Content Theft Sort Of

Recently another site and forum set up in the same field as myself. I never saw it as a problem to me and even less so because we operate on a local level and they on a national level. Our site has a lot of good users with excellent local knowledge.

Recently I noticed on the new site that they had content very similar to mine about our local area. Further investigation suggested it was just a reworking of the original report and pictures that appeared on my site a week earlier. As I checked through the site in question I noted there were several more similar artilces which were just reworkings of articles from my forum.

I did some digging and so far have found out that 5 members of my site have been approached by the admin from the other site using the PM system on my site. I have been shown copies of the PM's whcih politely ask if he can copy the reports onto his site.

Whats worse is this nugget now outranks me in google for articles which appeared on my site first. Obviously I am less than happy.

My initial thoughts are to ban him and anyone I think his helping him to operate. I feel I will be less than polite when I tell him the reason. Im often guilty of jumping in feet first and not thinking before I do things. This time Ive held back for a couple of days, gathered evidence and am now looking at what action to take. Your suggestions would be appreciated.