11/02/2009
fuse8 has recently fallen victim to content theft. An unscrupulous e-thief going by the name of Fuse7 has had the cheek to steal our web content and claim it as his own.
Fuse7 has stolen our website content, laid claim to our clients and is even using an image of our website to illustrate it!
No contest really, but that’s not the point. Somebody who is unaware of copyright laws has not done this nor is it the work of somebody who has innocently reproduced a few pieces of text - Fuse7 has blatantly stolen from us in order to try and drive new business their way.
Compare and contrast:
Here’s Fuse7:
And here’s the real deal:
Fuse7 appears to be based in California, so possibly thinks that the geographical distance means he can get away with it. Unfortunately, the internet has made the world a much smaller place and surely, this is something he really ought to be aware of if he’s trying to set up a web design business.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery and it’s almost complimentary that Fuse7 has recognised our exceptional work and chosen to copy it in this way, but content theft is a nasty business and we’re not just going to accept it. Especially when the names of our clients are being used unlawfully as well.
What is content theft?
Content theft of this type occurs when the thief uses website scraping to gather content from popular or successful sites, in order to benefit from their good credentials or to attract similar business. Ironically, in this case, any new potential business that Fuse7 may find through this route isn’t likely to be honoured, as he is not likely to have the ability to carry out the work that he is claiming to offer.
The ‘spam sites’ that are created with this type of plagiarised content are also a plague on the web, as they affect organic search engine results and mean that legitimate sites may suffer a drop in their rankings.
What can be done next?
It’s widely considered to be a personal choice in what to do next when you find out your website has been scraped and the content stolen. It is important, though, before you do anything that you investigate as thoroughly as possible and keep records of what you find – including screen shots (see above)
Contacting the thief is the next thing you should do, however, this isn’t always easy. As in this case, emails and phone calls have so far elicited no response.
If efforts to contact the offender are fruitless, the next step may be to draw wider attention to the crime, in order to name and shame them...
Watch out Fuse7 – the World is far too intelligent to let you get away with it!
Latest updates
We have finally received a response from the director of Fuse7 regarding the content theft from our website. He has informed us that he was unaware the content was stolen, as it had been added to the site by someone else whose responsibility it was to look after the website content.
We are grateful to have received a response, but this is no excuse for what happened and we hope that this has been a lesson to Fuse7.
This article aims to not only name and shame Fuse7, but also highlights the issue of plagiarism and web content theft and should act as a reminder to all of us that it is our own responsibility to audit our website and police our staff properly.