Thoroughly Ripped Off
Comments: 25
I’ve been ripped off before, but perhaps not quite this thoroughly (although he still couldn’t get the style sheets right).
It really annoys me when people steal designs and then can’t even preserve the little things that the originals had going for them … like the margins, for example. You know, I make no claims for this site beyond it being my own little piece of the web (I’m no van Gogh as someone said) but I did put a lot of thought into making sure margins were sensible, for example. I wanted a site that was easy on the eyes for both casual glances and extended reading and if you can’t even swing it that your act of theft acknowledges this then, I’m sorry, you really are a moron.
Another thing you would need to make sure of is that page titles get changed. When people visit your address book, say, you wouldn’t want them seeing the title of the site you’d stolen. That would really make you look like a fool.
Oops —
And of course you certainly wouldn’t want to steal copyrighted material and then re-release it under a Creative Commons license. That would just deepen and complicate your infringement and probably upset a greater number of people than if you had just stolen without making additional claims of ownership.
Update: In my haste to deal with this and a dozen other things yesterday, I neglected to thank Jonathan Horak of anotherpointless.com for bringing it to my attention. I occasionally get work of various kinds because of this site (believe it or not) and this is part of the reason I’m generally keen to stomp on rip-offs. I’m lucky and very grateful that I have readers who look out for me. Thanks, Jonathan.
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Posted to General Rants • 2003.12.30 (Tue) • 11:58
Comments
Posted by Megan Kearney 2003.12.30, 12:04
And his title is “one of a kind”. If you’re going to steal the layout at least use your own art and colors. Amazing.
I like the simplicity of your site by the way, I think I linked here from moveable type.
Posted by Christopher 2003.12.30, 12:20
It’s bafflingly stupid really. I wonder where he got the “inspiration” for versions 1,2, and 3?
Posted by cloudshift 2003.12.30, 12:34
That’s just plain ridiculous…
I’ve always thought your site had great style… I can understand why someone would want to steal it, but I can’t understand why someone would steal it.
Posted by Lionfire 2003.12.30, 13:00
Looks as if other bits are stolen from elsewhere too — there’s a link hidden in the sidebar to SegPub (an Australian hosting company), so it seems that even your design wasn’t enough for him. The poor baby.
Posted by Blake 2003.12.30, 13:02
Well, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. But even then, you gotta protect what is yours and kick some ass, Seabass.
Posted by JR 2003.12.30, 13:17
I had the very same thing happen to me only a few days ago. A site I created for a California band called Godhead, was completely and utterly ripped off by some Euro band. I mean, the design was identical. I kindly emailed the Eruo guys and explained to them that it just wasn’t right to do what they had done. I also told them that I understood their predicament and allowed them a month to change the site. They apologized and removed the site immediately. I can assure you it was quite a shock seeing it - especially when the band themselves had emailed me a request for an address of a management company. Otherwise, I would have never have seen the cloned copy.
Posted by Taylor 2003.12.30, 14:30
God that’s awful. Interestingly, the site is down now, he probably figured out that you’re on to him.
If you look at Google’s cache of the website, it seems like a blogger site. He probably recently switched over to movabletype, and was too lazy to make a good template.
I’ve spent hours tweaking the layout on my blog. The problem is that there really aren’t any good free movabletype templates. If there were, crimes like this probably wouldn’t happen.
You have a great site, btw.
Posted by seriocomic 2003.12.30, 14:34
ha! the ‘just one of a kind’ subtitle is a real kick isn’t it?
i ‘borrow’ stuff all the time, mainly to see how the damn thing works, and then try to improve on it - heck, i have even borrowed stuff from this site (ala the little page icon next to the post for the permalink), but i ALWAYS try to acknowledge or get permission from the source if it still resembles the original.
imitation can be flattery, ripoff is theft.
Posted by Virginia 2003.12.30, 18:12
Yes, I think SOME of the troubles with CSS ripoffs derive from the fact that it’s a great way to LEARN. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if when you ordered a chocolate cake in a restaurant, you could somehow magically discern the ingredients and quantities thereof, and make it yourself… but adding strawberries like mum used to, and taking out some of the butter, and maybe…. you get the picture.
I know my web design teachers have always said “steal HTML from a site you like, see how it works, then build it again from scratch to see if you really know how it works”. And I always have.
But to then take that design and pass it off as your own - and in many, many cases actually PROFIT from it, is abhorrent. I wish you luck in protecting your beautiful site from marauders.
Posted by 990000 2003.12.30, 19:05
wow. that is outrageous.
Posted by Caleb 2003.12.30, 22:11
I am curious as to how you have found out, both this time and in the past, that your site was ripped off. Is their a way to search and find out? Or were you clued in by friends?
If there is an easy way to find out if your site has a been ripped off, it would beg the question, “Why do people think they can get away with it unnoticed?”
I guess people who rip off great looking sites like yours really don’t think that hard. :P
Posted by Jonathan 2003.12.31, 05:13
Caleb, I sent Jeremy a heads up (via email). I’d searched Google for “All rights reserved and so forth” as it seemed like a very unique and interesting expression.
It was. “Juxta v4.69.5 | Blog” was one of the results that I clicked. The site’s overall appearance was glaringly obvious.
