HELP. My entire site has been plagiarised. What can I do?!
http://scribly.io
I've just been notified by someone that my entire site (scribly.io) has been plagiarised like for like by another company (scriptify.co). They EVEN have me listed as one of their writers, and have taken all of my testimonials and writer images! Is there anything at all I can do about this?? I feel sick.
Just remember that a site is not a business. They can copy the site but there's so much more that you know that they don't know and that will give you the edge. They are going to get tired and go go copy someone else.
This is true. I've had multiple "businesses" verbatim copy my product, content and more. Things I've spent years on. But just give it 3 or 4 months and they won't exist. If they're a copycat chances are they're not a threat. Try not to worry about it too much.
Yes! They can copy the site, they can use the images, but they can never copy the spirit and all the reasoning that went into the site. They will be gone.
(And as they stole assets, you can certainly have them take them down - and then they need to do their own creative work, which they don't seem to be able to do).
Thank you @ezekg and @arvidkahl - you're so right :)
@ezekg you're in Fort Worth??? I'm in Dallas, living in Grapevine. Looking forward to following Keygen and all your work.
So true! That’s what my husband was reassuring me with and you’re definitely right ☺️ I just really didn’t want my name and my writers on there, but hey ho, it seems to be sorted now.
Yeah, it is good that not everything is self contained in your web page itself. I had a similar experience 8 years ago when I was first really learning to program.
I spent 10 hours a day for weeks building a flash game. I posted it to my blog and Kongregate and started to earn some money from it (ad revenue for web games was great then). Within two days, someone just copied the entire .flv file (i.e., the entire game) to their own site, replaced my ads with theirs and was outranking me for my own game on Google.
Since they were in China, I had no recourse. 😣
Oh my god that is absolutely awful - I'm so sorry! Did you ever manage to get a response from them? I can't imagine how devastating that must have been, especially when you've worked so hard to build it. Have you changed your approach/mindset since? These crazy unexpected situations are the biggest life lessons!
Nope… most the money the game ever generated went to them.
I wasn't devastated, just shocked and disappointed. The experience did lead me to think a bit more about moats and to rely less on copyright alone. Not even record label cartels with their vast legal resources and political influence could survive with that strategy!
I don't think it necessarily takes proprietary technology, network effects or a massive brand, though. Sometimes just being more convenient or offering a better experience is enough to win against cheap or free copies.
Sorry to hear about this, @DaniMancini.
I've been in your shoes before — someone directly lifted copy from Music for Makers to create a competing service. What I did (and what it sounds like you've done) is reach out to them and ask that they remove/change the identical copy. In my case, they did immediately, blaming someone they hired on Fiverr for the plagiarism.
I think if you try reaching out and they don't cooperate, however, the next line of action is to process a DMCA takedown notice: https://www.dmca.com/faq/What-is-a-DMCA-Takedown
Ah man I’m really sorry to hear that - it really is such a sucker punch. I had the exact same response, immediately changed the site and blamed someone else but I could see from their GitHub account they were the ones with lots of new commits 😅 Glad you managed to get your situation sorted! It made me realise that it might be time to copyright at least the name, it seemed like a premature investment but this has been a bit of a wake up call.
Getting a Github Pages 404 page when visiting that URL now. Maybe justice has been served? :) Where is that Game of Thrones shame gif?
Dealing with outright, blatant plagiarism sucks (insert censored word here). It's always a shock to the system when you encounter people with radically different views of what's acceptable and what isn't.
@ptrei I did a little jig last night when I realised it was down 💃 You're spot on, I think that's what shocked and upset me the most. That someone could think it was okay to just steal an entire brand identity, all the images of my team, my testimonials, my copy etc - it's crazy. Getting inspiration from somewhere is totally cool, we all do it. But literally lifting something someone else did and passing it off as your own, not ok.
Hey @DaniMancini,
That sucks, but it looks like you've sorted it now. So you've won!
Something similar happened to me. Someone copied my whole site content and tried to pass it off as their own. I got it taken down and wrote a set by step guide on how to get it removed quickly.
https://jsvxc.com/how-to-send-a-dmca-takedown-notice/
For anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation wondering how to get it removed:
Step 1 – Ask the content thief to remove
Step 2 – Gather the evidence to prove you are the original owner
Step 3 – Prep your DMCA
Step 4 – Ask the web host to remove
NOTE: I am not a lawyer but the above process worked for me
Amazing advice - thanks so much for this!
They don't call us hackers because we follow the rules. 🤷🏻♂️
Yea I visited it and see that they sorta touched it up a bit so it's not a direct knock-off, but still it's super obvious it's just masquerading as your site.
Hmm yea this is tough - I know they'll be similar services to almost everything we all post here and work on, but jeez, a direct copy - word for word - is something really different. Not to mention they butchered it - kinda like salt in the wound.
