Stopping people ripping off your site

I don't get it? It's just a time stamp.

Correct,

so download 50 pages and try an automated removal of

copyright speedydelivery 2004....

Ah I see what he's saying, note pad will never be able to find "copyright speedydelivery 2004" because it's broken up. Should stpo the majority of people, but of course the determined ones who know how to print screen and delete will succeed.

Yeah, I'm having an issue with a customer who I designed a website for, showed to, they refused to sign a contract...so I refunded their money and shut down the website. Fast forward to tonight...I went to the domain, and they have a new website up...the logo I created, site flow, content, FONTS, layout...everything, except it looks terrible.

There is no way to stop people from doing this, except legal action. If you have a case, file it. *AHEM* I believe I do...lawyers come tomorrow.

This is why it is best to give someone a preview of your work on your own laptop. No physical/digital copy should be provided without something signed if this is a problem.

-Greg

What I do is upload a low qualty jpeg with sample stamped across it so the client can agree the layout, colours etc...

That's in addition to getting a signed contract and a 50% deposit before I do a thing!

This is like trying to shut the gate after the cows bolted.

Look at the problem, people are downloading your sites, how? a download program.
How many of you that have had your site downloaded have an .htaccess file ??
Of those that do, how many block download bots ??
I could go on but I doubt anyone has said "I do" down to this point.

Log files are your friend, use them. find out what bots/scripts they are using and block them (not the IP's) I could name heaps, some of fthe top of my head are, downloader, go!zilla, grabber, leech, msie crawler, web sucker, web zip ... bet you'd find at least one of these names in your logs as they are very common. There are also lots more.

While the theory of the timestamp is good, its useless. ever heard of search and replace in text editors? the time stamp is the same on every line, so all you have to do is search and replace. If I downloaded say 100 pages, would take about 20 secs if that to do a search and replace on the time stamp and then the copyright tag.
If you are going to use stamps use random numbers and/or letters as well as the time to slow them down (wont stop anyone). If your using server side just start with a number and increase it in a while loop so every line of the time stamp differs.
You can also randomly place copyright notices in html comments throughout your pages, be sure to make them all different so search and replace can't be used so easily. etc etc upper and lower case is pointless as search and replace isn't case sensitive

We talked abotu a contract, made a verbal contract to suffice until I had some progress to show, and she gave me about 60% of the cost upfront.

She didn't use a bot, she went in and copied things directly. I know this, because I know the guy that did it. He works as a Webmaster/Programmer for a living, and he's a friend of this customer...how low is that? honestly.

Three words... Sue her ***!

or alternatively find a friendly hacker to scrawl obscenities all over the site...

I agree though, that is a crappy thing to do and there is not much you can do about it apart from legal action. In the UK we have legal aid to take someone to court if you qualify, do you have the same thing in the states?

You could also try a no win, no fee lawyer if you have them as well...

First one...already in the works.

Second...maybe. lol

you could always date her and forget her birthday

Eh...no money involved, and shes old enough to be my mom, plus some (keep in mind i'm 17)