Ask HN: How should I deal with a clone of my site?

I happened across a site that did a terrible job of cloning my site, http://sproutvideo.com . I tried sending an email to the contact listed in their whois. Does anyone have any ideas about how I should deal with this?

http://sproutvideo.com -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/

http://sproutvideo.com/features -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/Security.aspx

http://sproutvideo.com/contact -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/contactus.aspx

http://blog.sproutvideo.com -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/Blog.aspx

jack-r-abbit 14y

They seem to be hot linking your images. Do something so that the hot linked images they get served up are all about how they are goat raping thieves.

veyron 14y

If the images themselves are direct (png, jpg, etc) how would you set this up? Would you just change your site to use different images (and change those at the existing addresses) or is there some sort of way to get apache or whatever server to do this for you?

jfc 14y

This online tool will generate the .htaccess rules for you based on your inputs (URLs, etc.) - http://www.htaccesstools.com/hotlink-protection/

jack-r-abbit 14y

A quick Google search landed me here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6977613/differentiate-bet...

From there you could do any number of things. Always serve up one single "hotlink.jpg" image. Rewrite all image paths to include a special "/hotlinked/" folder so all you images get duplicated and then water marked. Rewrite all images paths to send the original image path to a script that would dynamically watermark or swap images. I'm sure there are other things you can do. But the main objective is to not have to change any of your own source code.

podmanOP14y

Clickable links:

http://sproutvideo.com -> http://www.ogle-tm.com

http://sproutvideo.com/features -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/Security.aspx

http://sproutvideo.com/contact -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/contactus.aspx

http://blog.sproutvideo.com -> http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/Blog.aspx

fuzzythinker 14y

They look very different now, so if this got them to C&D, congrats on the effort!

dgabriel 14y

They look different, but much of the content is an exact duplicate of the sprout video site.

mikeratcliffe 14y

If you call 1and1 they can take it down very quickly:

  tech-c-firstname:                Hostmaster
  tech-c-lastname:                 ONEANDONE
  tech-c-organization:             1&1 Internet Ltd.
  tech-c-street1:                  10-14 Bath Road
  tech-c-street2:                  Aquasulis House
  tech-c-pcode:                    SL1 3SA
  tech-c-state:                    BRK
  tech-c-city:                     Slough
  tech-c-ccode:                    GB
  tech-c-phone:                    +44.8716412121
  tech-c-fax:                      +49.72191374215
  tech-c-email:                    hostmaster at 1and1.co.uk

veyron 14y

C&D. I'd also reach out to those companies listed at the bottom:

IBM, eBay, Cadbury, ToysRUs, getty images, Budweiser

Give them a heads up. It's strange to see those company marks used on this site.

anujkk 14y

They are so lame that they don't even know how to copy properly. Check their blog page - http://www.ogle-tm.com/Pages/Blog.aspx . That isn't even a blog. It is a static page. Their comment system is not working like in the real site - http://blog.sproutvideo.com/

ecdobry 14y

On a side note, you have a very nice website.

podmanOP14y

Thanks!

Killswitch 14y

Cease and Desist letter.

podmanOP14y

Is this something I can do on my own or would I need to get a lawyer involved?

Killswitch 14y

Lawyer would be the best bet.

staunch 14y

Another option is that if there is copyright infringement (copied images/code) you can send their hosting company a DMCA notice.