Anyway to figure out if someone copied of another website?

[En Passant]

The firm I am working at is defending a client who suspects another competitor stole images from their website. The only thing I can really find is three images they directly took. Are there any websites out there or any information that will give me more information on this?

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
The firm I am working at is defending a client who suspects another competitor stole images from their website. The only thing I can really find is three images they directly took. Are there any websites out there or any information that will give me more information on this?

[/ QUOTE ]


you'd need the logs of the hosting company, or if they host it on site, the logs the company has. do a whois on the theiving company, get some IP adress blocks locked down, grep the logs for their IP, and see comes up.


Or hire someone knowledgeable in computer forensics.

[Leaky Eye]

If the images are valuable your client should watermark them. Tracking and proving theft would be easy.

[UbinTook]

Got to http://copyscape.com/
plug in your url and hit "go".
This tool is geared to Plagiarism , not images, but could be useful

[MrTrik]

Even if you could prove it, it'll be a hard case to win. "Fair Use" is currently a hot topic and the courts have been very lenient on giving fair use rights. I'm not saying the client doesn't have a right to protect their work, images, IP, but that if they put it on the net it's hard to win a case unless they have taken major steps in advance. As was covered earlier, watermarking, with strong language and copyright notices and registration is the best you can hope for.

The cases against Perez Hilton may change the landscape if X17 wins.

[En Passant]

Thanks for the replies guys.

MrTrik: I agree. We are just going to write a letter to the company telling them to remove the images that they copied.

[MrTrik]

Ah yeah. Then a cease and desist should work fine when presented with some proof. That's my take anyway.

[almostbusto]

there are sites like google cache that have most web pages backed up. maybe you can use them to establish that your client was the first to use the images.

or do you need to establish that the two pictures are absolutely identical?

[En Passant]

There are a series of three small images that were directly copied. (Even in the same order) Our client created those images, so it wouldn't be a problem proving that. However, it would be probably be easier to write them a letter asking them to remove them.