CyberCrime - 3 Thefts in One

A new phenomenon is taking place in our real estate cyber world, and that's copyright violations. What began as copying a graphic here, a paragraph there, is now "Let's take the whole site and make it our own." How I found this out was on New Year's weekend when I was updating some dead links on my webpages and was doing research. Up popped my Weather page, but under the domain name of another Scottsdale agent! In checking his website, it turned out EVERY page of his website, was my webpages! Intact, formatting, content, everything.

The first reaction is anger and dismay. Then disbelief. How could a fellow agent do this to you? All your hard work, your personality, your creativeness, your money, your time, all snatched away from you. I immediately called the agent, no response. Faxed him, no response. Couldn't sleep that night.

Next morning, I received some sage advice from Mr. Internet himself, Michael Russer. Don't let it "own" you. Detach yourself and do what you need to do to remedy the situation. Easy to say, hard to do. But, when I went back to researching that afternoon, up pops another one of my pages, again under the domain name of yet another Scottsdale agent. This one was even more egregious since this couple stole even my holiday page! My custom graphics, my headers, footers, every single thing, with no changes, except to put a note on the bottom with their name and company, saying "We bring you this website out of the love we have for this community and our wonderful neighbors. It is our way of giving back to a community that gives us so much." What hypocrites!

My good friend Al Napier posed this question to the Real Talk forum the next morning.

Just how much/many "ideas" can someone "borrow" from a site to use with their own without crossing the line?

Look?? Feel?? General layout?? Actual graphics?? Text?? Overall impression??

Just how much "personalizing" is allowable before one crosses the line of copyright infringement?

Is the web design company responsible too if they use said graphics and design provided to them by their customer but taken from someone else's site?

He included a link to the offending Scottsdale agents' site, with a question asking the readers if it reminded them of any other.

The response was overwhelming and immediate! Outrage, with feedback from agents from all over the country. In addition, I posed these same questions to my networking group, and received over 400 responses in 2 days, again from all over the country, with some from Australia and New Zealand. The power of community. It's awesome!

Now, the sad thing is that there were other horror stories from too many who had this very theft occur to them, as well as the esteemed webmeister herself, Becky Swann of IRED! These beautiful people offered more sage advice, which I will share with all.

I also met with my intellectual property attorney to go over exactly what constitutes a copyright and trademark violation.

There are some things I would do differently the next time this happens. I don't want to believe it will, but there will always be those with no conscience. Or, who, get this! That think we'd be "flattered" or "complimented". And there are those, too, like the two Scottsdale agents, who obviously had my webpages up for some time, will wait until caught, enjoying the ride while they can, and then take down the webpages, without comment or remorse.

I said there were 3 thefts in one. The first is, of course, the theft of the hard work, money, time, creativity, your uniqueness. The second is the theft of your business lost while you deal with all this. The third is the theft of the business they gained at your expense.

Would that we live in a perfect world without those with no conscience! So, plan B is to put some protective measures in place.

(Plan B)

Copyright law protects original expressions, and distributions of derivatives of it. If there is substantial similarity with copyrightable portions, that is covered. My custom graphics are definitely covered, because I have a signed agreement from the artist that the artwork I had him create and I paid for is mine, and therefore meets copyright requirements. It is called "work for hire". They are also trademarked, something your attorney or yourself can do.

If the content is mine, words out my mouth, and my composition, it is covered. If I write about public information, my words and format are copyrighted. Not, of course, the public information, but my webpage full of my words, now considered my content.

Allen Hainge http://www.afhseminars.com/ pointed out that the concept or idea is what should inspire you. For example, if you see someone has school information on their website, and it might be a good idea for you to put school information on your website, then do so, but do NOT copy their webpage with the information.

And in the case of the agents who stole my material intact and unchanged, and then copyrighted my copyrighted material, no, that doesn't work.

Plan B steps

1. Leave the offending website as is. Before contacting the agent, prepare copies of your website, and theirs, both on disc and in print.
2. Have an attorney on call, one that you have met with before. Although I have my own attorney, agents have been good enough to give me names of attorneys they have used, in addition to pre-legal aid, which I'd be happy to share. Arrange to have a cease and desist letter prepared to be used when needed.
3. Simultaneously have your attorney send the agent this letter, and send copies of the offending site along with the pages of your website the agent has copied to the agent's local Department of Real Estate, the agent's Board of Realtors, the Broker of the agent's agency, and to the agent, and if known, the agent's webdesigner as well as the web host. (Some web hosts will take down the page immediately if there is a violation.) If you feel you cannot or do not want to engage an attorney at this point, you can do these steps yourself.
4. That should get his/her attention. Whether or not, he/she removes the offending material is what will determine the next steps. Needless to say, the webdesigner is also responsible, but it is up to the offending agent to take action.
5. If the agent resists removing the material, and it is shown that the theft of graphics, content, etc. is a breach of copyright or trademark, you are entitled to automatic statutory damages of $100,000 per violation. Not to mention their having to pay for both party's attorney's fees.

In addition, one webmaster shared information on a spider he uses through Digimarc http://www.digimarc.com to track down photos, graphics or web content that have been watermarked by their digital watermark. I've already implemented this one.

There's a very good article about these javascripts on About: Web Design http://webdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa062001a.htm It gives the pros and cons and various types. I will also be happy to email the scripts I received to anyone who would like to have them.

I do have some good sites for you to check out about copyright rights and laws:

Copyright law

See also:

• Get Your Creative Juices Working
  
• Developing Your Niche
  
• Up and Running, Now What?
  
• Marketing Your Website
  
• Increase Success With Your Website
  
• Creating Online Relationships
  

Please think of me for your real estate referrals in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area!

ALICE HELD

(877) 266-3229.