Posted by Jurnei1 on 7/3/05 6:56pm
Msg #49706

Notary in CA copying my website

Hi All:

I can't believe it. But in tooling around the internet today, I found a notary couple living quite close to me who invited themselves to my website and clipped much word for word, undercut my fees to compete with me, and threw their new website out there to the world.

This is upsetting as I have spent 6 months working on my website. It burns me that someone would copy almost word for word, copy my formatting, and then undercut my fees by $5 in the same service area. In fact they copied my cities in my service area to even include a typograhpical error.

My site shows copyright at the bottom of every page!

I'm fuming mad!

Not only are they competing now, but by their lowering fees in this region, they are driving prices lower!

Reply by CaliNotary on 7/3/05 7:54pm
Msg #49708

Did you contact them and let them know that they are infringing on your copyright? I would demand that they change the site immediately and see what their response to you is.

Reply by Jurnei1 on 7/3/05 8:17pm
Msg #49711

Thanks for being there! I have called them - adamsnotaries.com - and told them of what is clearly visible. Her response is that she copied from many notaries. Curiously her services, rates, and coverage area is clearly word for word, except for her lowering her prices.

I also sent an email to them cutting and pasting from their website the exact information/website design informing them that they need to change it immediately. I am waiting to hear further.

I just can't believe someone in the next town would do this and then have the nerve to list their site under mine in notary rotary! Like I wouldn't notice! This is my full time biz. Their's looks to be part time! Where is the honor? I should spend months figuring out webdesign and SEO and they copy paste, lower prices, and let it fly!

This hurts everyone's biz if folks do this and then lower prices. Are we to get in a lower prices war! Ridiculous.

Reply by TitleGalCA on 7/3/05 9:28pm
Msg #49718

Real nice - right in my back yard too. I'm with you Jurnei - if you have copyrighted information you have every right to make the demand you did and I hope you follow through. The lowering of prices hurts all of us in the area.

At best, tacky.

Reply by Jurnei1 on 7/3/05 8:19pm
Msg #49712

I also wrote to notaryrotary.com to inform them of listing a notary under me that copied my website and then lowered their fees.

Reply by Anonymous on 7/3/05 8:27pm
Msg #49713

Get over it! Free market, you just need to become more competetive. If you provide a better service, you will most surely get more business. It sounds like you take your business serious so I am sure you will have plenty of work.

Take Care

Reply by Jurnei1 on 7/3/05 8:32pm
Msg #49715

Copying and pasting another person's website and then offering services for slightly cheaper is not free market- it's copyright infringement and that's illegal. On a ethical and moral level - it's just slimey!

It's also quite cowardly to post anonymously on a forum that is for notaries to freely provide support to each other.

Reply by Jurnei1 on 7/3/05 8:33pm
Msg #49716

Please do identify yourself as you are participating in this discussion.

Reply by DonnanorthernCA on 7/3/05 9:25pm
Msg #49717

To Anonymous

Someday something will happen to you such as identity theft, or worse and to that I say Get over it. Apparently you don't get it.

Reply by HisHughness on 7/3/05 9:43pm
Msg #49720

I failed to note that you should immediately print out full copies of their website, before they change anything -- especially the tell-tale misspelling.

Reply by HisHughness on 7/3/05 9:41pm
Msg #49719

Do not call them. Do not e-mail them. Do not just send them a letter. None of those indicate that you are really serious. Send a certified letter telling them that if all of the copyrighted copied material on their web site is not removed within seven days from the receipt of the letter that you will sue them, and will seek all of the revenues derived from their business since they started using your material, in addition to attorney fees. In the interim, do whatever you have to do to establish your copyright. If there are unique logos or such that they have likewise copied, inform them also that they are infringing on your trademark(s).

Reply by JurneiCA on 7/3/05 9:48pm
Msg #49722

Thanks HH, will do! I am also struggling with posting their site and my site to shame them! But am trying to be adult about this. If I hadn't worked so hard for so many months learning website design, etc. this wouldn't have bothered me so much. But I have and I didn't copy from anyone! It's really not building a rocket to use one's own words and creative design!

