Me and Sally have been debating copyright. Perhaps a little more heatedly than we should. Her web copy has been stolen and she's furious, as most people would be.
So does she get legal on the thief and have the copy taken down? What about next time? What about if 50 people do it? Or 500? How much time and money can you spend chasing up your copyright? Especially when programs can be written to automatically steal your web copy the second it's published.
What options does she have? If she lets it slide then she risks losing clients who fear their competitors will get the work they're paying for, for free. If she spends her time and money chasing it up, you have to feel that will be at the expense of current client work.
I'm on the unpopular 'change your business model' side of the fence. I think we need to make our work more copyright proof. If you do web copy, maybe you should advise your client to make their products and services so unique it doesn't make sense anywhere else.
Nobody steal's Apple's web copy, nor Dyson's. Their copy wouldn't make sense for anyone else. Nobody steals Tesco's low-prices and uses them on their site neither. The fact that Sally's web copy, especially product descriptions, can be stolen and used on another website says something about the lack of difference between the two companies.
