Website Content Thief: Fellow Inspector!

[Dan Cullen]

I met a fellow home inspector who lives in my area while we were both out of town at an Resnet certification class. Seemed like a good guy and we got along well despite having polar opposed political views. But hey, we liberals can get along with anybody!

Anyway, our little 3 man company sent him some mold work (he does testing and remediation while we try to stay away from it) and had a pleasant professional relationship. We belong to a loose consortium of inspectors who meet once every other month to jaw-jack at a local restaurant. I made sure to invite him along and introduced him to the other inspectors. Really chummy-like.

Well, lo and behold my partner stumbled on his newly built website and he has stolen our website wording verbatim! I politely and jokingly brought it to his attention and he said he'd have his buddy who designed the website fix it. 3 months later he still hadn't done anything so I thanked him for the flattery and again politely requested he get his own wording on his site. He said he was busy and would get to it post-haste. Now it's another 3 months and he still has the stolen verbiage on his site. I sent him an email calling him everything but a child of God and bid him a fond adieu.

His name is Larry Robbins and he runs Veteran Home Inspection out of Elmhurst IL. A true dirt bag he turned out to be. Take a look...

Veterans Home Inspection

:: Chicago Home Inspectors :: Independent Certified Licensed :: Energy Audits :: Moisture Intrusion Inspections ::

I just had to pitch my little beeyotch and get it off my chest.

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[Marc M]

Probly a right winger getting you back..

[Jack Feldmann]

About 10 years ago I had a guy copy one of the pages in my brochure that included a graphic that I had drawn, along with my copy. I was working on an expert witness case and the attorney sent him a letter and didn't even charge me. It was a cease and desist and told him to get all of his brochures out of Real Estate offices.

This was after I had called him and asked him why he stole my stuff, and he just laughed it off.

[Eric Barker]

I'm having a monthly dinner with some inspectors in Elmhurst tonight - I'll pass this on.

[Nick Ostrowski]

As much as it sucks, I don't think you have much recourse to make him change anything unless you're site is copyrighted (does that even exist for websites?). You could do what Jack did and see if you can get an attorney to send him a letter.

[Rick Cantrell]

I don't think you have much recourse to make him change anything unless you're site is copyrighted (does that even exist for websites?).

Yes, websites can and are protected by copyright laws.
It's not even required to put a copyright notice on it.
Have you ever seen a copyright notice on a painting, or heard one on the radio?

[Markus Keller]

Gotta watch out for those guys from the Burbs, excluding Eric of course.
Was he at Gale st. I don't remember meeting him. Our calendar of taking guys out into the parking lot seems to be filling up.

[Michael Thomas]

Dan,

Assuming that site is hosted on a US based server, You need to send a DMCA Takedown Notice. The linked article is about photos, but the DMCA applies to all on-line material.

Inclued the two links in your post to demonstrate the plagiarism.

If the site owner does not comply, the ISP will shut down the site as otherwise the ISP becomes liable for the infringement.

Note that your site's content does NOT have to be registered with the Copyright Office to receive this protection.

If the the host is outside US, you are pretty much out of luck.

[Ron Bibler]

Dan I think you just gave this guy a big black eye... If you GOOGLE his name this is what comes up first page on Google...

Website Content Thief: Fellow Inspector! - InspectionNews - Home ... His name is Larry Robbins and he runs Veteran Home Inspection out of Elmhurst IL. A true dirt bag he turned out to be. Take a look. ...
http://www.inspectionnews.net/...ins...inspector.html


Ouch! Thats going to stick with him for some time...

The more this is talk about on InspectionNews the more GOOGLE Will post...

Dude: Larry you have a problem

Best

Ron

[Marc M]

I wonder if he knows stealing content lowers your Google rankings?

[Scott Patterson]

I met a fellow home inspector who lives in my area while we were both out of town at an Resnet certification class. Seemed like a good guy and we got along well despite having polar opposed political views. But hey, we liberals can get along with anybody!

