Copied Forum

[djgigabyte]

Forum URL: efour.proboards.com

Brief history of the forum: Started by myself and another member around a decade ago with myself setting the forum up and therefore holding the admin account. Over the years the other member changed things to more how he wanted it, and for his brand rather the community focus it originally had.

Now it appears he is wanting to split from the forum and create a forum of his own (I assume as I still hold the admin account for this one), however in doing so he has had people perform a full webscrape of the existing forum, and has recreated everything, posts and all, onto his new forum.

The new forum can be found at www.elitefourum.com/ and while currently members only, screenshots when logged in show everything that was taken:









As you can see, his new forum is set up to look like everyone involved in the current forum has been using an account on that new forum, and shows all of our posts as though they were made there. I have never had an account on the new forum (screenshots are from another account holder), but it appears as though I have been posting there for years.

Reading the ToS for ProBoards, it seems as though all data put onto a ProBoards forum is still owned by the person who made the posts, and even if this member was an admin of the site, it would still be against ToS for him to transfer everything over to a new site in this way.

I want to know if I'm understanding to ToS correctly, and what actions I (and any other members who do not wish to be on this new site) can take from here.

[Michael]

Hi,

You are correct, per the ProBoards TOS the content you post on the forum is yours. This is why you can download a copy of your own data but you can't download a copy of the forums data.

Unfortunately, in this case there isn't anything we (ProBoards) can do. I would suggest speaking to a lawyer as this is a legal matter. I am not a lawyer and I cannot provide legal advice.


Speaking purely on a personal level and not as a representative of ProBoards, I would suggest that you and other members of your forum may be interested in DMCA takedowns.

[Kami]

Not legal advice, just generic information: It's also worth reaching out to their providers to let them know that a site they host / provide a domain for is redistributing content that originated on your forum without your consent.

According to their ICANN lookup, their domain registrar is google [contact]. They're using an open-source forum platform, which means they need to be self hosting and their host is Digital Ocean and their report abuse link is [here]. Like PB's TOS as a host for our content, website hosting providers also have TOS and when people are using your content without permission on an external host, the external host is similarly obligated to enforce their terms.

For anyone reading this, it's fairly simple to find this information if a site off of PB is using your content without permission. ICANN look up tells you the domain registrar, and Hosting Checker tells you the host. ICANN lookup can also occasionally net the domain holder's contact information, should one decide to pursue legal avenues.

Best of luck, whatever you decide.

[Dazzal]

I've had it happen to me, and it's disappointing.

[Kami]

Jun 14, 2022 9:42:20 GMT -8 Dazzal said:

Good advice Michael
Agree with Kami to speak directly with the person that copied your content/forum. I had it happen to me twice. I messaged both and told them that I was very disappointed that they would copy my content, as I had worked very hard on the forum to try to keep specific content unique to the forum. I asked how would they like it if someone had stolen content and forum appearance from them? I also stated out of courtesy to me, please do away with the content that you took, because this is pretty much stealing. And do you know they did, and I told them I appreciated them respecting my opinion. You never know what can change, unless you speak up.

With respect, I said nothing about talking with the individual who copied the forum. I said to talk to their domain provider & host.

[Dazzal]

Jun 14, 2022 9:58:17 GMT -8 Kami said:

Jun 14, 2022 9:42:20 GMT -8 Dazzal said:

Good advice Michael
Agree with Kami to speak directly with the person that copied your content/forum. I had it happen to me twice. I messaged both and told them that I was very disappointed that they would copy my content, as I had worked very hard on the forum to try to keep specific content unique to the forum. I asked how would they like it if someone had stolen content and forum appearance from them? I also stated out of courtesy to me, please do away with the content that you took, because this is pretty much stealing. And do you know they did, and I told them I appreciated them respecting my opinion. You never know what can change, unless you speak up.

With respect, I said nothing about talking with the individual who copied the forum. I said to talk to their domain provider & host.

I misread it, my bad.

[Kami]

Jun 14, 2022 10:04:46 GMT -8 Dazzal said:

Jun 14, 2022 9:58:17 GMT -8 Kami said:

With respect, I said nothing about talking with the individual who copied the forum. I said to talk to their domain provider & host.

I misread it, my bad.

No worries! I just didn't want to be attributed mistakenly haha.

For the record though, I advise to escalate to the service provider(s) as a first step because it drastically reduces the risk for any legal issues about what might transpire between two individuals. Since plagiarism and digital theft often fall under a legal matter (as stated above), it's generally advised against talking to the other party without a legal representative acting as an intermediary.

By reaching out to the service provider first, you eliminate the need to seek legal counsel as a first step and can escalate to it if the individual or group in question continues with their actions even after their service provider(s) have intervened.