What do you do to this guy???

[supergml]

There's a Webmaster (if you can call him that way, 'cause he just sells his customers websites made with templates from a cd) who is copying all the texts of my websites and puts in his sites but with a font of 1px so he will rank next to mine.
The point is that in google and yahoo we appear now very close in the results, when you see the results the titles are different but the few texts that you see in the list of the search engine is the same.

He is copying also from diferent sites of his competence in Chicago doing the same "trick" where he is located (I'm in Atlanta). I think to write a letter to the other competitors who live in his same city, maybe they can teach him a lesson.
I hope Google and yahoo will penalize him when they find he uses 1px font.
In the meantime I have to change all the texts in my website again to make it better ranked in the search engines.
I talked to lawers, but none of them is interested in this kind of case.
Any ideas?


Supergml

 

[Mels]

I'm a littled confused about the whole text thing to best honest. Perhaps you could explain it more clearly?

 

[supergml]

I'll try to explain

For example; this guy copies ALL the text in my page for webdesigning for the hispanic population, it's written in Spanish and I wrote it to allowed me a good ranking in the Search Engines.
He let's say clicks cntrl+A selects all the texts of the pages, and then pastes all that in HIS page, hiding it with a font of 1px.
With this technique he has hidden text from at least 5 different websites from competitors that were ranking much better than him.

Supergml

 

[wlspro]

Copying an pasting text from another site constitutes copyright infringement. This is similar to stealing your images and same general rules and laws should apply. I would place clear copyright notices on the pages as well as the meta-tag and contact the other operator immediately with a C&D letter upon their infringement. You could work your way up the ladder depending on their response, contacting the search engines and more importantly their service providers which should have clearly stated policies against copyright infringement in their terms of use agreement.

From a practical standpoint this is actually a very common practice. Text can be embedded in the title, meta-tags, content (in small font size or same color as the background to hide it from view). You can see the actual text used by the search engines by using the view/source of the page.

Take a look at our old friend Goolgee Bear's page at http://www.links411.com. You will notice a long blank area at the bottom. This is where he hides all the text to be indexed by the search engines without being visible to the actual viewers. Take a look at the source and you will see pages and pages of keyword meta-tags and invisible text indexed.

 

[supergml]

I know the trick

But I'll just wait until Google o Yahoo put in their algorithm something to penalize sites with text with 1px. size.

If you write text with this tags:

<font size="1"><span style="visibility: hidden">​

The Search Engines can detect the Spam easily, don't they?


Supergml

 

[Redleg]

Send a complaint to his webhost, that does usually work..


Do also send a spamreport to google:
http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
They may not do much about it, but it's better to send one anyway.

 

[McDope]

I'd contact the guy directly and let him know that you're aware of his practices. As advised above, a C&D letter should do the job. If he fails to remove the offending stuff, contact his webhost and let them know what's going on, since they may be liable as well if they fail to look into the issue and neglect taking actions.

As was also stated above, if you wish to have his listings removed from the search engine results, and you are well sure that there's indeed a copyright infringement, fill in a DMCA report at Google (Yahoo should have a similar resource, I just cannot find it at this moment) at this URL:

http://www.google.com/dmca.html

They should remove the offending listings as they get the relevant information from you. The problem with spam reports is that you can never be sure whether they have received it or whether they will do anything about it. Search Engines usually prefer not to apply manual bans on certain pages, they rely upon their automatic algorithms to catch up spam and duplicated pages but as we all know this is not always granted to work. The Links411.com site is a fine example, somehow this guy has managed to elude the radar, despite that spammy keyword stuffed footer, and did not get penalized.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mels]

That's terrible! You should contact a lawyer/ legal advice

 

[viciouscircle]

if none of the above work, try filing a civil suit in small claims court where you live. the owner will be forced to travel to defend himself or simply forfeit the case. either way, you win. (make sure to keep the lawsuit amount close to what you would approximate travel costs to be)

 

[supergml]

thanks for your replys

What's a C&D letter??

Thanks

Supergml

 

[McDope]

Cease and Desist.

It basically informs the other party that unless he/she stops the infringement you've got legal basis to go against him/her.
(Sort of, please excuse my grammar, english is not my first language).

http://www.google.com/search?q=cease+and+desist&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

<edit> Check the second result in the link about for a sample one, you will need to look up the specific regulations if you wish to go that way.