What to do about a copycat?

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writersblock

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About a month ago another writer e-mailed me saying she liked my website and was inspired by it. We exchanged a few e-mails and that was that.

A few days ago I saw that she had just created her own website, made up a mock interview (based on my real one) and used, verbatim. some of the same expressions I had used in mine. The wording is EXACTLY the same, so this can't be a coincidence.

I e-mailed her asking that she change the wording but she is ignoring me. True, this isn't the end of the world, but I am annoyed by how she blatantly stole my lines. You'd think that a writer could write her own words.

My question is, what to do about this? I am sure she broke some copyright law but I don't want to be litigious. I just want her to realize that what she did is not legal, not nice, and certainly not cool.
 

LloydBrown

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About a month ago another writer e-mailed me saying she liked my website and was inspired by it. We exchanged a few e-mails and that was that.

A few days ago I saw that she had just created her own website, made up a mock interview (based on my real one) and used, verbatim. some of the same expressions I had used in mine. The wording is EXACTLY the same, so this can't be a coincidence.

I e-mailed her asking that she change the wording but she is ignoring me. True, this isn't the end of the world, but I am annoyed by how she blatantly stole my lines. You'd think that a writer could write her own words.

My question is, what to do about this? I am sure she broke some copyright law but I don't want to be litigious. I just want her to realize that what she did is not legal, not nice, and certainly not cool.
 

veinglory

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I suspect that contacting your copycat directly will just make her even happier. You have already notified here of the problem and there is not much more to be done there. If the similarities are close enough to be apparent to a causual observer trying contacting her web-host.
 

LloydBrown

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I suspect that contacting your copycat directly will just make her even happier. You have already notified here of the problem and there is not much more to be done there. If the similarities are close enough to be apparent to a causual observer trying contacting her web-host.
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dantem42

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writersblock said:
About a month ago another writer e-mailed me saying she liked my website and was inspired by it. We exchanged a few e-mails and that was that.

A few days ago I saw that she had just created her own website, made up a mock interview (based on my real one) and used, verbatim. some of the same expressions I had used in mine. The wording is EXACTLY the same, so this can't be a coincidence.

I e-mailed her asking that she change the wording but she is ignoring me. True, this isn't the end of the world, but I am annoyed by how she blatantly stole my lines. You'd think that a writer could write her own words.

My question is, what to do about this? I am sure she broke some copyright law but I don't want to be litigious. I just want her to realize that what she did is not legal, not nice, and certainly not cool.

There is indeed an implied copyright, but you can't enforce it without paying a lawyer to at least write a nasty letter. This may scare the copycat into pulling the site, but it will cost you a hundred bucks or more. You can also probably spend the same money to have an internet wizard divebomb the site into oblivion (just kidding, of course).
 

Mac H.

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dantem42 said:
There is indeed an implied copyright, but you can't enforce it without paying a lawyer to at least write a nasty letter.
Nonsense - you can at least send a standard email which will probably cause their ISP to block their site.

A DMCA notice doesn't require a lawyer and takes only a few moments of time ...

Just google to find some easy samples.

Mac
(Note: I'm assuming that the web host is based in the USA...)
 
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