was wondering lately i've seen designs that look very similiar to other designs so i was wondering, what is the best thing to do when you catch someone stealing your material/ideas/codes/designs or structures for their own uses or sites?

what if they are using your stuff but credit you?
what if they are using your stuff and alter the credits?
what if they are using your stuff and remove the credits?

**normally i email them or comment on the site and tell them to take it off or i'll talk to their hosting services xD that's the best i got, and if their ashamed of what they did, they put the credits up or completely change everything before next sunrise. some are rude enough to slander & object the claim when clearly the material is stolen.

If they are stealing you exact design, or your code and you have actual proof and its something that actually took time then yes you can email them and ask them to remove and about 50 percent of people will comply.

But in my opinion there is no such thing as stealing code. A code is a code.

I spam them with gay porn

LOL, in the hopes of finding Tung's photos so you can fap to them.


So what do you call someone taking another person's hard work?

that's not very nice.

BEST ADVISE SO FAR!!!

I just don't care.

'course ya dont

Way to insult Tung.

Only if your in there with him.

harhar

xDDDDD LOL THATS THE FUNNISH SH!T EVA

Wasn't even serious, man. Y'all are f*cked up. -smh- Why is this in Debate?

Yeah, I'm going to move this elsewhere.

My stuff has been stolen so many times that I don't even care anymore. I actually got a few of those nasty myspace layout sites that are made up of all stolen content shut down for a bit, but it's really not worth the time. The sites that steal from me usually don't even have ways to contact them besides Myspace. Cowards.

my fame and reputation xD

^ As strange as your post is, I can understand. There have been plenty of times that a person will claim credit for something they didn't design, and when the designer steps in and tries to get them to stop it gets ugly. The person who took the design can fight and claim it's theirs and the real designer could lose credibility.

If an art piece from a museum can be stolen, a digital artwork can be stolen too.
I wouldn't mind though, if someone took my design, and improved it to make it look much better. But crediting would still be required. o_O

well, i once saw one of my vectors used in some cell phone theme (lol) on deviantart without any credits to me at all. nothing in the description actually. and so i sent a report to dA.

If you post your work on a site where it's free to take then you need to accept the fact that people are going to steal your work and there's nothing you can legally do about it.

thats what i'm saying too, BUT WHAT IF THEY DON'T CREDIT YOU AT ALL, not even for the idea, base, template, texture, inspiration, etc. what do you do THEN?

i'll make a big fuss and make sure that other people are a miserable as me because i'm upset :( :( :(

Steven makes a great point.

You're acting like babies. If people don't credit it you at all then it's your own damn fault. You need to force people to credit you by using water marks or by placing comments in the code.

haha, watermarks...
Im sorry, but do you know how many things I have used after taking off the credit. It isnt illegal! Even if it is rude, it isnt illegal. Taking content off of a website, maybe but removing the credit from a myspce layout? psh... But I havent ever redistributed content or claimed it as my own.

Plus, if they're smart enough, they can just change the image and/or the coding too...

Or you can do a better job with the watermark or signature and make it look butchered without it there.

Or you could acquire some talent.

DISS



seriously though. I always leave credits on my site for any resources I used, you should too.

If they're smart enough and understand the code to begin with. Why should they need to rewrite it all. Especially if they'd probably just write it exactly the same way. It makes no sense.



It's a nice thing to do, but it doesn't matter. If you're going to write some code, and you already understand the language and what you want to do. Don't reinvent the wheel. I understand your frustration, but you're bitching over something that you have no control over and that just makes you look like a bitch. Grab your balls, be a man, and say, "Oh my God."

I never said I was frustrated and I don't think I'm bitching at all. >_>

I don't think he is talking about you, just people in general.

As far as codes go I agree with you since we didn't "invent" the code.

oh, LOL. sorry Josh.



Who did "invent" the codes?

..uhh you gots are getting off topic..

the only person i agree with so far is Mikeplyts

Whooa...where did you get the idea that stealing copyrighted content is legal? Under United States law, as soon as an author puts a copyright notice on a work, that work and the copyright are property of the author for life, plus 70 years after death.

