Petty and paranoid

I've just had the most ridiculous encounter with another notary. Out of the blue this afternoon, this woman calls me and says that my website looks too much like hers, that I must've copied it, and that I must change it. Her tone started out pleasant enough, but by the end of the convo, I could tell she was getting herself worked up. I said sure, I'll take a look and make any changes if something's the same.

I'd looked at at least a dozen other mobile notary sites to see what the going rates are since I really didn't know the range. I copy/pasted lots of little phrases from several of them to save myself having to retype, because the basic services are the same. I made changes to fit my own business, etc., so my site didn't end up exactly like anyone's, but similar to all others. (Mine is far more professional-looking that hers anyway.)

We were driving back from Redlands, and by the time I got home and checked my email, this woman had written me a nasty letter saying she would take legal action for copyright infringement if I didn't change my site this very evening, how dare I copy her hard work, etc., etc. Her accusations are so insane; it's like Wendy's calling McDonald's and saying, "Hey! You can't list a hamburger after the cheeseburger on your drive-thru menu, because I thought of it first! And you can't charge 89 cents, because mine is $1.09. You're trying to steal my customers! I'm calling my lawyer!"

I swear, it's like reasoning with a 7-year-old. She kept harping on the issue of cut/paste, but the point is, our sites ended up different, regardless of how the shell of my page started. If an author-A copies a sentence from author-B's online book: "She tried to intimidate the newcomer with threats and sour words;" but author-A changes half those words: "He couldn't intimidate the bear with threats and big sticks;" then clearly, the new work has not infringed the original's copyright, even if author-A copied the original sentence directly from author-B's web book.

Anyway, when I've done something wrong and someone brings it to my attention, I try to do the right thing (which is why I cheerfully agreed to examine my site when she called me this afternoon). But when someone gets nasty with me when I didn't do anything wrong, it's hard not to let it get under my skin. I can feel that my blood pressure and heart rate are up and I'm really having to pray for a better attitude, because right now I really don't like this hateful and threatening woman. Who, by the way, sounds like a chain-smoker on the phone. Perhaps that will work to my benefit in the long run. See? That was a hateful thing to say.