Reply by JurneiCA on 7/3/05 9:50pm
Msg #49723

HH:
Please email me at [e-mail address] Thanks

Reply by JurneiCA on 7/4/05 12:14am
Msg #49733

Necessary changes have been made.

The individuals in question have decided to make necessary changes to their site.

Reply by 1stratecali on 7/4/05 3:20am
Msg #49737

I can feel your pain. I worked very hard on my website also. Purchased software and enlisted the help of my teenage daughter. It took a lot of time and a LOT of headaches. A "friend" at work became a notary ( borrowed my books, supplies, info, etc. ) and took most of my website design.

Reply by JurneiCA on 7/4/05 9:38am
Msg #49745

Unbelieveable. I actually got an email from them where their response was that notaries are supposed to be public servants helping each other. Especiallly since they were both new and didn't know what services to site or rates to charge or area to cover. So they thought they would do the same but charge a little less as they were new. No common sense and very self centered. They were nasty about it too!

Reply by Larry on 7/4/05 9:56am
Msg #49747

I don't think I would call that a FRIEND.

Reply by DellaCA on 7/4/05 10:10am
Msg #49748

I received a call the other day from a fellow notary, she pretended to be new and asked a lot of questions. Where I got my work if I were busy,what companies I worked for ect, ect. I was doing my best to lead her to the right places and what I did without giving any names of companies I worked for.
Then I did a little investigating as she did give me her name but nothing else she said was true.
Come to find out she is not new and was fishing to get my information, she has her own web site and has been a notary for some time.
I was upset at first until I remembered this is business and we will see those kind of people out there. To bad.
Now it will be harder for me to help the new ones. Sorry you had to go threw that.

Reply by ItsMe123 on 7/4/05 1:40pm
Msg #49769

Search Engines Penalize For Duplicate Content-The "sandbox"

You need to make sure that all of what they have copied is removed immediately. The major SE's penalize sites for duplicate content. If yours is spidered first you should not be the one who is penalized. Good thing for you is that if their website was spidered before they made changes it may have popped as duplicate content and they will be placed in Google's "sandbox" They will remain in the sandbox for a long long time. Many say once you are in the sandbox you can't get out. That to me is what those who copy another's website desire. They deserve it. If I were you I would right away check your Google and Yahoo rankings to make sure it was not you who was seen as having duplicate content. If your site is not ranked and in the SERP (search engine page results) you can guarantee you were "sandboxed" and you should probably just make a new site now as the one that is sandboxed is non-recoverable.

Obivously I wouldn't inform they of this if I were you, it is good for you and with their actions they do not deserve the warnings.

To check rank just type "google website rank" into Google's search engine. If you are sandboxed don't waste your time trying to plead to Google to get out. It will not work. You will need a newsite

Reply by BrendaTX on 7/4/05 1:53pm
Msg #49772

Re: Search Engines - GREAT info

http://www.googlerankings.com/

I used it and got info I needed. It led me to the above link.

Reply by Jon on 7/5/05 11:04am
Msg #49854

Re: Search Engines Penalize For Duplicate Content-The "sandb

I have two domains that point to the same server and have the same content. Will that put me in the "sandbox"??

Reply by BrendaTX on 7/5/05 12:00pm
Msg #49861

Re: Search Engines Penalize - Jon

Jon, - this "sandbox" thing scares me...

I don't think it's like a sandbox to play in...probably a sandbox like kitty litter goes in.

I don't know the answer to your question, though.

