Here is the status of my complaint with StomperNet for producing a product full of factual errors.

1: Stompernet has NOT responded to my email

2: I have since found additional factual errors

3: I have discovered that StomperNet is rated “F” with the Better Business Bureau.

4: I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, though I doubt it will do any good.

What up ePeople? I’m a little late on my thursday post. I apologize for slackin’ on my pimpin’. Anyhow…I want to talk to you about Risking Big. Or rather taking calculated risks. We all take risks every day. For most of us our biggest risk is getting into our car to drive to our destinations. But health risks isn’t what I’m talking about. When were young were more likely to risk more. Thats why our insurance costs more generally. We also as young men and women have a tolerance for more error. What’s the worst that can happen? They give us a bad credit score? Trust me, I have trashed my credit and brought it back relatively quickly to put my self in a position to win. Plus with a good idea and plan people will still back you with the right situation.
Don’t worry about what “they” say. I have been in many closed door meetings with big law firms and banks to discuss ideas that i have and also to brain storm. You will be surprised at the constructive feed back you can get from a large law firm or bank. It’s there job to entertain and consider business opportunities with clients and potential clients on behalf of the firm or banking institution. Plus most of the people you talk to will enjoy hearing and sharing ideas to help you. That is as long as your not in there every week with a new scheme.
There’s a great book called “Believe and Achieve” 17 principles from W. Clement Stone. W. Clement Stone was a “baller” in the insurance Field way back when. One of his main quotes was “do it now” I love that quote! when ever i have an idea or a hesitation about an idea i say to my self “do it now”. I believe Hesitation is one of the biggest idea/dream killers that live. If you have an idea or a dream go after it NOW. Don’t wait. Some things may take time but pursue them now!

Stealing website content is no laughing matter – if your content is reproduced on other sites, not only are your competitors gaining from your work, but your site could be penalized by the search engines for duplicate content.

Here are ways that you can prevent people from stealing your content, and also ways to prosecute people who have stolen your content.

Step 1: Discourage People From Stealing Your Website Content

The best thing you can do to discourage people from stealing your content is to put a copyright notice on each page of your site. It could be something simple like “Copyright my Company, 2007” or it could be more complex, like “All content on this site is Copyrighted by My Company, 2007. You may not use, distribute, or reproduce anything from this website without written permission.”

Step Two: Detect People Who Have Stolen Your Content

The best way to find websites that are using content stolen from your site is CopyScape. Just enter your site url and it will show you sites that may have stolen text from your site. You may want to consider using their paid service CopySentry, which is a great help.

Step Three: Contact The Site Owner

Once you have found a site that has clearly stolen content from your site,. You can just contact the site owner. (You can get their contact details by going to http://www.whois.sc and entering in the domain). Politely inform them that you believe that their site is using your copyrighted content, and ask them to take it down from their site.

Step Four: Send Them A Formal Letter

If you can’t contact them directly, or they do not comply, you can send them a legal cease and desist letter. You can find a form letter you can use at http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/contract/cease.htm Include a print out of their website with your content highlighted so they know what content to remove from their site.

Step Five: Send Their Webhost A DMCA/Copyright Infringement Notice

If the offending website owner has not removed your copyrighted content after the period allowed in the letter, you can notify their webhost. Each web hosting company has a different procedure for copyright infringement claims – try to find out what their host’s policy is and follow it. (If you don’t know what their webhost provider is, you can find out via http://www.whois.sc)

Basically the way this works is that you notify the webhost that the domain in question is hosting content that infringes on your copyrights. The webhost will either remove the content, disable the domain’s hosting account, or demand that the site owner remove the content or justify their actions.

Step5b: You can also file notices with Google, Yahoo, and MSN requesting that they remove the site with your content from their indexes.

Step 6: Initiate Legal Proceedings

If for some reason filing a infringement notice with their webhost did not work, you have one option left – take the website owner to court. This can be very expensive and you may not want to proceed with this step. If you do decide to take the website owner to court, consult with a lawyer skilled in copyright issues first.

Conclusion:

Website copyright infringement / content stealing is a serious issue and you should fight it relentlessly. I have successful fought dozens on infringement cases, and I’ve never had to proceed past step 5a.