Copyright Question

[EladaGlass]

I paid a copywriter for wording for my listings and have discovered that a competitor has nearly copied and is using my descriptive words in her listings. Am I allowed to place a copyright symbol in my text? Ideas of what actions to take? Will Etsy do anything?

[Plektra]

Did they copy phrases, tags, titles, paragraphs? Most of the description adding their own text in between etc? I suppose it depends how much and what they are copying...

If you paid a copywriter to write your listing descriptions, don't they hold the copyright of their text? I don't know how that works, just wondering...I would ask them first.

Copying listing descriptions is not allowed. Depending on the circumstances, that can be considered plagiarism or copyright infringement. It also creates duplicate text on Google and that will hurt you, or both of you, in searches.

You can put a notice about copyright in your policies or in your listing descriptions, you are allowed to. But unfortunately, copy cats have no shame.

[Former_Member]

Yeah, I would imagine it would depend on how much text they used. If someone used the same tags and title words as you, for example, I highly doubt etsy would do anything. The chances of more than 1 person coming up with some of the same tags for a spoon rest would be quite high, I would imagine.

If, on the other hand, they copied your listing description verbatim then I would think you would have some recourse. Although, even then you would probably run into resistance trying to get it taken down.

[LeedsRadio]

Kathleen,
I write my own descriptions but people copy me all the time. Sometimes they even copy details that have nothing to do with the item they are posting. I contacted Etsy and they told me that I could put a copyright symbol and notice up. I have a copyright notice on my policies page and also on the listings that are photos/downloads.

Unfortunately these copycat, parasitic, plagiarists count on the fact that enforcing a copyright is expensive.

Best thing you can do is constantly edit/upgrade descriptions. This is the world we are living in now - the world of "me first" with a total sense of entitlement and no pride.