Would this bother you, is it even legal?
 

I found a site that is using the 'fake forum statistics' mod. Well They copied my whole 'whos online in the last 24 hours' to their whos online part of that hack..

It has all my members names in their whos online in the last 24 hours as a result.

Is that even legal? Sounds like theft to me!

If your got a legal copyright on the mod and they removed (the copyright information on the mod that is) or it's still there then it might be classified as it. I would have to find more information about it first.

no its not my mod... The are copying and pasting my whos online last 24 hours to theirs..

The mod is called fake community statistics. https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=117933&

Its like if I went to your site and copied all the members showing on your 'members in the last 24 hours' and pasted it to my own site. It will show all your users usernames as my users.

In your forum rules/agreement upon registering or some where on your site state that your site owns the usernames of each user registered on your site or their usernames fall under your copyright? If you have something similar to that then yes its illegal, otherwise its up to each user name the copied whether they care or not.

They are probably mirroring your site and not copying anything...

It may be the same members. I would get in contact with the members and ask them. To me it kind of sounds like a hack because if theres updates with yours then it might be running off of your site meaning your server load is weighed even more.

nope, its not mirrored and it would be quite impossible for them to have my admin as a member or several of my mods.. Seriously its like 280 of my user names. all in a row, plus others.. which they prolly stole from somewhere else.

post up both sites and we will tell you what's up

I dont see how it could be illegal there just names.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

What a load of crock! LOL

Imitation is the greatest form of.... I cant do anything for myself and lack originality so I'll just steal theirs. :eek:

Why would you be using the fake forum stats with these stats:

Threads: 126,547, Posts: 1,418,020, Members: 3,659

Or are they FAKE ?

you have one forum with over 1 million posts.

It wouldn't make me mad because honestly I have too much going on with my own site to worry about imitators.

The issue in this case isnt copycats or imitators its plaguerism.

Or would seem to be if we saw a screen pic or 2

I think I have a screeny somewhere... This post is old.

And no, none of my big board stats are fake. :)

Its not plagiarism: Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

And to answer the original question, there probably isn't much that can be done, usernames are universal and used on forums all over the world and there is no way to say that for 100% surety they came from your site unless you've some how scoured all forums members lists, compiled the names, and your site is the only one with them :)

Which if you've done that, it probably wouldn't be worth all the effort required :D