copyright infringement?

[lezimm]

I have a small business website. As part of the website one of my pages is an "on-line response form" giving my customers the option of responding to me by phone, or by using this "on-line form". Recently one of my competitors contacted me and informed me that I was violating their copyright by printing an "on-line form". The lay-out of my form is not like theirs, although some of the lines are similar since we are in the same business and need to get the same type of information. Is the IDEA of an "on-line form" for our customers to respond by, something that can be copyrighted? They are writing letters to sites I was linked with telling them I am guilty of copyright infringement and demanding that I remove my site from the web. Already I have lost a major linking site because of these letters. Is this infringement on my part, or not??

 

[HomeGuru]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lezimm:
I have a small business website. As part of the website one of my pages is an "on-line response form" giving my customers the option of responding to me by phone, or by using this "on-line form". Recently one of my competitors contacted me and informed me that I was violating their copyright by printing an "on-line form". The lay-out of my form is not like theirs, although some of the lines are similar since we are in the same business and need to get the same type of information. Is the IDEA of an "on-line form" for our customers to respond by, something that can be copyrighted? They are writing letters to sites I was linked with telling them I am guilty of copyright infringement and demanding that I remove my site from the web. Already I have lost a major linking site because of these letters. Is this infringement on my part, or not??<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dear alleged infringer:
It is possible to copyright text, graphics, layout etc. of an online form but not a thought or idea. Maybe they think that they are legends in their own minds. Since your layout is different and your text is somewhat different, this does not appear to constitute a copyright infringement. On the www I have seen thousands of these types of forms and many from competing companies look exactly the same like mirror images. Ask them to provide you with a copy of their copyright registration and their on-line form published work registered with the Federal government as proof and indicating that their online form is copyright registered and protected. Send them a snail mail letter but also use their own online form that they accused you of stealing to do this. I doubt that they even registered the work with the Copyright Office. If they did not, they have a very slim chance of prevailing. If they did, you are still protected because your form is not an exact duplicate of their form nor was your form copied from their form. If their online form is part of an ecommerce section that has photos and prices that you took off their website then that is wrong and infringement. Many website owners pay photographers to take photos of the products and hire a website programmer to set up the shopping cart section for on-line ordering. Then other competitors just download the info and have a replicating site for free with some minor changes. This action is stealing and copyright infringement.

Depending on the content of the letter that this competitor is sending out to the different website owners, you may have a claim against them for libel, slander, defamation, economic losses etc.

An idea that I have that is not copyrighted, is to contact your website hosting company and have them look at both ( yours and your competitors) online forms and give you their opinion.

 

[Tracey]

The key question is whether you copied any part of their question form when you set up your own page. If you arrived at a similar page independently, you have not infringed any copyrights. One cannot copyright an idea; one can only copyright the final expression of that idea. Furthermore, if there's only one way to express an idea, you can't CR the expression, either. (Think phone book white pages.) If there's only one way to code a check box in html/java, you didn't infringe even if you did copy the line from their site. On the limited facts you presented, you have not infringed their CR.

Now, you have causes of action against the company for the tort of intentional interference with business prospects/income AND for libel. You have actual damages because you can prove you have lost money and/or a "major linking site" from their libelous actions. I am assuming that you fired back a response denying any CR infringement & pointing out that certain lines in a feedback page have to be similar due to the fact that you are in the same business.

Have a lawyer write to the linking site and explain basic copyright law to them, and point out that the site is in no way liable just for linking to your site. Then inform the site that you will be suing the b*stards, and will have to access and/or seize the site's email servers & hosting servers to prove what the defendants wrote to them & to prove that the site removed its link, thereby damaging you. This is a not-very-subtle threat to make the site's life HELL unless they cooperate fully with your suit AND reinstate your link. If you wrote the letter this would be called extortion, but if your attorney writes the letter it's called "a courtesy advance notice of pre-trial negotiation & discovery." Ain't law great?

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This is not legal advice and you are not my client. Double check everything with your own attorney and your state's laws.

[This message has been edited by Tracey (edited June 12, 2000).]