. I asked him to remove them and he did... but then he put more of my text on his site.

You should take advantage of both Google and Yahoo's copyright infringment policies. It takes some time, but they do drop pages. My former employee has had a couple pages drop out of sight in both search engines.

You'll need to prove that your text was online before the copy-cat's. That's easy, just go to http://www.copyscape.com/ and follow the directions.

Good luck...

[Khutan]

Alright, so do our Moddies have to have Work Permits then....after all they're working on a Thai website

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To answer your question YES I DO, and the details on my WP is to Manage, Direct etc Computer insatllations, internet etc, and its valid in all provinces of Thailand.

Secondly, This is a website about the subject of Expatriate life in Thailand. It does not mean that it is a Thai Website.

[lannachiangrai]

The thieves took off the link after only 5 days and changed the text! Beware if you try to deal with them! They certainly don't want to give credit for any stolen material.

[Thai Bairn]

The thieves took off the link after only 5 days and changed the text!  Beware if you try to deal with them!  They certainly don't want to give credit for any stolen material.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If they have removed the text you complained about - cant see the problem - you got some free publicity for your website - or did you really expect a well ranked site to give you a free link indefinetely ?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Alright, so do our Moddies have to have Work Permits then....after all they're working on a Thai website

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't need one!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bloody privileged riceburner

[Tyree D.]

The thieves took off the link after only 5 days and changed the text!  Beware if you try to deal with them!  They certainly don't want to give credit for any stolen material.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

can I borrow you rhyme about Mae Sai girls?

[MyNameIsFarang]

Alright, so do our Moddies have to have Work Permits then....after all they're working on a Thai website

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't need one!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bloody privileged riceburner

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

More to the point, do they have the permission of the rights-holders to publish the full text of the news articles that start so many threads here? I'm sure the rights-holders would prefer their property not be stolen.

[lomatopo]

I remembered this thread when I was reading this short article in The New Yorker magazine. (I am about three months behind and am just finishing up my last issue in hand. I’ll pick up the next batch when I return to the U.S.A. next week.)

I had never heard of purposefully adding an obviously fake entry, now referred to as a “mountweazel”, into published material in order to protect the copyright.

I thought that the ‘cause’ of Lillian Virginia Mountweazel’s death, listed in the ‘fake’ encyclopedia entry, was a ‘dead’ giveaway, “…only to die at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.”

It was also interesting to learn the ‘eurocreep’ is a real word.

Excerpt...

INK

NOT A WORD

Issue of 2005-08-29

Posted 2005-08-22

Turn to page 1,850 of the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia and you’ll find an entry for Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, a fountain designer turned photographer who was celebrated for a collection of photographs of rural American mailboxes titled “Flags Up!” Mountweazel, the encyclopedia indicates, was born in Bangs, Ohio, in 1942, only to die “at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.”

If Mountweazel is not a household name, even in fountain-designing or mailbox-photography circles, that is because she never existed. “It was an old tradition in encyclopedias to put in a fake entry to protect your copyright,” Richard Steins, who was one of the volume’s editors, said the other day. “If someone copied Lillian, then we’d know they’d stolen from us.”

So when word leaked out that the recently published second edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary contains a made-up word that starts with the letter “e,” an independent investigator set himself the task of sifting through NOAD’s thirty-one hundred and twenty-eight “e” entries in search of the phony. The investigator first removed from contention any word that was easily recognized or that appears in Webster’s Third New International; the remaining three hundred and sixty words were then vetted with a battery of references.

Six potential Mountweazels emerged. They were:

earth loop—n. Electrical British term for GROUND LOOP.

EGD—n. a technology or system that integrates a computer display with a pair of eyeglasses . . . abbreviation of eyeglass display.

electrofish—v. [trans.] fish (a stretch of water) using electrocution or a weak electric field.

ELSS—abbr. extravehicular life support system.

esquivalience—n. the willful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities . . . late 19th cent.: perhaps from French esquiver, “dodge, slink away.”

eurocreep—n. informal the gradual acceptance of the euro in European Union countries that have not yet officially adopted it as their national currency.

— Henry Alford

Edited November 19, 2005 by lomatopo

[Tornado]

Thank you for that link! I was surprised to see my text on "Top 10 results shown. Get more results and plagiarism alerts with Copysentry Protection... "

Another words, at least 10 have stolen my text for their sites

I have just handed the info to my lawyers and will let you know the outcome.

