Had another website copy our HTML theme structure, need advice.

[taylorthomas]

Hello! I recently discovered that another Shopify store has copied our theme structure HTML. We use Hotjar which requires a Hotjar tracking code to be placed on our website. Upon looking at recordings of our website on Hotjar I noticed I was seeing another website's recordings also. After contacting their support team they told me my tracking code was copied onto that site (maybe by mistake). I went to that website and looked at their source code and a lot of the HTML is exactly what is on our website. This includes our store name seen throughout the HTML, the Hotjar tracking code, schema.org, google tag manager code, codes for apps we use, etc. It seems to only be our HTML codes and not products, pages, collections, etc. It's a completely different store except our codes are on their website.

I have contacted Shopify support and have an open case with them on this but I am just wondering how this could have happened. Can someone easily copy our HTML? Has anyone had anything similar happen to them? How can I prevent this from happening again?

Any recommendations are helpful, thank you!

[Telescopic]

I'm not a legal expert but copying code is illegal in the UK. It is, unfortunately, very easy to do. 

Hopefully, Shopify support will rectify this for you.

In the mean time, I recommend gathering evidence.

[taylorthomas]

I'll start collecting screenshots of what I am seeing. Thanks for the advice. Yes, if not illegal here definitely unethical. We are in the United States but the company appears to be from New Zealand.