What to do about stolen site
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- ryancramer
I just posted a PBS about this, but wanted to ask in here if anyone has experience dealing with others stealing their site designs?
This has happened to me 5 times on my own site now. In the past, I've emailed the infinger and they've removed it promptly.
This time, this company http://www.b-mg.com has stolen the design from my site (http://www.ryancramer.com) and is refusing to remove it, saying copyright law does not apply to them.
I put up some more info, and a copy of the correspondence at my site on this page: http://www.ryancramer.com/baltic…
Any suggestions?
- ********0
they paid a lot of money for THAT?!?
no offense to you... i really like it, but wtf.
i'm not charging enough for my work.
FUCK!
- zombiewoof0
ping-o-death
- ********0
buy a shotgun and everytime you see the copied site on any screen shoot the monitor.
- UndoUndo0
blatant,
you should post it at pirated sites and shame them into submission
- Hym0
web developers that steal designs are usually crap at security, let them know that with a nice hack
- ********0
nice site!
- JasonFarrell0
how do you find out your site gets ripped? you just stumble upon it, or what??
- tehgee0
i don think theres anything u can do!
id just take it as a compliment :)
- ryancramer0
Jason,
Usually people that steal sites aren't the best developers. They tend to be sloppy. If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't bother to steal a site.
When you go check your referrer logs, they can be revealing. Other sites loading images from yours is a sure giveaway. There are quite a few other techniques, but referrer logs are good.
Ryan
- ryancramer0
tehgee: wish I could take it as a compliment, but this is the 5th time its happened (that I'm aware of). I think the way to stop the thieves (in lieu of the law) is to cause them embarassment by making it public. I'd submit it to pirated-sites.com if they were still taking submissions, but I guess they're in some transition to forums or something.
- ribit0
Have you checked the Russian copyright law? They may be fibbing.
It appears the domain registrar is GoDaddy, so you could ask GoDaddy to deregister their domain if your commercial claim or the infringement of US or international copyright law was serious enough (doesnt appear to be)
- k770
you're too sensitive. it's called hip hop, homie. all is fair. i do it all the time and i recommend it. i did it for my folio even...
the orginal:
my folio:
- Soler0
Design a new site that is way more badass (not dissing the old one, just saying to always be advancing is a good thing) and call a lawyer. get all the international b.s. on there and then sue anyone's ass that doe sit again
- ryancramer0
ribit-- good call. actually have some contacts in at godaddy, so if they are still running it in a few days, i will see what i can do about suspending their domain.
- ********0
did you send them a flaming bag of dog poo yet?
works every time.
- ryancramer0
soler-- i agree in some ways, i mean i'd love to design a new site, but this one is only a few months old. not to mention, if we designed a new site everytime it was ripped, wouldn't that be like saying to the rippers "ok, you can have it." the site's been ripped 5 times in the last 4 months. i definitely can't afford to redesign once a month. :) and business has to be slow to redesign once a year.
regarding calling a lawyer--we already have a very good one, who we're going to be talking with next week. i'm not quitting till they remove the site.
- ryancramer0
k0na-- flaming bag of ... is always a good way to go, but i'm going to be as civil as possible with them. i would rather they remove the site out of shame than anger.
- ribit0
for GoDaddy to do anything you would need a clearer case though, where the offending site was largely based on your property.
For example a Chinese site had copied whole chunks of our online magazine, but with a different title/logo, on their server in China (with a US-registered .com domain) to sell banner ads. That was a pretty clear case, and after no response from the domain contacts, we went to the domain registrant and aksed them to close it down as it would obviously be violating the domain registration terms (regarding copyright).
- ryancramer0
ribit-- its pretty clear, the proof is very visible. not to mention my apache logs are chock full of their web site loading images from mine. they didn't just steal the design, they stole the code too. i'm just glad they didn't steal my flash from the homepage. one of the previous rippers actually did that. Despite that its an animation involving the letter "C" from my company logo, they turned it into a flash animation for their contact page. hehe.
- ********0
Whoa k77, you have no problem ripping? Do you really lack the skills or are you trying to make a statement, or both?