Motorhome Parking web site now off-line (1 Viewer)

hilldweller

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As a result of the latest example of plagiarism which my web site has suffered I have decided to take the Motorhome Parking web site off-line. Full statement at www.motorhomeparking.co.uk.

What a bummer.

Could you do a deal with Jim to enhance this site ?

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Jim

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Sorry it's come to that Graham. I do hope you reconsider, your site is very useful and has many, many back links. It would be a shame to lose it just because of some ignorant site admin.
 

Addie

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About two years ago I did a short tour of the UK and found the information you had gathered useful for staying in places like Bath. I can't have been an easy task to do so and something I wouldn't wish to undertake.

I can understand your frustration that someone shared the file on a forum without crediting you directly. However that being said the file was distributed in its entirety and this was not "passed off as the work of somebody else" as you describe since your readme file containing your copyright and contact information still remained intact within the download.

Broken Link Removed

We also create and share some POI information on our site but do so under a creative commons licence that allows others to re-distribute (and in our case edit or add to) our information. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

For the benefit of other motorhomers I'd ask that you reconsider its removal.

For those of you who had not visited the site before its deletion, a full archieved copy can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/20101031064405/http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/
 
Apr 18, 2009
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Hi Graham
Very sorry to hear this,:Sad: I have used your site a couple of times and the information was invaluble, but I think I can understand your frustation. Thanks for all the your hard work anyway and I do hope you can find a way of carrying on:thumb:

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chatter

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I can understand your reasoning but it is such a shame to loose the site and its info. Something we are seeing more and more these days is a lack of manners/respect from folk with regard to someone having done something which is good and informative and them wanting it but they just cant be bothered to ask first.
 
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GJH

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(snip)
I can understand your frustration that someone shared the file on a forum without crediting you directly. However that being said the file was distributed in its entirety and this was not "passed off as the work of somebody else" as you describe since your readme file containing your copyright and contact information still remained intact within the download.

Broken Link Removed(snip)

I realise that the readme file was still there but the thread referenced (now deleted) gave a different impression and the publication was, in any case, in direct contravention of the requirement that the file not be published by anyone else. That is close enough to passing off for me.
 

Don Madge

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Hi Graham,

Very sorry to hear that you are closing your site. I used it this week when we had 2 nights in Bury st Edmunds.

I hope you will reconsider and keep it running.

Don

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GJH

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Thanks to all for the kind words but the situation was that the web site needed an overhaul and that was going to take a significant amount of time and effort.

I no longer have the incentive to put that time and effort in when experience has shown that it is inevitable that somebody will just come and take the results and republish them as if they were their own. It isn't just my web site, I'm aware it happens to others. Just enough is enough from my point of view.
 

Jim

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I can understand your frustration that someone shared the file on a forum without crediting you directly. However that being said the file was distributed in its entirety and this was not "passed off as the work of somebody else" as you describe since your readme file containing your copyright and contact information still remained intact within the download.

That said, it was still distributed outside the terms provided. Reading between the lines, it seems to me that had the admin of the site responded a little better then Graham may well have let it go, but I'm guessing.

I remember I inadvertently published something similar here, someone made a file available in our downloads that was sold elsewhere. I removed the file immediately and gave a genuine apology. This resulted in the owner giving a Funster discount on the file:Smile:

Only this month, someone stole a photo of mine from this site and used it on the front cover of a magazine. I wasn't that bothered, but their attitude when i mentioned it; first denying it was mine, then giving the perplexing excuse that someone else gave them permission:Doh: Even when sure it was mine they didn't even offer a free copy of the mag and were completley indifferent:Doh:

I regularly find work of mine that I sell, made available for free on torrent sites, it hurts initially, but after a while its Ho-Hum. I console myself with the thought those who steal it are unlikely to buy so I'm not really losing.

I'm hoping that Graham does a Ho Hum and opens the site again:thumb:
 

Emmenay

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very handy website now folded!

I'm sure many of us have used this one plenty in the past!

http://www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/


oops I must keep up.....:ROFLMAO:

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JJ

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Sorry to learn the dreadful state of affairs Graham.

Is this the time for people individually to contact Camping Club Uk and speak their mind?

A couple of hundred complaints on their forum might point out the error of their ways?

JJ :Cool:
 

Addie

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That said, it was still distributed outside the terms provided. Reading between the lines, it seems to me that had the admin of the site responded a little better then Graham may well have let it go, but I'm guessing.

The whole thread has now been removed. Censorship? :Eeek:
 
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GJH

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Sorry to learn the dreadful state of affairs Graham.

Is this the time for people individually to contact Camping Club Uk and speak their mind?

A couple of hundred complaints on their forum might point out the error of their ways?

JJ :Cool:

Thank you JJ but I don't think a mass complaint is needed. I think they realise the error of their ways - as Addie says, the whole thread has been deleted not just the file.

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JJ

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Thank you JJ but I don't think a mass complaint is needed. I think they realise the error of their ways - as Addie says, the whole thread has been deleted not just the file.

That will be why I can't find it then!

This reminds me of the time a magician spent over ten grand (and a year) developing a superb, award winning website.

This was before you could get "off the shelf" sites. Each line of code was written by the builder (who wore his baseball cap the wrong way around.)

Within two weeks of its launch a magician in Brazil had a copy of it online with his name transplanted into it.

I wrote one of my "creative" emails suggesting that if it didn't disappear within 12 hours a huge pile of grief would fall upon him from a great height.

I got a highly repentant email back. The magician explained he had paid a company to build a website for him and it was that company who had stolen the site.

I wish I hadn't directed all that wrath on him before I had established what had actually happened! (But it was a fine email :winky:)

JJ :Cool:
 
Apr 18, 2009
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That will be why I can't find it then!

