Can anything be done if a site is not copyrighted?

[glitch]

A friend of mine made a website similar to reddit. It had been growing really well and he is actually earning through ad revenue. He is very happy but someone had bought the ".net" version of his website and basically copied it entirely, even using similar names for moderators, exact same titles and everything. Can anything be done about this?

 

[Grant]

I believe you don't have to get copyright when starting a new site. If you designed it, made it, etc, and have proof of such, you own that copyright. It's the same as if you snapped a photo with a camera, you own that photo, you own the copyright. It's automatically yours.

What I'd do is reach out to the site owner and warn them you own the copyright to this site and request them to take the site down. I think if you go through court for this, you could take ownership of the site. Look at how major companies have taken over sites that copied theirs. THat would be a great way to get payback for someone stealing your content.

If there's clear copy of a site, you just have to collect the proof and find a way to report that to someone. Maybe the webhost. But always reach out to the site owner and suggest they remove the site or face legal trouble. That sometimes is enough to push them to stop.

 

[Kane]

A friend of mine made a website similar to reddit. It had been growing really well and he is actually earning through ad revenue. He is very happy but someone had bought the ".net" version of his website and basically copied it entirely, even using similar names for moderators, exact same titles and everything. Can anything be done about this?

If the person who copied the site can be tracked in the real world, you can file a case and claim copyrights. You can make him pay for the damages. However, if the person who copied cannot be tracked in the real world and he only exists in the virtual world, there is a provision of DMCA., YOu can use this provision to take his site down from the world wide web.

 

[Heatman]

The only option left for your friend would be to file for DMCA over the website copy and if he can provide substantial proof of his own website being the original website, the copied website is going to be taken down by Google. This is the only justice you can get from filing DMCA.