Anyway, our little 3 man company sent him some mold work (he does testing and remediation while we try to stay away from it) and had a pleasant professional relationship. We belong to a loose consortium of inspectors who meet once every other month to jaw-jack at a local restaurant. I made sure to invite him along and introduced him to the other inspectors. Really chummy-like.

Well, lo and behold my partner stumbled on his newly built website and he has stolen our website wording verbatim! I politely and jokingly brought it to his attention and he said he'd have his buddy who designed the website fix it. 3 months later he still hadn't done anything so I thanked him for the flattery and again politely requested he get his own wording on his site. He said he was busy and would get to it post-haste. Now it's another 3 months and he still has the stolen verbiage on his site. I sent him an email calling him everything but a child of God and bid him a fond adieu.

His name is Larry Robbins and he runs Veteran Home Inspection out of Elmhurst IL. A true dirt bag he turned out to be. Take a look...

Veterans Home Inspection

:: Chicago Home Inspectors :: Independent Certified Licensed :: Energy Audits :: Moisture Intrusion Inspections ::

I just had to pitch my little beeyotch and get it off my chest.

So you are saying that Larry Robbins of Veteran Home Inspections has plagiarized or stolen content from you! My word, if a person will do this I don't think I would trust him to inspect my home. Now this is just me, but I'm sure others will agree....

Heck, last time I checked about 19 other websites had taken parts of my website and p;ace it on theirs!

[Dan Cullen]

I'm having a monthly dinner with some inspectors in Elmhurst tonight - I'll pass this on.

Hi Eric,

Thanks! By the way, we have a little inspector confab on the first Monday of every even month at a little restaurant on the NW side of Chicago. You're most welcome to stop by next month.

Dan

[Dan Cullen]

Thanks to all! Mike Thomas... as usual, you have the straight dope!

Much obliged to all.

Dan

[Dan Cullen]

Well, my buddy Larry appears to be trying to straighten it all out. Thanks again for your help. I just got this email from him.

Dan
I can send you the emails I have sent the guy who set it up . I do not have the access to shut it down as he had all the info set up on the account he set up . Yes I just accessed the web site and have contacted go-daddy and they will not give me access to the passwords to shut it down. I am working on it and apologize to you .

Like a good liberal I forgive him absolutely!

Dan

[Nick Ostrowski]

Dan, don't let up on him until he actually makes the changes to his site. He's fed you a line in the past to get you off his back.

There was an inspector in my area a few years ago who had the names of a few inspection companies that rank high in the search engines plugged into the HTML page of his website. I guess he thought inserting other company names into his site code would raise his ranking. My company name was in there as was another member of this board. I badgered the hell out of that guy until he got my company name off his site code.

[Dana Raducan]

So the guy is doing his best to get this straighten but you still complain about it. Typical liberal!
At any rate here is a word of advice. If Larry Robbins is using the contant of your website than you have nothing to loose but only to gain from it. The guy is flawless, he has an excellent reputation and you might get some business by association. So be a big boy about it, pull your pants up and stop winning about it like a typical liberal. No harm has come your way.

[Scott Patterson]

So the guy is doing his best to get this straighten but you still complain about it. Typical liberal!
At any rate here is a word of advice. If Larry Robbins is using the contant of your website than you have nothing to loose but only to gain from it. The guy is flawless, he has an excellent reputation and you might get some business by association. So be a big boy about it, pull your pants up and stop winning about it like a typical liberal. No harm has come your way.

Uhh Dana, this thread is from 2011.....

[Nick Ostrowski]

And what's with the liberal labels? What does that have to do with anything?

[Matt Fellman]

A local competitor has taken a couple of pages from my site and is so careless he left my company name in the body of the text!! Funny to think the guy is trying to make a living by noticing things

If I ever get around to it I figure I'll spend the $8 and register his company name + "is a plagarist" .com and see if I can convince him to reconsider.

Luckily for him I've barely had time to take a leak lately.