Non competition agreements

Hi folks,

This is a question on contracts and enforcing them.

I have a pretty iron-clad contract for a website I purchased January first
for a five digit figure. It is a membership site (adult) that has, so far,
made more money than I anticipated. One of the stipulations in the contract
and, I quote verbatim:

3.   Seller�s warranties. The Seller represents as follows:
c. That the Seller will not duplicate www.something.com for resale or any
other reason and will not engage in any way a world-wide website that would
directly compete with www.something.com for a period of four years;

The person I purchased this site from was moving from CA to PA. This
contract was signed on January 3, 2000. Going through the hassle of
transferring a domain registrant is still in progress with Network
non-Solutions. The seller has another domain for search-engine submissions
and while I was doing different whois information I typed in that companies
address. It came up with an admin contact of webmaster(at)somethingelse.com. I
immediately went to the domain www.somethingelse.com and found that the site
mimics some portions of the site I purchased and also has content that was
previously on my site. I also went to some of the search engines to see if
somethingelse.com was competing with something.com. The site I bought comes
up in the top ten and the new site is about the third page.

Here are the questions.

1.    Does the fact that the new site also has different content as well as
for my site matter?
2.    The new site was registered with Network Solutions on Dec. 24 and the
contract was signed on Jan. 3. Does that constitute fraud?
3.    The contract stipulates that it is governed by the laws of CA and will
be held in my jurisdiction. Is this enforceable?
4.    Should I ask him to cease and desist or have a lawyer contact him?
5.    If I notify him should I sue or let it go?
6.    Should I sue now or wait for his site make money and then sue?

Questions are racing through my mind because I feel that I was defrauded.

Any advice or experience is appreciated.

Thanks,

Malcolm Hodges
machodges(at)prontoservices.com

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