[Update] Reply from Orchid Live Seafood on the Plagiarism Case!

For those who are interested to know what the hoo-ha is all about, check out my blog entry at http://cavinteo.blogspot.com/2014/08/culprit-caught-for-plagiarising-my.html.

I had in fact waited patiently all this while (close to two months now) for a reply and finally gotten one via my instagram account! Happiness was written all over my face when i read the first line "Hi, I'm the person in charge @ orchid live seafood. Kindly note that that website that you are referring to does not belong to us. Our official website is orchidliveseafood.com.sg."

That elated expression quickly dissipated when i continued reading. "We hope that you do your due diligence in your investigation before commenting without getting your facts right. We reserve all right to sue you for defamation for affecting the reputation of our restaurant. Pls kindly remove your insensitive post and direct all complains to the specific website".

Now, now, now lady. You are telling me it's two different websites not managed under the same company yet with content that are similar?! Just to protect myself, i have taken screen shots to compare the similarities. 

Same logo.

Comparable menu & pricing.

Same addresses & contact number

To be honest, i thought it is way more damaging to your reputation to have an alternative website promoting the same two restaurants under your care! Shouldn't it also be your social and moral responsibility to sue the alternative website rather than concentrating your effort on a blogger with minimal financial capability (honestly, my earnings are all spent on travelling)?

I am a great support for the lobster porridge at Orchid Live Seafood but after this incident (largely due to the horrendous PR reply), i doubt i would ever find myself in their premises again.

p.s. anyone can provide legal advice? I am too broke to take on the lawsuit, despite the injustice. :( 

Okay, i am less pissed off now after receiving a second reply following my response (within a few hours after i posted it). The person in charge has written "Still, thanks for pointing this out. We will definitely look into the creator of the other website. Have a good week ahead."  

Further to this, i received a really nice email from Jason, the owner of Orchid Live Seafood at 9.15am! I thought it's best to publish the correspondence for the benefit of everyone! 

"Hi Calvin This is Jason, the owner of orchid live seafood. 

We are terribly sorry for the distress we caused you regarding the plagiarism thing. We have actually known about the "rouge website" for quite sometime but we did not really bother much about it since it merely just gave our customers an alternative website with more information of us. We were not aware that it had infringed any copyright rules or downright taking your content without your consent. We are so terribly sorry for that. 

I have personally took care of this matter and have instructed the person responsible for it to take down all the images he used without consent and at the same time contact you at this email address for an apology or whatever damages you deem fit to ask for compensation from him. 

Kindly let me no if he did not get back to you within a week by either email me at this number or contact me directly"

Such a polite and professional email! I shall reply after i get back from my karaoke session. What's more important is to update this post so that everyone is aware of the update! 

Thanks everyone for hearing me rant! 

Now, who wants to join me for a lobster porridge meal?
Gang of Four? :)