Designer Thieves Options

[res8zenith]

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.

[outloudinmyhead]

I have a question. I'm still really new at all of this design stuff and learning to code from scratch. Prior to this, I came on here and basically just added snippets from the createblog donated content and basically browsed by firebug for a certain effect I liked and copied, pasted, and then editted it up to my liking and to better fit my purpose using the stuff I DO know and further have learned to identify things on MySpace and how to manipulate more or less in CSS to hide only specific headers and that various bunch of stuff. (Never stolen someones full on code because I do think it's wrong to take away from a layout setup or website setup by completely duplicating it for yourself and only shows your own lack of creativity, and further ends you in being called out if you rip a code. I let codes inspire me.

But, ok, like I said, I'm a beginner in designer in the bigger picture. Can't use flash, jquery or any off that awesome jazz and any javascript I use is via donations on a site when browsing google for an effect I'd like to incorporate, only to end up deleting portions because I don't understand enough about it to force them to cooperate together.

Well, that being said and establishing that I am still new to all of this, I am wondering something.

A lot of my work is done with other people's brushes, and a majority of them don't contain an image in the set or any way to identify who made the set.

I find them via browsing deviant art, various forums who post image packs of nice brushes that I define as a brush, brusheezy and etc. I'm a resource hog and have loads upon loads of brushes and styles and etc that I've found 'round and about. On DeviantArt, I think many expect you to just "remember" where you got the set...and honestly, I don't generally use something until creativity sparks and I go through my resources and by then I DON'T remember who made it or where I even got it for that matter. What should one do in a case such as this?

Furthermore, sometimes when you directly DO link your resources from where you got something and someone who likes the design you did, often goes and gets the set and it further enables them to exactly duplicate your work and offer it elsewhere. And before you know it, the entire community has designated the effect a trend...and it's everywhere. As flattering as it can be, it's maddening.(Something done far too often in design communities)

So...how should creditting be handled in the case of brushes and designer beginners like myself?

And no I don't plan to forever depend on brushes to do things, but I'm simply a graphics maker, not a big time designer. When I find my footing, I do hope to do my own designs from complete scratch.