Reply by JurneiCA on 7/4/05 2:33pm
Msg #49777

Funny thing is that I had another real estate agent/notary just this weekend completely copy and paste my website- didn't change a WORD in it, even copied my copyright and put his biz name next to the copyright symbol. Same font, same promotional sentences, same text, formatting, colors, etc. Everything. My back end of my site logs everyone who visits as well as what they do when they get there. I wrote him an email politely questioning why portions of my website were now found in the documents file of his Front Page. He wrote back he couldn't find anything from my site in his computer, and that perhaps he was on my site looking for a notary for a client. I didn't at first mention that I knew he had 19 entries at a total of almost 12 hours logged into my website. Certainly it was not possible that he couldn't decide on whether to use my service or not. But he didn't pick up on my gentle acknowledgment of his behavior and plowed ahead. Then he attempted to submit the site to a directory that I edit in. Wow, was that a mistake on his part. Of course I have printed all this, including logs, email, directory submission, etc.

For all who may want to know, you can register your website with copyright.gov It's only $30, but well worth the fee if someone tries to copy formatting, text, meta tags, etc. Essentially they are trying to steal a biz, and that's illegal. The question is whether one should wait before proceeding with legal action so to capture the income they get from the broadcasting of the website? This could be better than farming a job out for a small percentage!

I just can't get over the outrageousness of this behavior.

Reply by Cekimon on 7/4/05 5:23pm
Msg #49791

i don't know how, but i believe there is a way to protect your site contents from being copied and pasted. i used to post a lot on this other website and people would make their own profiles. a lot of them would protect the contents (personal photos and such) from being copied. I think a lot of photography websites would also have this feature on their sites. it's worth looking into because i'd pretty upset if i spent all that time designing something original and then someone copied it and presented it as their own. sorry i can't be better help to you in finding this, but i'm sure if you ask around, you can figure it out. good luck to you!

Reply by Charles_CA on 7/4/05 8:44pm
Msg #49803

You can copy protect your site using site encryption. Many of the better HTML editors let you do that like Front Page, or Dream Weaver.

Reply by Old Timer on 7/5/05 11:03pm
Msg #49961

Sorry couldn't help myself

I see you are pretty burned by the notary stealing from your website.

Did you personally take or purchase the photo on your website?

Did you personally write the definitions for the glossary on your website?

If you did, then congratulations. I rather doubt you did though. The glossary looks too much like the glossary on other websites.

Sounds like the pot calling the kettle a copyright thief.

Reply by JurneiCA on 7/6/05 11:34am
Msg #50026

Re: Sorry couldn't help myself

Funny you are making that assumption. I have asked permission of those I used information from. My collection of work is copyrighted, and one can use others' work if permission is sought and copyright that collection. Check copyright.gov. Uncopyrighted public domain work is usable in the case of pictures. The issue here involved stealing without asking, and then undercutting prices for the same service area. I guess you missed that.

Reply by AdamsNotaries_CA on 7/12/05 1:13am
Msg #51142

FYI: I did NOT infringe copyright

Hi all; Since it's my character in question here, I thought I should take a moment to clear the air about this. The only section of my website that was similar to MyMobileNotary was our pricing page. I did NOT copy any design elements (photos, colors, styles, etc.). What was similar was the use of a type of signing header and a bulleted list for prices and phrases that describe services (for example, "$150 jails; 50 miles round-trip" or something similar). However, I made sure nothing was exactly the same (even though you can't copyright short phrases anyway). Did I copy/paste her list of cities? Yes, because they're the same ones I service, and why in the world would I retype all that when I didn't need to? (Again, an alphabetical list of cities within a county is not copyrightable information.) But I even removed all her map hyperlinks before using it so that I wouldn't use the work she put into that.

As for making my prices lower, I set my price the same as my local notary friend who encouraged me to get into the business. The numbers had nothing to do with what any other notaries were doing. In addition, most posters on this site suggest lower prices for those with less experience anyway. As I gain experience, I'll raise my prices. I was not trying to steal Karen's business. This is not a full-time gig for me.

And as for my being "nasty," I was no such thing. Defensive, yes, because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong and I was being angrily accused and threatened. I know copyright law; 9 to 5, I'm the editor for a magazine.

At any rate, I made changes to my site the same night Karen called me so that our content is even less similar than it was before. I certainly didn't intend to make her feel threatened.