So what happens when you discover someone has swiped content from your website and is presenting it as his or her own? What should you do if, as in my case, someone has actually “hijacked” entire pages of your site without changing your logo or company name? What rights do you have if someone places your logo on a bogus site, creating the inaccurate impression their site is associated with your business?

First, let me explain that I am talking about two different, but closely related issues here. If someone takes content, text or graphics from your site and presents it as his own, this is copyright infringement of your intellectual property. It does not matter whether you have a copyright notice on it or not. If it was created and presented in a tangible form after 1978, it is considered to be copyrighted material. In most cases, a person will take your name off and add his own. The intent is to let someone else do the work (you), while he appears to be the authority in your area of expertise.

The other issue falls more along the line of website hijacking. In this instance, a person duplicates all or part of your website or blog page. He does not remove your logo or company name or information. He doesn’t care about the content. He simply wants a fast, easy way to set up a site. He can then add links or ads to the site in order to make money from them. Often, these links go to porn or other sites you probably don’t want your company to be associated with.

This latter scenario is really what I’m referring to when I speak of online defamation. I'm not an attorney, and I'm not using the word “defamation” in the legal sense. Dictionary.com defines defamation as “the act of defaming; false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another, as by slander or libel.” From a PR and image standpoint, I'm referring to someone using your company information in a way that damages your reputation.

In the examples I’ve given, the motive behind the theft of your content differs. Of course, when someone uses your stolen content and leaves your identity intact, it can be more damaging to your business image. But both are examples of copyright infringement, meaning the following tips can be used in either situation to remove your content from the offending site.

• When you find your site content being used on someone else’s site, gather proof. Get screenshots of the offending site. Most people probably know how to do this. If you don’t, here is a simple way to copy a PC screen. Press the “print screen” button on your keyboard. Open your word processing software. Open a blank document and right click on your mouse. Choose “paste.” A graphic of the site will be inserted, and you can save this document.
• Gather evidence proving you were the original author/creator/owner of the content. You can do this in several ways. One way is to do a Google search of your website page url that has the same content as the offending site. For example, I would type in http://www.marketing-small-business.net/business-letters.html to search for my business letters page. When it comes up in the search, I can click on cache to show me the most recent date the page was spidered by the search engines. If I’m lucky, that date will be earlier than the comparable date of the offending site. I can keep a screen shot as proof that my page is the original. You can also use www.archive.org to obtain a historical account of your site, again providing previous proof of ownership. If the content in question was something you created on your computer, you might also view the history of that document. For example, does your word processor show a date the file was created or modified? Keep either an online or hardcopy file of all evidence of ownership.
• Contact the owner of the offending site. You can take one of several approaches. If the person has plagiarized an article you wrote, you can ask to be identified as the rightful author and request a link to your site. You may also request to have the article removed. If someone has hijacked a large portion of your site, you should ask that it be taken down. Maintain your composure and professionalism when asking. In some cases, the person may honestly not know he has violated your copyright. To find contact information for the site owner, you can look around on the offending site for an email or contact information. If someone has hijacked your site though, you probably won’t find contact information that easily. In that case, go to one of the “Whois” services. You can do a search for Whois or try this internic "whois" page. Typically the Registrant or Administrative name will be the site owner. Use the information available here, either email or street address, to contact the site owner. As part of your evidence package, you might also note the date their domain was registered which will be listed with the Whois information.
• Often, with this one contact, your job is done. Simply pointing out the problem will result in the content being removed. If not, your next step is to send a “cease and desist” letter or email to the site owner. You can find many samples of cease and desist letters with an Internet search. Or, you use a variation of this basic example:

  It has come to my attention that you are using my company’s copyrighted material on your website. (Describe material in question) which appears on your website at (url) is original content from my business site at (url). According to my records, the first tangible use of this material by my company was (date). You have not acquired permission to use (material in question), meaning you are in violation of copyright laws.

  I am writing to request that you (specifically explain your request, whether you want the site taken down, the information removed or credit given to you as the original author). I ask that this action be taken within the next five days and that you notify me at that time. Thank you for your prompt attention to this issue.

• If the cease and desist notice doesn’t do the trick, try contacting the site’s hosting company and notify them of the copyright infringement. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA, online service providers (including ISP’s and search engines) have a safe harbor from any liability if one of their users is guilty of copyright infringement. However, this safe harbor requires them to promptly block access if they receive a notification of infringement from a copyright holder. Although it’s pretty boring reading, you can find out more about the DMCA at this copyright.gov site. To identify who hosts a site, you can also use Whois. The Registrar will be the site host. Visit the host’s site and find their terms of service or legal page to read policies for reporting copyright infringement. You can also contact the search engines to ask that the offending pages be removed from their search results. Here is info for the three major search engines:
  

  Google Digital Millennium Copyright Act
  Yahoo Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy
  MSN About the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
  

If the above steps do not resolve the situation, you may want to seek legal assistance. However, in my research of business owners and individuals dealing with online copyright infringement, it appears the situation rarely escalates to that point if you follow the above steps.

I do want to make a few other points regarding copyright violations and protecting your company image. Do not feel at fault in any way, as I did at first. In a way, I thought to myself, “Well what do you expect when all of your information is floating around on the Internet?“ I wasn’t 100% certain if I even had any copyright protection online. Then, I found that any creative work (after 1978) is copyrighted once it is in tangible form. It doesn’t even matter if you have a copyright notice on it. It is probably still a good idea to put a copyright notice at the bottom of each web page though, just to forewarn that you take copyright violations seriously. It should be in the form of ©, the year and who owns the material – either you or your company name.

Also, don’t fear as I did that it will be next to impossible to get your information removed or the hijacked site taken down. Because this is such a widespread problem, it did take a little time for me to get anything other than an automated email response from the blog host. I did get a “human” response within about three days. When I did, the splog was immediately taken down. I have read various forum posts by people dealing with similar situations. All seem to agree the key is persistence.

Finally, don’t just walk away and think, “It’s really no big deal if someone uses my information.” Once you open that door, the snowball begins rolling. You have no idea where your company information will end up and how much damage can be done to your business reputation. Also, when other sites copy your web content word-for-word, the search engines may penalize you. They see content used on numerous sites as spamming. The result is lower placement of your site or total exclusion from search engine results.

Most small businesses do worry about their offline reputations (and if you don’t, you should). They know how quickly word-of-mouth advertising can harm or help their sales. Don’t treat your online reputation any differently. Think how much more quickly and widely information about your company can be disseminated via the Internet. Monitor and protect your copyright and company's online reputation.