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Victim of Copyright Infringement? No? Are You Sure?
13 August 2008
My web-developer friends recently woke up to a surprise--not one but three other websites around the internet had blatantly copied their website. This is a warning to all web developers: no matter how small-time you think your endeavors are, its possible someone's ripping off your material.
The plagiarized website was the Orlando design firm Easily Amused, Inc. Take a quick look and get an idea of the layout, the look and feel, and the copytext.
Back with me? Cool. Here goes:
Market Reach LLC: Copyright infringement, image theft
The first and most blatant case of infringement we found was at Market Reach LLC. Unfortunately, the site owner was the victim of an infringing freelancer, who didn't even bother to change the color scheme. Everything besides the masthead and section images were ripped off. Javascript, CSS, JPEGs, everything. After notification the front page was quickly replaced.
Jimmy Reyes: Copyright infringement
The next copyright infringement example was found at JimmyReyes.com. This website ripped off most of the site's copytext and the layout (copying a layout isn't isn't copyright infringement but is still lame). Oddly, while Jimmy so proudly displays that he's a one-man-show, nobody bothered to change the tense from "We" to "I" in most of the pages. Did he do it? Not sure, all of his WHOIS records are bunk.
UPDATE: Jimmy Reyes changed his design, however, his site content still matches other websites.
Conclusion
Easily amused owes everything to the fantastic website Copyscape.com which uses a similar algorithm to the one which teachers use for plagiarized student papers. Plugging the web address into the Copyscape address bar, it was quickly obvious who around the internet had helped themselves to some of Easily Amused's creativity. For shame!
Obviously, if you're a creative web-worker, you need to do this pronto! Get on it!
Comments
1 Yeago says...
Apparently happened here too http://smoothpiece.net/completely-ripped-off-design
Posted at 2:20 p.m. on September 7, 2008
2 Travis says...
As a third year law student specializing in intellectual property, one should be cautioned that these may not actually be cases of copyright infringement. A legal claim of infringement requires a showing more than just similarity in code. Is it likely that they ripped off some code? Probably. Is it legal infringement? Probably not. Who knows. LEt me make it clear that I'm not actually offering any sort of legal opinion whatsoever.
Just Realize that just because a website says it's infringement doesn't mean it actually is (in the legal sense)
Posted at 12:54 p.m. on September 19, 2008
3 Yeago says...
@travis -- The copyright infringement isn't in the code similarities but in directly ripped off images and site-text.
Posted at 12:57 p.m. on September 19, 2008
4 CJ says...
I apologize for this. I confess, I liked the sentence and I copied it. Didn't mean to make all this trouble and I don't think copying a sentence of 10 words should be taking that big deal just like stealing a whole website. This page doesn't exist anymore until I found something to write about myself which i hate. Now it's up to you to remove it or not. Thanks anyways, I appreciate it and I encourage what you do, this is just unfair like you said!
Good luck
Posted at 6:44 a.m. on October 8, 2008
5 Ronny Karam says...
Come on man. Is "Charbel" going to Guantanamo?
The guy used one sentence. It's not a big deal. I agree that he should've mentioned the source but comparing him to the 2 guys above who completely ripped everything (either all the text or all the design & made money out of it) and it looks bizzar to you, is hideous.
The guy is a designer not William Shakespear or a professional copywriter.
Posted at 11:55 a.m. on October 8, 2008
6 Yeago says...
@Charbel -- good enough. hatchet is buried.
@Ronny -- Yeah, whatever buddy.
Posted at 12:38 p.m. on October 8, 2008
7 CJ says...
Thanks dude!
Posted at 2:38 a.m. on October 9, 2008