Plagiarism

[spud912]

So tonight I am browsing good old Craigslist (for entertainment I look at the childcare section, even though I haven't had an opening in over 6 months). As I am looking through one ad in particular, I am recognizing the writing.....wait a second.....that's my writing! So I look up my website, and sure enough, she copied portions of my website word for word (thankfully I do not have any of my documents posted publicly). What do I do? I call her of course !

Here is our conversation:

Me: Hi, I'm calling about the child care ad you have posted on Craigslist.

Her: Oh, yeah

M: Yes, I am also a child care provider and it was brought to my attention that some portions of your ad appeared similar to my website. I looked it up and noticed that you did in fact copy portions of my website verbatim.

H: Ummmmm

M: Since my website is copyrighted, I would greatly appreciate it if you re-wrote your ad in your own words within 24 hours.

H: OKAAAAYYYY...................:confused:

M: By the way, at what point did you copy my website since it has not been posted in awhile?

H: Oh, I don't even remember.....maybe 2 years ago .

M: Ok, please have it removed. Thank you!


Thought I would share. How much you want to bet she doesn't change a thing? Seriously....after all the time I spent writing those things. Come on, at least change it slightly!

[dave4him]

That's the Internet for you!

[MarinaVanessa]

If she doesn't change the copyrighted info you can always send her a "cease and dissist" letter, or at least a letter (real letter mailed to the home) that gives her an ultimatum to either take the website down until it's changed or you will take her to court or copyright infringement. Don't forget that copyrighted material doesnt mean that you have to register it anywhere. At any time that you write any info or post info onto your site it automatically becomes copyrighted.

Believe it or not I've had this happen to me too grr.

[godiva83]

That happened to me as well, however with a girl friend.
She asked to refrence my handbook and website and of course being friends I wanted to help as much as I could - she would never tell me the name of her daycare or the website for some strange reason then I searched and there it was a complete duplicate of my website down to my pictures!!!!

Hopefully she has enough self respect to take it down.

[DCP]

I have had my entire website (minus pictures) copied by a so called professional for one of their clients. The provider lived one state over and apparently did not proof the site since they even copied my vacations - personal profile..everything!!!
It was horrifying for me to find to say the least!!

[jojosmommy]

Believe it or not but I had a mom interview and even sign up to start daycare. I gave her my contacts, she took home for hubs to sign and return Monday. Over the weekend I found her information on the local referral agency site. She was starting her own daycare and interviewed at my place and a bunch of others over that weekend to get ideas of how to set up her place and contracts.

I was ssssooooo irritated. And rather overwhelmed that she could manipulate her kids to go to interview after interview without them leaking the truth.

[spud912]

So she hasn't changed a thing or removed her add. After flagging her several times (to no avail), I found out that you could email Craigslist directly for infringement. I also emailed and sent a cease and desist letter to her. This is what boredom does to me ::. I'm sure Craigslist will take care of removing the ad, but I wanted to ensure that she doesn't do it again, which is why I am trying to deal with her directly as well.

Come on, though, it's not that hard to write a Craigslist ad!

[DaisyMamma]

I would be furious!! Good for you!
Send us the craigslist link and we can all flag it! Sometimes it takes a few different ip addresses to get it down.

[spud912]

So the post has been removed...I think Craigslist did it since I emailed them. I bookmarked it so I could find it easily, but it no longer pulls up in the search function. It doesn't say anything about being flagged for removal, it appears to have been "ghosted" (meaning the ad still exists but nobody can find it unless you type in the exact web address).