OI! STEALING WEBSITE CONTENT IS A NO NO!

Writing content for a website isn't easy. It's an art form all to itself. Fortunately, there are millions of pages out there you can use for inspiration - and unless you genuinely are the first person in the world to have an idea, you are bound to cast around for other people with similar ideas to help inspire your writing. But - you CANNOT copy someone else's content wholesale! Not only is it illegal but it can damage the credibility of your business if you get caught.

Busted!

A marketing company in our local area launched a new website marketing arm recently, and we were a little taken aback to see that their pages were, word for word, exactly the same as our own!

Have a judge for yourself...

The original (and still the best!)

The bootleg version

Now obviously this blatant copying tips over into actual breach of copyright laws - after all they are were passing off our content as their own. In this case it's twice as silly, because one of the thrusts of the page is all about having unique content! It wasn't just restricted to this page either - but ran to about a dozen or so cut 'n' pasted pages... it's a sin, I tells ya.

Dealing with the issue

In this case, a simple phonecall to the number on the site led to a conversation with a guy who was obviously a little taken aback that this had happened. Rather than pulling out the long nines on him and leaping straight to legal threats, I simply pointed out to him what had happened.

In some cases, the copywriting for a site is farmed out to a third party - so it wouldn't be right just to leap in and start having a go at the guy directly because he genuinely might not have been aware of the problem.

Within seconds of the call, his site was offline which I am taking to be a sign of his concern and good intent. That's why I'm not naming and shaming him - which of course is the real danger if this is a route you're planning on following to use a shortcut to great content.

Sites such as www.pirated-sites.com are dedicated to publicly naming and shaming copyists and for the benefit of your business profile, you do not want to end up on there!

Today's Moral

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - but take it too far and you could be harming your online business irreparably. If you're farming out design or copywriting services, make sure that the 'inspiration' for their work isn't something that tips over into wholesale piracy.

Notes and Queries...

OTHER ARTICLES

• A List of Fish: How not to Copywrite
• Coming off the fence
• This Thing What I Wrote