I am a terrible writer at the best of times and the text for my site, took me a very long time to write, check and recheck....

Take a look at this http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...eal-estate.html.  Then take a look at this - http://lannarealty.com/faq.php #4.  They are the same!  I wrote the text for lannarealty.com but I now see it in lostinthailand's website.  They copied it directly from me without giving any credit and when I contacted them I got the standard answer "we are looking into it and will get back to you" which they never did.  Is there anything I can do?

I notice this isn't an isolated incident - http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...chiang-rai.html and http://www.thailand-lawyer.com/land_purphase.html - probably lots more!

(Sorry, title should be copyright not copywrite)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A former employee if mine copied many pages from my websites. I asked him to remove them and he did... but then he put more of my text on his site.

You should take advantage of both Google and Yahoo's copyright infringment policies. It takes some time, but they do drop pages. My former employee has had a couple pages drop out of sight in both search engines.

You'll need to prove that your text was online before the copy-cat's. That's easy, just go to http://www.copyscape.com/ and follow the directions.

Good luck...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[khall64au]

Thank you for that link! I was surprised to see my text on "Top 10 results shown. Get more results and plagiarism alerts with Copysentry Protection... "

Another words, at least 10 have stolen my text for their sites 

I have just handed the info to my lawyers and will let you know the outcome.

I am a terrible writer at the best of times and the text for my site, took me a very long time to write, check and recheck.... 

Take a look at this http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...eal-estate.html.  Then take a look at this - http://lannarealty.com/faq.php #4.  They are the same!  I wrote the text for lannarealty.com but I now see it in lostinthailand's website.  They copied it directly from me without giving any credit and when I contacted them I got the standard answer "we are looking into it and will get back to you" which they never did.  Is there anything I can do?

I notice this isn't an isolated incident - http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...chiang-rai.html and http://www.thailand-lawyer.com/land_purphase.html - probably lots more!

(Sorry, title should be copyright not copywrite)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A former employee if mine copied many pages from my websites. I asked him to remove them and he did... but then he put more of my text on his site.

You should take advantage of both Google and Yahoo's copyright infringment policies. It takes some time, but they do drop pages. My former employee has had a couple pages drop out of sight in both search engines.

You'll need to prove that your text was online before the copy-cat's. That's easy, just go to http://www.copyscape.com/ and follow the directions.

Good luck...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I for one will be very interested in what your lawyers say Torny.

Have just put the weblinks of a few of my stories into www.copyscape.com and found that these stories have been copied on websites from Thailand to the UK. I sold the articles with non-exclusive rights to a magazine which also posts the issue's features online. From there, my work has been stolen over and over.

Not fair! I want my reproduction cheques!!!

[The Dude]

Take a look at this http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...eal-estate.html.  Then take a look at this - http://lannarealty.com/faq.php #4.  They are the same!  I wrote the text for lannarealty.com but I now see it in lostinthailand's website.  They copied it directly from me without giving any credit and when I contacted them I got the standard answer "we are looking into it and will get back to you" which they never did.  Is there anything I can do?

I notice this isn't an isolated incident - http://www.lostinthailand.com/thailand-gui...chiang-rai.html and http://www.thailand-lawyer.com/land_purphase.html - probably lots more!

(Sorry, title should be copyright not copywrite)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're kidding, right? Oh, you're not. Sorry bout that dude. Hey look if it makes you feel any better The Dude has his words ripped off daily but The Dude is majorly mellow bout it though.

[solo siam]

The Lannarealty website is much nicer, someone said it wasnt but its so much better.

I must admit to not being able to see any copyright notices on it - Did you actually copyright the work or did you just think it was automatically copyrighted?

[OxfordWill]

http://www.convertit.com/Board/ edit.asp?mode=edit&postType=reply&type=reply&topicID=160&replyID=197&catID=9&for umID=1

http://69.93.190.173/index.php?id=530

http://www.martellothailand.com/news.php3?no=9

http://www.phuketland.com/gaz/gaz86.htm

http://lostinthailand.com/thailand-guides/...n-thailand.html

http://www.exclusivehomes-phuket.com/property_ownership.htm

http://www.iamkohchang.com/Real_Estate/

http://www.samuiparadise.com/bayfront/legal.php

http://www.phuketparadiseproperties.com/info.php

http://www.phuketland.com/gaz/gaz99.htm

And many more.

DMCA each site, if they run ads, report them for violations to the advertising company (google are good at responding to DMCA requests).

Good luck.