I would say not to be too worried honestly - if this was another type of site it may be a bit different - but scribly.io just oozes production values and professionalism, so I would presume that shortly after dealing with the other guys that the customers will know that they're not very good and will no longer deal with them.
Especially with copywriting and stuff like that - it's probably one of the more sensitive arts, as bullshit is pretty quickly detected.
Can I ask how you noticed this? Just came across it doing market research?
You should have seen the original version, it was literally just my site with exactly the same copy, writers, testimonials, everything! My logo was even still on there hah! Then I managed to get in touch via Facebook and he very quickly changed it realising that I knew.
But thank you so so much for your kind words. I’ve worked so hard to build Scribly and I’m so proud of it, and to see it stolen like that was heartbreaking. But it seems like it’s now getting sorted thankfully! I just did NAT want him to have me and my writers up there as his, so wrong.
I found out by pure chance. They were running some Facebook ads which someone I know saw and then told me about. Otherwise I’d have had no clue! Funnily enough though last week I knew something was up as someone was spamming my contact form - mustn’t have been this guy (I just managed to track him down online 👹)
If you are really worried you could pay $199 for a DMCA Takedown.
I understand that you are angry but I would just ignore it. Copying a website is easy, driving traffic and getting clients is hard.
Wow that's tough. As said in the other reply, bullshit will probably be quickly detected but a way to deal with it could be to shame them on Reddit/Hacker News. You could even write a blog post about it and turn it into a PR move. We would upvote you for sure :)
I was thinking about doing a post, not to shame them per se but to encourage others to keep an eye out for their own businesses. It’s really not something I had anticipated before and totally shocked me!
UPDATE: they’ve now changed the design and tweaked the copy but the business itself is still fake. What an eye opening experience :-(
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I agree with you that all these people buying into the "open" startup movement are looking for competition. Unless you have a huge competitive advantage (and nobody here does) you should keep your numbers private.
This doesn't change the fact that websites are protected by copyright's law and what they did is a clear violation of the law.
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I never said that a website by itself is a competitive advantage. I said that they are protected by copyright law.
Again, I agree with you that most of the people here shouldn't share their revenue and profit margin. I do because I actually find a business idea in this way. I have done it multiple times. I take something that works and it's easy to replicate.
While I do this with the business model and concept, I don't with the website, because it's illegal. If people just copied everything but the website, I would have said nothing.
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I understand that. What you’re seeing now is an amended version, the original was just an exact replica of my site with my logo and my writers on there. That’s absolutely not the same as why you’re describing here. Of course I understand there will be competitors, I welcome that! But to steal someone’s website like for like (again, this version is not the one I was referring to, they have changed it now that I messaged them), is awful.
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Could you stop being condescending and leave Indie Hackers forever? We would all be very grateful.
I'm not a fan of the tone of a couple comments on this thread but I sincerely hope to never see one like this one again.
It's straight up bullying, and I for one would be sad to see someone who has written so many constructive things here "leave IH forever". To go a step further, if the goal were to cause a suicide, @FabienHerfray's comment would be a way to do it. The fact that the bullying comment is upvoted only makes it worse.
Much of the disagreement looks like "rich country" vs "developing country" POV differences, and then defensiveness and escalation. Isn't down voting enough without implying someone is hated by all and should be banished?
Edit: Charming... the mob is downvoting me for speaking against bullying. Great job. Enjoy your privileged lives in Europe and totally use all you have at your disposal to marginalize all others who don't understand your point of view. 💯
FWIW, I agreed with your POV, just not the bullying.
☺️ @FabienHerfray yup. What you said.
@webapppro thanks for the rambling tips, bro. I’ll be sure to keep that sound advice in mind as I’m building my business. Good luck to ya, you sound like a great guy and I’m sure you’ll be really successful with a mindset like that. 🙃
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Interactions don't get you free karma.
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I hate to admit it, but even at considerably less than 18k/month, the concern about this is part of why I haven't posted any products here publicly.
IIRC, Email Octopus got ripped off in a similarly egregious manner a while back and I suggested filing a DMCA takedown request.
My current site is a bit less of a commodity since teaching is largely personality / brand-driven. If someone were to copy all my videos, it would suck, but at least they would all be talking about and referring people to my site. But I still feel hesitant to post revenue and an official "product" on IH until I have more momentum.
I don't think she's having any trouble understanding what you're saying. It's just shocking when you poured so much work into a project and someday you see people stealing everything you did.
She pointed out: "You should have seen the original version, it was literally just my site with exactly the same copy, writers, testimonials, everything! My logo was even still on there hah! Then I managed to get in touch via Facebook and he very quickly changed it realising that I knew."