Maybe you should read up on US copyright laws before you go around hocking any more work: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/

You don't have to register with the copyright office for something to be copyrighted. That's only something you if you want to be able to sue someone for stealing your work. Stealing is illegal in the United States.

bo-ya!! you're awesome fixatik! i read that somewhere but i don't remember if it was 70 years or 40 years..xD oh well 70 sounds better. so all my designs i copyrighted are mine so i can go around kicking some ballz yay!

The author doesn't have to even put copyright on their work. As of April 1, 1989, it just is.

so what if you look at a layout
and you got a idea for another layout
same style just not the same brushes/codes/font?

That really has to be looked at in a case-by-case basis. Not just in general. Your inspiration can come from another website. It could even use the same fonts. However, the placement, images, etc. Should not be reproduced in your design. You can look at, for example, a site that uses abstract colored waves, and be inspired by that to create your own site that has an abstract colored wave background, but it should be created solely by you. And the website, should be completely different. Don't try to match point-to-point their entire design.

Yeah, but this is small time stuff. Do you really mean to tell me that you've never copied and pasted potions of someone's code into your own designs. Give me a break. It's part of the learning process.



Yes, I am talking about people in general.

Yes. After learning a bit on my own from resource sites; then helping dozens of people with their codes is how I learned. But I hardly see why you quoted my post when I was only pointing out a technicality.

I don't know why I quoted you. I my brain got mixed up.

There's nothing wrong with using snippets of code. For example, if you see some JavaScript effect on a site and you don't know how to do it, use it from their site. If they don't specifically say that you need to do something in return, it doesn't entirely matter, because that code could have come from anywhere. Granted, there are limitations.

As for what exactly constitutes as "stealing" a website, it depends. I like Tim Van Damme's example, with his Wall of Fame vs. his Wall of Shame. Wall of Famers used his ideas as inspiration, and in most cases offered him a link back to his site as a source of inspiration. Wall of Shamers blatantly copied his work, pixel for pixel.

Personally, I believe if you see a site that you think looks good, and want to base your own site on that, go for it. Just make it entirely different and if you do use some ideas from your inspiration, give a link back. It's only courteous.


I think it's actually March 1st, 1989, when the US joined the Berne Convention. True, it's not required, but you stand nearly no chance in a court of law if you don't include a copyright notice.


http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.html#401


Unless you actually registered with the copyright office, there's not much you can do except ask your work to be taken down, or use some kind of "wall of shame" or similar action. Works not registered won't hold up in court.

Again, you really can't do anything about it aside from obtaining copyrights, commenting your code, and watermarking your work. You have no control over other people. I don't know why people sweat so much over someone taking their code when they've plastered it all over the internet without any protection.

I'm a graphic designer and coder as well. You as well as I know that static content doesn't mean shit these days anyway, and if you're bitching about it then you're crying over spilt milk. Dynamic code is rarely hacked and stolen.

^ Exactly. Without protection, you're screwed. Just because something is copyrighted doesn't mean people are going to respect it.

I'm not fond of dynamic code, though. While it's "safer" in regards to keeping it out of the hands of developer wannabes, it's terrible for people who are looking for organic growth. Session variables aren't archived in search engines, not everyone has JavaScript enabled, and if you use it exclusively, it can lead to server overload.

-silence-

To the original question, most of the time, I don't bother trying to get them to take it down. It's too much hassle and emotional energy for me, and at any rate, there will always be another jocker, no matter how many you take down. There was this one site I visited that didn't even bother to take of the credit and still claimed it as their own. d:

i know it requires emotional energy but sometimes i just get so angry, the numbers are unlimited but i still try to get ppl to credit, no matter whose material they are using, it doesn't have to be mine, i've found some sites use my affiliates material without credited, and i mail them letting them know to always credit.

the only way to lose the stealers to to shut down the site, because
even if you only offer previews of the real design, people get the idea
and use it.

I use stuff, but I leave the credits
it's all in the time
don't have time to make my own
don't have time to get bitched at for taking it off
meh, whatev.

Stealing Images is one thing but stealing a code? Unless you typed from the first letter to the last, well yeah i can understand that.