Stealing intellectural property (Web Design and Content)

[Danuska]

Recently, I started working for a company that wants to develop websites, among others. They hired a new guy, who seemed very nice and all, and he was asked to develop the website for our company as well. I was a bit surprised by the quantity of the text on it - he was not even supposed to do the writing, but he did, and what he wrote seemed to be very good and professional. Until yesterday - that is… I wanted to check if he didn’t use any sources from the Internet, so I ‘googled’ part of the text and I came across a website that not only has identical content, but also an identical design, portfolio and all… I already told my colleague about it, she approached the new guy and told him we know - although at first he tried to deny it and claim that it is the other company that stole from us (you cannot even find our company in search engines yet!). Now I am wondering how to resolve the situation without getting the new guy into trouble - he seems to be very talented and young, but my boss does not seem to understand that it takes a bit of time to make it… Maybe he was pushed too hard?
One more thing, I am not in Dubai, the company he stole from is in India…
Anyway, this kind of knowledge is a bit heavy on my heart…

 

[passus]

It’s not really your place to “snitch” on this guy since the impression I got from what you wrote is that he’s just your colleague as well. Furthermore, since you seem to be new there (you said you recently started working there), it might be wise to stay out of hot situations like this one so as not to bring any kind of punishment or hard feelings against yourself from your boss or other people who have been working there a long time.

My advice would be to stay quiet about it and let the boss, should anything come of the situation, deal with it on his or her terms. It would also be perfectly acceptable for you to firmly but charitably make known to the new guy that you are aware of what he’s done and that plagiarism of that sort is not tolerated at the company. He would be wise to take your advice as you’ve been there longer than he has–even if longer is only a few weeks or months.

 

[1ke]

Now I am wondering how to resolve the situation without getting the new guy into trouble

Doing illegal things has consequences. I don’t think you should be worried about “getting the new guy in trouble.” The situation should be “resolved” by the boss, not you. Report the issue, and move on.

Plagarism and copyright infringement can have serious consequences to your company. This guy is dishonest-- it doesn’t matter how talented he is. He stole someone’s work and then he lied about it.

If he gets fired for doing these things, that is not your fault. If your boss gives him a pass on something this serious, I would suggest you are not working for an ethical company.

 

[adowcday]

The new guy got himself into trouble. It’s very tempting to take credit for someone else’s hard work, but he’s putting your company at risk and he’ll likely do it again. Eventually, someone will notice that their web content has been stolen by your co-worker, complain to your company, and both your friend and you company will be in trouble.

 

[Ron_Conte]

moral considerations for this situation:

1. theft of intellectual property is immoral
2. your boss has a right to the information that you have about your co-worker and his misrepresentation of his work
3. the company may be harmed when eventually the theft is discovered
4. the worker might commit the same act again, causing further harm to the company and its employees and owners
5. there is some risk of harm to you, if you reveal the theft and your co-worker retaliates by trying to get you fired (a thief is also likely to lie)
6. it may be a sin of omission not to reveal this to your boss, because he has a right to this information and because of the harm that might occur if you do not do so.

You will have to weigh the good and bad possible consequences of revealing this theft, and decide for yourself what to do.

 

[Danuska]

Thank you very much for the posts - btw, after being confronted, he got scared and he started working on changing the website. The boss didn’t know about the situation and I think she never will - we’ll slowly change it completely…
Anyway, I think he deserves a second chance - he is young and he really seemed to have felt bad, I hope it was his first and last attempt like that… I really hope so

 

[ned12567]

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