Re: Copyright violations

["Eric J. Ray (remote)" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

> Anyone have any experience with blatant copyright
> violations of web page material? We just discovered
> that someone copied almost all of our web site and
> changed a few logos and names to create their own
> site. Very odd for someone in our business who claims
> to be a web site designer, but it happened.
>
> Check our our site at http://www.wordtek.com and
> his at http://www.jepspublishing.com.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated,

My suggestion, for this and other
issues that _might_ involve legal
issues, would be to consult a trusted attorney
with expertise in the appropriate area--intellectual
property, in this case.

For a variety of reasons, including TECHWR-L and
unrelated publishing issues, Deborah and I have
had several opportunities (!) to work with an
intellectual property attorney, and have learned
that:
 * No matter how well-read you think you are in this
   field, you aren't well-enough informed to advise
   yourself on intellectual property issues, and probably
   not on any other legal issues either.
 * Establishing a working relationship with an
   attorney with expertise in your area of concern
   is invaluble--an in-law who is a divorce lawyer
   but remembers copyright or contract law from law
   school doesn't count.
 * Legal advice is usually worth approximately what
   you pay for it. That is, you'll be well-ahead
   if you make an appointment with an attorney and
   _pay for_, say, one hour of time to do nothing
   but ask questions and listen to the answers.

In brief, you should have someone
you can call, describe a situation, and say "Do you
think I'm being screwed", then trust that the answer
comes with _your_ best interest in mind. Full-time
captive writers can probably turn to their corporate
legal resources; anyone who freelances or does contract
work needs to look out for their own interests.

Similarly, DO NOT rely on any advice from this forum or
other online venues, as the advice--no matter how
knowledgable-sounding or well-meaning--is frequently
garbage or highly misleading.

With the TECHWR-L admin hat on...please do NOT post
anything that even vaguely resembles legal advice or
interpretation of law unless you 1) are a lawyer and
know what you're talking about, or 2) clearly
qualify what you're saying with the statement that you're
not a lawyer and may well have less than the required
minimum amount of knowledge to say what you're saying.
Not to be rude, but someone relying on this list for
legal advice would be in some serious trouble.

Eric
ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com

(FWIW, we work with Doug Isenberg, who is an old friend
of mine, a columnist on the TECHWR-L site, publisher
and editor of http://www.gigalaw.com/, and has his
fingers into more intellectual property/Internet issues
than I could count.)


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