Website Copyright, do I have rights?

OMG sorry about this post but I am fuming right now! I have just discovered that someone I used to work with has copied (practically word for word) the main feature of my website which is unique. He has added it to his site, I am so mad!

Do I have any copyright rights? I feared this would happen eventually but not so blatantly. I did think about this when launching the site but it's not really easy to protect a website legally is it?

Any advice greatly received urgently!

Thanks

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Is it the comparison list?

I doubt you can protect what is only a list of companies start up rates, etc, as its factual information available in the public domain anyway.

PS It has to be correct if you are doing a comparison, so make sure you keep it up to date and put a disclaimer on there about it being 'correct as at (date)'.

If it isn't that, I can't see what else it could be.

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It's not the information as such, I know I cant do anything about that. He has copied the table down to the wording and format, its exact and also the way in which it follows on. It's hard to explain but hes basically done a copy paste job onto his site. I would show you but I refuse to paste a link to his site. I do have terms and conditions on my website that state information is correct at time of release and users should check the information themselves. We do send an update your information form out to our clients on the site and it's in the terms of their listing that they inform us of any changes.

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well, if its a full copy of the entire table, send an email to him and request he take it down. Give him 24 hours. If he doesn't respond, email his hosting provider who will request he removes it or they will suspend and then cancel his hosting account if he fails to respond.

Before you contact the hosting provider, how can you prove you created this table and not him?

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Well for starters his copyright notice on his site is dated 2011 and mine is 2009!

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well thats fore the website itself, not for anything on the page.

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We have decided to play it friendly first rather than create an enemy first. We are going to start with a non threatening yet firm phone call on Monday.

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how did you get on?

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cheers Steve
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Did you have any luck with this?

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