I don't think why you are too worried of being in the first position on search engines. I would like to ask you a question.
Why do you need to own a site?
Is it just to say I have a site. Absolutely not! each and every one of us want to make a good business through the site. This can happen only when the site is getting the maximum traffic. One can get the maximum traffic only when the site is in the first position.
your worry is people will trap you, they will copy your content. When you are in the first place in the search engine for good period of time. You don't completely need to depend on search engines for the traffic. Your site will be getting direct traffic once your site becomes popular. Your site can become popular only when is the site is in the first position on the search engines.
So don't worry of others try to make site to be first on search engines always!
