Plagiarised
I suppose it had to happen eventually – I could even take it as an indication of a sort of success – but my freelance site has been ripped-off by two different people.
Not the design – it’s not that spectacular – but some of the content has been appropriated by ‘designers’ apparently too lazy to write their own.
Compare and contrast
From my introductory blurb:
29digital is a Peterborough based Web Design and Development agency. We specialise in building robust website solutions that adhere to the highest level of standards compliance, while still delivering real value for your business.
Whether you are a new business wishing to take your first steps online, or an established company looking to capitalise on the benefits of e-business, we have the skills and experience to help you surpass your goals.
And now take a look at exhibit #2 – JHallamedia, who have stolen most of it for their own nested-table hell of a site.
And can you see any similarities between my services page and the strangely familiar services offered by Point Studios?
It’s not as if I don’t have an incredibly clear copyright statement on the site – these con-artists just apparently have no respect for intellectual property, and lack the skill to write their own copy.
Two strongly-worded emails coming right up.
Copyscape
Track down your own plagiarists with the Copyscape service – just type in a URL and it will find sites containing matching content.
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Comments
- Matthew Pennell
- 1060 days ago
- Heh heh – maybe I’ll do that if I don’t get a response to my email… ;)
- #2
- petros dimitriadis
- 1060 days ago
- Its a shame they cant use their own text. I would think it is more wise to steal the design as they cant design it themselves but the text? Cant they not write two paragraphs of text?
I have used some of your criteria on your accessibility review for mine on greek web portals.
view here - #3
- Matthew Pennell
- 1060 days ago
- Hi Petros – exactly. I don’t mind the re-use of ideas, like in your portal review (good job btw); but wholesale rip-offs like those two sites is just lazy – and entirely pointless on the web, where sooner or later you’re bound to get caught.
- #4
- Anthony Yeung
- 1054 days ago
- It’s sad that the site is made out of tables, even sadder that they can’t write a few sentences.
- #5
- Green Tea Lover
- 1046 days ago
- My worse fear is not being plagiarized but writing/programming unique content/technique only to discover someone had the same idea before me.
Reminds me of that episode of South Park:
“Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!” - #6
- Muppet from JHallaMedia
- 941 days ago
- Get a grip, its hardly RIPPING, your site is useless and far by great so cut off with the RIPPING accusations to others and get a life. PRICK!
- #7
- Matthew Pennell
- 941 days ago
- Hello my angry little friend – I see you finally checked your Urchin logs and noticed you’d been linked from here about 4 months ago! You’ve probably been busy with all that top web design work, though eh..? Nah, probably not.
I’ve taken the liberty of fixing your name and URL, as you weren’t big enough to put your own name to your comments. You still also haven’t removed the stolen copy from your own sorry excuse for a website – I’ll give you another few days and then I’ll report you to your ISP for copyright infringement. - #8
- Jonathan Hallam
- 860 days ago
- Matthew,
Can you please remove the “Muppet from JHallaMedia”, as it was not anyone in association to my site. I have reviewed your comments and done something about the mere two lines of text which were the same on my site to yours. I apologise and wish for your on going disturbing emails and comments to stop. Thank you and all the best for the new year. Jonathan. - #9
- Matthew Pennell
- 860 days ago
- Hi Jonathan – considering that the referer for the ‘Muppet’ commenter was the jhallamedia.com urchin logfile folder, I somehow have trouble believing that they are nothing to do with the site.
I have no idea what you mean by “ongoing disturbing emails and comments” – I emailed you twice to ask you to remove the stolen text (months ago) and have not commented on the subject for several months either. I suggest you get a grip, apologise for your plagiarism, and forget about it – I have. - #10
- Abdelrahman Osama
- 715 days ago
- Dear Matthew,
I’m the owner of Point studios, I admit I plagiarized you from about a year ago, then I received an email from you then I apologized and changed the content that was very similar to your content to my current content in which is not really similar then I asked if you still not happy and want to change it please don’t hesitate to tell me, I was very polite and I was really asking and was ready to change it if you wanted, but you didn’t reply to me.
Maybe I was rude to plagiarized it from the beginning I admit and I’m really sorry, but maybe you should reply to my email I thought you were satisfied with it now, as it’s not very similar now, just the titles and the web designer first and last sentences, any way I could change it, it’s not an issue as you can see on my blog I write alot of paragraphs weekly, but I just thought you didn’t care when you didn’t reply on my email.
Any way I apologize again and I will totally change this content immediately. - #11
- Abdelrahman Osama
- 715 days ago
- Done, check it.
When I commented the last comment I didn’t know that this post is that old I thought it’s new, my friend Rida has show me the link I don’t know where he get it and he just begin a fight on me, he didn’t believe me that I never saw this post before and that I don’t really know that you care about it (as I explained in the last post), well maybe you have forgot about this post and about this issue but my friend won’t forgive me for that, I hope you would :) - #12
- Matthew Pennell
- 714 days ago
- Abdelrahman: I haven’t looked at your site since this article almost a year ago, but if I remember correctly you did change the stolen content pretty quickly.
I’m not removing this entry though, in case you thought I might – you’ll just have to live with the chance that potential customers may find out you once plagiarised another site. - #13
JHallaMedia also display Macromedia Certified Professional all over the bottom of their site. I am a Macromedia certified professional and they are not the logo’s I was given. They also do not link straight to the certified professional lookup page as the ones that you get do.
I checked the page http://www.macromedia.com/v1/handlers/index.cfm?Id=19865&method=full and it doesnt look like the name they are using appears on the page.
Maybe an oversight but why not report it just for the fun ;)