Posted by msg 2003.12.31, 07:16
I only wish Harper’s had stolen your template for their redesign. The kicker on the theft/borrow thing is acknowledgement, no? This whole endeavor being like language somewhat in that words that work become common property. Though each was first spoken by one individual. We forget that. There’s a sense I get that if certain types of people had been around at the inception of language, we’d have to pay royalties or license fees on words themselves. It’s as though the only reason there aren’t copyrights on words is nobody thought of it. Rather than a common sense, a sense of the common. Stuff we all share, gifts of the innovators.
anti-pixel’s got my vote for best design aesthetic, and most readable layout. And the photographs are a treat, as well.
Posted by Dave 2003.12.31, 10:46
How does copyright work with regard to websites if you do build a website from scratch to look like another website. Obviously if it were music and you make an identical song you have to pay royalties, but then in technology reverse engineering is legal. Where is the distinction drawn?
Posted by nils 2003.12.31, 15:14
My Sino-doppleganger is still going strong, but I got him to change the colors and stop using photos of me.
Posted by pixelkitty 2004.01.01, 21:29
seems to be a lot of this going on lately, first hivelogic and textism, now you.
“tis the season” and all that.
you would think with the plethora of focus on the subject of site theft lately that the thieves would learn?
It really is one thing to take someone’s code and deconstruct it and learn from it and rebuild it, yet quite another to just take it, slap a new copyright on it and say “hey look ma, no work needed!” even moreso when the images are also pilfered along with (what could be called) the basic css and html.
Posted by pixelkitty 2004.01.01, 21:34
ps: his other site is http://juxtaposicion.deviantart.com/ - same guy - makes me wonder why a talented artist needs to steal?
Posted by Todd W. 2004.01.03, 05:29
Boo-hoo. Sorry to sound crabby, but design “theft” is as old as art itself. I’m sure there was some Neanderthal crying in his grok that someone copied his cave paintings. Are you harmed in any way by this guy/gal’s ripoff? Probably not. Had someone not brought it to your attention you would have gone on blogging none the wiser - and none the poorer, either. Yes, we all shake our heads at this poor misguided fool, but surely there must be something more tragic going on in the world…
Posted by msg 2004.01.03, 12:43
Yes what pixelkitty said. Todd W.— It seemed like Jeremy was as clear as possible saying that what bothered him is the note-for-note xeroxing of his code with not only no acknowledgement, but the tacit declaration that the thief/borrower had originated the code. Into the mix goes the possibility of impressed viewers (not) seeking his paid services, and viola you have direct damage. I agree wholeheartedly about the Cro-Magnon originators, and the gift, the show-and-tell dispersal of invention, but you can bet your bearskin rug anybody who claimed credit, and more importantly reward, for originating the barbed fishing hook and its consequent exponential increase in production when in fact they merely ‘borrowed’ it, and without attribution(key point there), would be dealt with in true Cro-Magnon fashion. No lawyers then, mate. The problem is the whole dilemma is presented in binary form— everything’s free or everything’s copyright. The way it is now licensing fees are demanded for goods and services the license-holders had nothing to do with originating, or in Gates’ case for bottlenecking what was an inevitable growth direction and charging an inflated toll for passage. Kind of like health services in the US. Or some record producer making millions off the work of an underpaid R&B musician’s song; because the producer owns the rights to the tune, because he bought them. The originator goes unrewarded yet the law stays unbroken That slows down human progress. It’s vampiric.
The problemisn’t ethically binary. It doesn’t have to be only one way or the other. Attribution. Reward the source. Not the possesser. — Grum did. Grum make cave-paint. Make us quiet. Grum paint good. OK Grum.
Posted by Nobby 2004.01.04, 20:15
I’ve gotta agree with Todd: Lighten up a little. What we need is less restriction on intellectual property, not more.
Posted by jh 2004.01.04, 21:14
> What we need is less restriction on intellectual > property, not more.
I’m not looking for more or greater restrictions: I’d just like my copyright honoured. It’s not something I lose sleep over, however.
I did look at Creative Commons licenses when they first appeared but wasn’t quite happy with any of them. I would certainly like to use something both more creative and commonsy here. Haven’t looked at those licenses in a while, so perhaps they’ve changed or been added to in ways I’d find usable. It’s probably time I looked again and I’ll try to do so.
Posted by Ranjeet Sodhi 2004.01.09, 03:05
Welcome to the web, Someone did exactly the same to my site, and they didn’t even bother to change the linkage away from my site’s style sheet; in effect, this person continued to pick my stylesheet from my site everytime one went to his site… now that is plain and simply the worst possible kind of “emulation”..
http://www.ranjeetsodhi.com/archives/000035.html
Posted by justin 2004.01.11, 01:55
gotta say i agree with todd dubya and nobby.
Posted by danbee 2004.01.12, 21:21
I kinda ripped off your design for a skin on my blog site, but I built it from scratch to resemble your site, with different colours, and then acknowledged the source of the design on my front page. I hope you don’t mind and i’d be happy to remove it if you wish me to. You can see it at http://www.clockrocket.net/?style=antiblog
Posted by Mandrake 2006.01.16, 04:36
Hello Antipixel.
I feel your pain it seems to be a never ending battle on being unique when designing your own skins, however surfers come along and viola they rip your design without even thinking…
I have a favorite site I visit online and they post design rip-offs, I recommend you post yours their as well.
let others know of these idiots..and maybe people will think twice before proceeding again.
http://www.invision-graphics.com/design_ripoffs.html
Take care and good luck with the battle.
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