How to provide good quality content if competition is stealing

[RWW]

Hi everyone,

I have a customer that is very successful in a worlds niche market in the aviation industry. Following Rand Fishkin and Wil Reynolds I tell them to provide the best content they have for their customers and want them to blog. Now the issue is that their competition is playing unfair and already stole texts from them to present those at aviation fairs.

What do you think?

How can one follow Rands and Wils suggestions without losing in the end?

Cheers

Marc

[TimHolmes]

I think the hardest thing for you is to prove that the content is originally yours. I would suggest that when creating content make sure that you log the original date created and before making live inform any parties involved on the policing of your industry that the content is yours.

If the other party is simply copy and pasting for offline use it can be a bit harder to prove, but should you be able to get your hands on any hard copies that were created after your publication date you could possibly prove breach of copyrighted material, that is providing they have not simply rewrote the content to make it completely bespoke to them which again make it harder to prove they did not come up with the content.

If they are copying and pasting to their website make sure you add in a few links back to you as a source but also include any details/image with your own meta, watermarks and exif image data etc again tying it back to you. Eventually they will slip up and you will be able to prove they have been plagiarising your work.

If it is online you could also file a spam report with Google to try and get their copied content removed the serps etc. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport This may also help about copyright infrigement in the US - http://copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-infringement.html / http://www.copyright.gov/

Failing all that I would imagine a court ruling would be the final steps to stop them using your content.

[EGOL]

Go to an attorney who practices intellectual property law.  You need to play your cards properly in these types of situations.  What you learn from this situation can be helpful for future situations and what you establish with your attorney will streamline actions in future situations.

Discuss the following and other topics with the attorney:  adequate terms of use for the website, warnings on your website for potential infringers, how others might be able to use your property under fair use, proper copyright registration, informal notices of infringement, formal notices of infringement, DMCA complaints, potential liability and costs that can be incurred if you step into this, other topics that apply to your specific situation..

An informal notice often stops infringement, a formal notice often works when informal notice does not, a DMCA can get their copy of your content out of search or off of a server.  DMCA can also get you in trouble.

Legal advice in these situations often costs less than most people fear. Not taking action or taking the wrong action often costs more than most people realize.

Sometimes you can learn a lot from a preliminary discussion with an attorney by phone without incurring any costs.  Depending upon your situation and who you consult, you might spend $X000 and come away with knowledge and resources that will significantly reduce your infringement problem.   I've done it with more than one attorney just to get diverse perspective and an education.   I've gotten my money's worth and my wallet ain't smokin'.

That's about what I can say about this.  I am not qualified to give legal advice.