Scraping Website and Using Our Clients Info
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One of our clients on Moz has noticed that another website has been scraping their website and pulling lots of their content without permission. We would like to notify Google about this company but are not sure if that is the right remedy to correct the problem. They appear in search results on Google using the client's name so they seem to be use page titles etc with the client's name in them. Several of the SERP links link to their own website but it pulls in our client's web page. Was hoping anyone could perhaps provide some additional options on how to attack this problem?
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Consult an attorney to get up-to-speed on copyright, infringement, and fair-use. Filing DMCAs or taking other actions that exceed your rights or infringe on the fair-use of others can result in a lawsuit against YOU.
Infringement by an upstanding company is usually done by an employee, a content writer, or an SEO who is ignorant about copyright law. Rarely they can be guilty of willful infringement, which can result in both civil and criminal actions.
If upstanding people or organizations are infringing, you can send informal infringement complaints yourself or have them sent by an attorney. It is often better to notify them of the infringement and get it stopped before it increases.
The quickest way to deal with spammy infringers is the DMCA to Google that SEAN suggests. You can also send DMCA to their host. If they are monitized by adsense you can complain to Adsense and they might turn off the ads on infringing pages or turn off the ads to the entire site.
I am not an attorney, but have used them frequently. They usually cost less than you fear and are usually worth more than you pay them.
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Thanks for input Sean. I will definitely file the complaint and see what happens. Appreciate the input!
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**They absolutely should notify Google! ** you should file a DMCA complaint with Google:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/legal-removal-request?hl=en&pid=0&complaint_type=1
Google is very reluctant to do anything resembling work typically but if you file the complaint accurately and all your ducks are in a row, they'll de-index the copyrighted content.
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