This reminds me of the time a magician spent over ten grand (and a year) developing a superb, award winning website.

This was before you could get "off the shelf" sites. Each line of code was written by the builder (who wore his baseball cap the wrong way around.)

Within two weeks of its launch a magician in Brazil had a copy of it online with his name transplanted into it.

I wrote one of my "creative" emails suggesting that if it didn't disappear within 12 hours a huge pile of grief would fall upon him from a great height.

I got a highly repentant email back. The magician explained he had paid a company to build a website for him and it was that company who had stolen the site.

I wish I hadn't directed all that wrath on him before I had established what had actually happened! (But it was a fine email :winky:)

JJ :Cool:


I guess that was before you had 'YOUR PEOPLE' then JJ:winky:
 

Mavis

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Geoff it is too valuable to just let go. Some of us really use your hard work so please cant you do it as a download even if we pay you for it. :Smile: pleezzeee!!!!

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May 12, 2011
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Another vote of thanks for all of your hard work, I used it in the past both to find parking and to question my local council.

I've never heard of this other group, don't suppose I want to visit it now!
 

s7ev0

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Graham I fully sympathise with your situation.

I found out recently that someone had taken and republished the details of about 60 of our stopover sites, so I know how much it rankles that someone can just come along and take what amounts to the best part of two year's work and offer it up for their own gain. Just like you did, I wrote to these people and outlined the situation, only to be met with a brush-off and the claim that this person had personally contacted all the hosts and had their agreement. After then spending the best part of several days phoning round all these hosts, I (inevitably, I guess) found this to be untrue.

As in your case, if this type of plagiarism (or theft, as I prefer to call it) happens on a regular basis, it simply won't be worth my time and effort to continue with Brit Stops. Then like your great resource, it will simply fold.

I'm afraid I'm not so much of a “ho hum” person as Jim, however, so we've started the ball rolling on legal proceedings for copyright / database rights infringement. I would be happy to give you the details of our Intellectual Property solicitors if you wish.

Steve
 
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I think for a small self financed website its probably not worth doing much complaining, you just have to accept that someone will abuse it. Not the same scale I know but I have a couple of LPG maps and they have been copied, I am a bit pissed, but I knew it would happen, I wouldn't mind if they at least said thanks to olley. :ROFLMAO:

Ian
 
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GJH

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(snip)
I'm afraid I'm not so much of a “ho hum” person as Jim, however, so we've started the ball rolling on legal proceedings for copyright / database rights infringement. I would be happy to give you the details of our Intellectual Property solicitors if you wish.

Steve

Thanks for the offer but, as Olley says, the potential recompense isn't worth the hassle. We had a problem some years ago when running our family history business. Somebody bought one of our data CDs plus some from other companies, copied them and sold them on eBay. I eventually managed to get him banned by eBay but neither we nor any of the other companies received any damages - he was not worth suing as he had no assets to seize in practice.
 

JJ

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I guess that was before you had 'YOUR PEOPLE' then JJ:winky:

I have my people and other people have their people and I am one of the people another person has, just as some of his people are my people too. :thumb:

I am sure you have your own people and if ever you are in Portugal and need anything, get your people to contact my people and we will see what can be done to help. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

JJ :Cool:
 

magicsurfbus

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Graham - I'm sorry to hear of this situation - I've used your site myself, have linked to it from mine, and have benefited from traffic coming my way from the link on your site. What you've done there is to the best of my knowledge unique, and a valuable resource. What the other webs(h)ite has done is illegal, pure and simple.

As the published content that has been plagiarised is digital you have some recourse under the Computer Misuse Act. A few years ago someone 'borrowed' header and meta tag information off the top of one of my web pages to boost their own site's rankings in Google. I took (free) legal advice via my Union and challenged the individual directly. They removed the copied material very soon afterwards and sent a grovelling apology. Maybe a shot across the bows of Camping Club UK might achieve the same? It cost me nothing.

It would be a great shame to see your site's content go offline.
 
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GJH

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I have my people and other people have their people and I am one of the people another person has, just as some of his people are my people too. :thumb:

I am sure you have your own people and if ever you are in Portugal and need anything, get your people to contact my people and we will see what can be done to help. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

JJ :Cool:
This post reminds me of the old Excel Club in Middlesbrough when I was a student - and seeing these guys [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0un58EPmeM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0un58EPmeM[/ame]

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GJH

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(snip)
As the published content that has been plagiarised is digital you have some recourse under the Computer Misuse Act. A few years ago someone 'borrowed' header and meta tag information off the top of one of my web pages to boost their own site's rankings in Google. I took (free) legal advice via my Union and challenged the individual directly. They removed the copied material very soon afterwards and sent a grovelling apology. Maybe a shot across the bows of Camping Club UK might achieve the same? It cost me nothing.

It would be a great shame to see your site's content go offline.
Thanks. As with copyright, though, it would probably be a lot of effort for little result. When people simply refuse to see (or are incapable of seeing) that they have done anything wrong it's like talking to a brick wall. The attitude appears not to have changed from 11 months ago - Broken Link Removed
 

Scout

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I have my people and other people have their people and I am one of the people another person has, just as some of his people are my people too. :thumb:

I am sure you have your own people and if ever you are in Portugal and need anything, get your people to contact my people and we will see what can be done to help. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

JJ :Cool:


you may have people, but i have a pee pole, which when your "busting" is much more usefull:ROFLMAO:
 

old-mo

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I`m not really up on Puters, Graham, but..

I have often gone on a site and tried to copy a certain thing, and when I have clicked on whatever I get a window coming up saying =

You do not have permission to copy (Or words to that effect)

Cant you do some thing on these lines..?

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