Blatant Ripoff - Next Step?

[actyper]

Here is my site

Poker Training - Poker Training Reviews - Best Poker Training Sites

Here is a site I just discovered

Poker Training | Poker Training Reviews | Best Poker Training


There's so much that they just copied over. Even the descriptions under the icons are the same for a few of them. Anybody know who own's this site, and what I should do to bust this fckr?

I really don't care if people use my site as reference, and I've already helped numerous people getting their poker training sections going, but blantantly content stealing is just not cool.

Holy crap even the title is the same, the "-"s were just changed yesterday! lol

[Spry]

looks like the site is down now? must be someone from here?

[Holis]

Registrant:
PTR Online
806/100 Harbour Esplanade
Melbourne, Vic 3008
AU

Domain name: POKERTRAININGREVIEWS.NET

Administrative Contact:
Denver, John
806/100 Harbour Esplanade
Melbourne, Vic 3008
AU
+61.406863007
Technical Contact:
Denver, John
806/100 Harbour Esplanade
Melbourne, Vic 3008
AU
+61.406863007

Registration Service Provider:
Lets Host,
01 653 5032
01 443 0542 (fax)
Lets Host - Irish Web Hosting, Website hosting provider based in Ireland
Lets Host may be contacted for domain login/passwords, DNS/Nameserver
changes, and general domain support questions. Lets Host provides web
hosting and domain services.

Registrar of Record: Everyones Internet, LLC dba Resellone.net
Record last updated on 17-Jun-2009.
Record expires on 15-May-2012.
Record created on 15-May-2009.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS01.ONE.COM
NS02.ONE.COM

[Holis]

*sings* Rocky Mountain high....

[actyper]

Contacted site owner directly, he admitted to using our site as a template. Claims site was not supposed to be live, and was going to change all the data before launching.

[theglutton87]

I got the link to this thread from Ryan the owner of PTG and just wanted to leave a response before this mole hill really turns into a mountain as it's a simple misunderstanding.

I am relatively new to PAL and only registered an account a few weeks ago though I am yet to post.

I am in the process of launching a training reviews site using Joomla which I am completely new to. I used some menus on the PTG homepage as a template for getting used to the Joomla framework. The site was not meant to be online as the content is not anywhere close to finished and would appear as spam if a seach engine crawled it.
For example I have the words blah blah listed on the home page about 30 times. Also, some of the reviews are made up completely of the words blah blah blah. obviously this is not a site I wanted to be live nor a site I was promoting.

I would like to say one thing with regards the duplicate content claim. The only duplicate content on the site was on the front page. I told Ryan we had used the hmtl from this page in order to work around it as a template. There were descriptions still on the page because I had not edited them and I assumed noone would be on the site/able to access it Every other piece of written information on the site was 100% unique as it was written by myself and some content writers. The only overlap was the fact I used the PTG template as a guide for structuring the site while in dev.

As for everything else, I've pasted my reply to Ryan below.

This is nothing more than a simple misunderstanding and the tones used both in the email and this thread are a little bit ott.

Email to Ryan:


Hi Ryan,



Let me tell you first and foremost that the site should not have been open. The site is meant to be closed as we have not been promoting it nor is the site anywhere near to finished. Actually, the site is still in early dev stage.



The current localhost version of the site looks very different to poker training guide. We have simply used some similarities in our layout structures. The actual content we have on the site is very different. We were having difficulties with a menu in joomla and we used your html code as a template. I do not believe this is in anyway infringing on a copyright. Rest assured the final version of our site will look very different to what you have on Poker Training Guide.



To address your points on an individual basis:



1. Layout - Unfortunately this is a restriction of the Joomla 3 column template we've decided to use. We think this is the most suitable template for our needs which incorporate advertising space and reviews. In our current version it does look relatively different. The look and feel will be very different at launch time

2. Menu items - Top menu is now completely different compared to the version you have seen

3. Pictures - Actually we have spent alot of time customizing our own images and if you look closely there is very little overlap. The only place we have duplicate images is where there was no alternative image to be used. All our sites screenshots are completely unique. The descriptions were just left in as we have been working on other content. Obviously we would not have been copying any of these.

4. Review information - I dont know why you feel there is any copied content. The only overlap would come in certain areas such as coaching roster which is fundamentally important to the reviews, both for the end users and for keywords. Everything else is completely unique, written by oursleves and our team of content writers.



> I will be making posts in all the major affiliate forms, contacting all the owners of every training site that we have great relationships with and telling them not to deal with you in any capacity if your site doesn’t take down the stolen content. This is not a good start to your

> affiliate marketing career and reputation as a webmaster.



I really apologise again. This site was not meant to be live. I'm guessing our developer was in there and forgot to lock the site. Our final product will be a different product to PTG and we offer lots of diffferent information to what is offered on your site. I dont see a reason to contact any websites or post on forums. This matter could easily have been resolved by communication. We never intended to launch a site that looked like yours nor will be doing so. We simply used the html tables as a guideline for use in our template.



As for threatening legal action, there is absolutely no need to go down that route. We are always open to communication, hence why our hosting information is not hidden. As I said our finished product will be very different to PTGs. This matetr has been blown completely out of proportion due to the fact that we simply used some html to use in our template. I can personally guarantee you that our sites will look very different when finished. I will even give you access to the site prior to launch to ensure it meets your approval.



I'd appreciate if you removed any posts on forums where you've posted. I feel this matter has really been blown out of proportion and would not like it to reflect badly on my business. The site was not meant to be online and the version you saw does not reflect on the actual content contained on our site.



If you would like to ask me any more questions pertaining to the site, I'd be happy to go through any concerns you may have.

[Bryan]

Oh, so you just copied his site design and are using it to build a competing website. Yea, the OP is really blowing this out of proportion.

Carry on.

[Ridge]

Oh, so you just copied his site design and are using it to build a competing website. Yea, the OP is really blowing this out of proportion.

Carry on.

Exactly, the OP is correct because you stole his site design and some content. If I was the OP, I would contact your host and see about shutting your project down. The fact that you think you are justified really annoys me and I'm sure everyone else here that has been ripped off by lazy asses like you.

The OP is being pretty nice about it I'd say, and this community doesn't tolerate people stealing people's sites. So put some effort into your site and be ORIGINAL!

[pokerprop]

I don't see any problem with anyone borrowing code as a base for a menu or w/e that can be publicly accessed (others disagree but w/e they often go pay someone to do it, many times paying those that borrow (steal?) it as a base from someone else just the same). The big concern here from my standpoint is: there is NO EXCUSE to EVER have a similar copy of someone elses work online.

Sounds here though this matter has been resolved. It was a rookie mistake, OP is being cool and theglutton87 took care of it right away - so not much else to discuss. If it happens again then it would be different, but judging by how quickly he took care of it, think he knows it was a mistake and it won't happen again.

Anyways, theglutton87 welcome to the forum and best of luck.

[zaghomat]

Oh, so you just copied his site design and are using it to build a competing website. Yea, the OP is really blowing this out of proportion.

Carry on.

While it can be frustrating, I dont think that copying a site structure is subject to any copyright infringement. As long as you don't copy content and images, I don't see any problems.