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Post Info TOPIC: Business Ethics - Copyright @ Business Start

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RE: Business Ethics - Copyright @ Business Start


Florentino, thank you for modifying your NAHIP profile so that it is unique to your company.  Your corrective actions are a demonstration of the importance you place on intellectual property and we at Bastion are appreciative.   

All the best,
Joe

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Joe, I would like to apologize for the mixed up and the delay response, it is not intended as you see it.The listing in NAHIP directory has been change and I assure you that my website is being build now by a professional firm.


Kindest Regards and Wishing You Much Success.



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Following on from where I left off I will explain a few more details.

The DMCA submission is forwarded to the host server and has to be 100%. There is a small amount of legal talk which must be correct. Do not expect help off the servers, legal team.

If at any time, anyone would like to see the framework of the DMCA submission I submitted [minus a few details] contact me. From the acceptance of the DMCA submission, a site has 24 hours to remove all infringing material, or be unplugged! What you need to do, is set the clock and make sure there is a 'Coming Soon' message, after that time.

To make the whole DMCA process more concrete you need proof. Proof that the work is your own and has been copied. If you own a site that you are really giving the makeover, time and time again, which can occur with a developing business, save your site periodically. This will be date stamped by the process and show development!

For those of you not aware of the 'Wayback Machine',  this is an internet archiving site. You can check on any site and see what it used to look like. That is, if it has been visited by the system. This forum has, and using this system you can see the forum as it was in May 2007 [not quite as active!] Using this archiving system, with the site of infringement, it was easy to see who had what information at a particular time. Development could be seen over time at Aussie Home Inventories. On the other site, it happened overnight and was a copy of the other! Infringment proved!

Another tool is the site www.myfreecopyright.com. This site will take a snapshot of your site and supply you with a code. This code relates to that visit at that time, with relation to content. You display this code within a graphic on your site, which lets everyone know the site has been recorded and links back to the data at 'myfreecopyright'. You will have to record each page individually and paste in the original code for each page. At the end of the day you are building a case, that the content is yours so persist with the task at hand!

For those of you whom contacted Aussie Home Inventories via email and via this forum, I would like to say 'thank you' for the comments of support.

PS! Use google webmaster tools to listen for copies of your own original marketing phrases! By having a few original phrases, that is how I found out about the infringment! Not just a phrase in this case though!

Regards,

Andrew Goodfellow
Aussie Home Inventories


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Inventory Consultant

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The outcome of this scenario so far, is that the DMCA Copyright Infringement notice was issued and within 24hours the site is offline! Success!

What I will be formulating here in a further entry, is the information on what I had to do. Furthermore you may not be aware, but most sites are actively archived anyway by a server called 'The Wayback Machine'. Check it out! Information to follow....

Andrew Goodfellow
Aussie Home Inventories

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Inventory Consultant
JD

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The "Complete Home Journal Business" software you purchase from Fred's company contains a lot of information. In addition to the business software, it has sample contracts, letters, flyers and web site content, as well as an information package to include in your clients final product. Many of us have modified the sample contracts and other material to fit our needs.

It is well worth the cost, as the business software and company support are FANTASTIC!

Welcome to our industry and Good Luck in your new business. Just about everyone in this Forum will be happy to give you pointers and information. We help each other.


-- Edited by JD at 12:27, 2008-05-14

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JD Weiss

Manager and Co-owner Rebel Ranch, Corp

Rebel Ranch


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This is an excellent topic. I am a new start up home inventory business.  So my question is how does one who is just starting in the business get the information for there flyers, brochures and the website? 

Is this type of wording in the start-up kit?



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Andrew brings up some very good points with regards to business practices and ethics.  The NAHIP association was formed to unite professional and bring credibility to the industry but will only work if business owners join and follow the code of conduct.

Regarding the violation of others copyrighted materials, NAHIP will suspend a member if they copy others materials without permission.  The startup kit availble from your message board sponsor has complete materials to begin this business including complete website content.  There is no reason to copy others materials but I do encourage business owners to work together, share ideas and ask permission if you want to use a small portion of anothers work.

This is a healthy conversation and appreciate Andrew leading this topic.

Thanks,
Fred



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Fred Knapp
Innovative Software, LLC
Business Development & Software Solutions
www.HomeJournalBusiness.com
www.HomeInventoryBusinessForum.com

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To be aware of the damage that this site is doing to the Home Inventory Service as a whole, is not just disturbing from the copyright issue, but business ethics are out of the window here! Here is a business trying to prove credibility! Wanting to enter homes and business with the idea of recording property and contents.

Some people will only let family and trusted parties enter their home. Are we all working hard to try and build trust and credibility, through various marketing angles? It is an uphill battle with some clients, as this is their private zone, there hard earned possessions, their worth! For most people, it is like letting a stranger into the underware draw!

Imagine, you had worked hard for months, your trust and credibility was on the increase and so was the client numbers! Then whoops in come the cowboys! One shoddy job, hit the gossip line or media and client numbers at zero! Why should your business suffer when it was not your fault? Would you be feeling like paying those cowboys a visit? All you hard work gone!

What we all need to do as a group of like minded professionals, is to look at the associations, etc. If we want protection from areas of concern, a body to speak on our behalf it is not going to happen without funding. Membership is very rewarding, when we get what we want! It is up to the professionals to get behind the association and make it what they want it to be! It is your association to represent you! Without you there is no association! So who is driving here? You the Home Inventory Service professionals are!

The rogue site in question has also copied statistics directly from a different country and renamed the disasters without adjusting statistic numbers. This is the only laughable part of the process. Check it out for yourself!

For example on Aussie Home Inventories we have:
  • Canberra Fires [2003] - Insured Cost $342M - 1 In 3 Homes Under-Insured Or Not Insured. 488 Homes Lost, 800 Damaged
  • Cyclone Larry [2006] - Insured Cost $350M Estimated 50% Of Homes Under-Insured. Building Costs 50% Higher After Event!
The rogue site has this: www.rshishome.com
  • California Wild Fires [2003] - Insured Cost $342M - 1 In 3 Homes Under-Insured Or Not Insured. 488 Homes Lost, 800 Damaged
  • Hurricane Katrina [2006] - Insured Cost $350M Estimated 50% Of Homes Under-Insured. Building Costs 50% Higher After Event!
Is there not common law that inhibits people from reporting absolute BULL! We have to ask ourselves how far are we going to go, with this not-truth!

Personally if I was over in your country, after a coffee in Beaumont, I would be contacting as many Home Inventory Professionals as possible, calling NAHIP and throwing money their way to make them into the association we all need!

The Wild West was won a long time ago! A business or service such as ours needs top credibility and trust, otherwise you will knocking on doors where there is no answer!

I hope this raises the importance level of how a body or association helps you as individuals businesses. Give them your support!

There is no association in Australia. You are lucky!

Andrew Goodfellow
Inventory Consultant
Aussie Home Inventories - Home Inventory Service - Australia


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If you are faced with a copy of your original website try this:

A. Email the host owner informing them of copyright infringment and request site closure.
B. Look for major local business sites advertising the rogue site. Look into their terms and conditions for the users of their services. Copyright issues are listed here that users have to abide to!
C. Visit the webhosting service of the rogue site and do the same as B.
D. Email the webhosting service stating they are hosting a site with copyright issues. If a site hosted is found to be infringing copyright the plug can be pulled!

You will need to complete this information:

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, codified at 17 U.S.C. 512(c) (the "DMCA"), you must submit a valid claim before [hostname] can take action.
 
For your convenience, the DMCA provides that a valid claim must include the following:

1.  A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person  authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf (the "Claimant");
2.  Identification of the copyrighted work(s) claimed to have been infringed;
3.  Identification of the material claimed to infringe
the copyright(s), and enough information for the host (hostname) to locate it;
4.  The Claimant's name, address, and telephone number(s);
5.  A statement that the Claimant has a good faith belief
that use of the disputed material is not authorized
by the copyright owner or his agent; and
6.  A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the  notification of copyright infringement is accurate and that the Claimant is
authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

E. Supply additional information.

F. The icing on the cake is this! Visit http://www.archive.org/web/web.php This site is an archiving tool known as 'the wayback machine'. You can see archives of sites! Prove the information is yours by going back through the archives of your website. Next check the rogue site and see if there is a copy of the site as it used to be before it became a clone of your own! If there is a older version that does not include your information, you can sit back and enjoy the coffee! Submit all this information to the host provider.

And I hear you ask where am I up to? I am enjoying the coffee waiting for the reply from the host provider. Fingers crossed!

I hope this helps you out Joe! Good Luck!

I will keep you all informed of progress. If anyone has other useful weapons of scam destruction I would like to know what they are just in case.

Andrew Goodfellow
Inventory Consultant
Aussie Home Inventories - Home Inventory Service - Australia

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Andrew, well stated! It's disturbing that folks can have such a blatant disregard for ethics (and the law!) these days.

I'll add one to the mix. If you go to the NAHIP.com website (a national home inventory organization in the States), and click on "Find a Professional".  Check out Bastion's directory listing (in Florida) and compare it to Inet Home Inventory's listing (in California).  

Florentino SaenzDiez did the same thing Michele did -- copy the text and change the name.  Inet's website is "under construction" and phone calls are not returned...

-- Edited by JoeBastion at 07:58, 2008-05-09

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A common goal for many owners of a home inventory service is to 'increase awareness'. To increase awareness one often has to go out onto the net and source / rewrite information and in a nut shell learn from how the same is being done, or has been done by others. The art of rewriting information into an article with the same message is time consuming, but does supply a personalised finished article . Another way of using information already formulated would be to ASK PERMISSION from the copyright owner of that information. Blogsites with an 'RSS feed' can supply information directly into a website or blog, without being bothered by copyright issues.

What not to do though is to do a straight copy of the 'html' from another home inventory service and then call it your own! Besides copyright issues, legal matters and lack of credibility, it will create a negative to the industry as a whole! The search engines will see copies of site information and sites may be blacklisted by various organisastions and it could be the original!

IMAGINE that you find your home inventory website sitting word for word, font style for font style, marketing phrase for marketing phrase, site structure for site structure, articles and pricing tables, all purring away on the other side of the world! Aussie Home Inventories did TODAY! Not good business practice THANK YOU! Not a good feeling to have your site copied almost byte for byte!

To learn more about what NOT TO DO, you need to see how it has been done! How your hard work is easily copied! Our website Aussie Home Inventories as we found out today is now available, breaking all copyright law in Beaumont, TX 77707! Visit our site Aussie Home Inventories and then the scammers at www.rhishome.com

If this happened to you how would you feel? We have not taken action as of yet but have the legal side of things on the launch pad! We will be addressing issues via the media, legal, search engine etc. Our aim to get our content off this site or have the site taken down!

If you are a believer of business ethics and morals ring Michele Kennedy on 409 866 7443 or 409 626 1791 or contact her at 2390 Woodside Drive Beaumont TX 77707 and point out to her what is correct and what is not correct.

Aussie Home Inventories as a reputable and professional Home Inventory Service willl take action in due course. Any negativity from this action, on the industry as a whole can be laid solely at the door of the scammers.

Contact details for Andrew Goodfellow - Inventory Consultant


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