Stealing Trend
June 21st, 2007 Filed in: News & Updates Jump to commentsSo, what is the next web trend after the Web 2.0 trend? Steal. I’ve been noticing this trend for a while and in fact it is rising. Rippers now on the Internet steal anything from text content, graphics, icons, design templates, to coding scripts. Almost every other week, I get an email from visitors telling me who stole my work. By the way, thanks for reporting copyright violations to me. This becoming an issue and I really want to bring it up. I have setup a Flickr gallery to showcase the ripped work. Here are some of the sample cases.
TV Print Ads (new)
Two days after I published this post, someone sent me another email reported my work being stolen by two Bosnia & Herzegovina TV stations - OBN.ba and RTRS.tv. He was nice enough scanned the newspaper ads and sent it to me. Although, I’ve never seen the actual ads but I believe they just ripped my high resolution wallpapers (without any editing). This is ridiculous, from a TV station?
SWsoft Sitebuilder
SWsoft Sitebuilder is an online application that allows users quickly build their website without any programming or design experience. The hosting provider will install the Sitebuilder on their server. Their clients will use the online wizard to pick a template, fill in the content, and then upload to their web space. I found several of my artworks were included in the application as a template. I certainly did not give them permission nor sold my work to them. It was actually a media/hosting company who reported this to me.
Canvas Printouts
Believe me or not, I found these in a local shopping mall, Pacific Mall. If you live in Toronto area, you probably have been to the mall or know about it. It is located at Kennedy and Steele. I was shopping at the mall and found my works were selling at a retail booth. They printed my work on a large size canvas and selling for $35CAD. I quickly took some pictures with my camera phone and asked the owner where did they get the products from. The owner told me they brought their products through several level of connections, thus unable to trace the manufacture.
Best Web Gallery being ripped
Shortly after I launched Best Web Gallery, I found a site just ripped it exactly the same, but replaced with a different logo. They even copied my gallery entries and screenshots. As usual, I sent them an email and asked them to remove the design and related content. However, I didn’t receive any response. So, I submitted to Digg and got more attention. Then, the site quickly removed the theme in the next day.
How did I catch them?
Well, the Internet is very small. Unless you don’t publish your site online, otherwise the chance of you getting spotted is very high. Most of them are reported from visitors. The others are traced from referral links and tracking codes.
What should you do if someone stole your work?
I’m sure I’m not the only victim. What would you do if someone stole your work?
Send them an email? Half of the time, they don’t even have a contact number or email address on their site. If you are lucky enough, they will apologize and remove your work. The worst I’ve seen they just ignore your emails and pretend nothing happened. Or even worst they will claim as original and question you back “are you sure you are the original creator?”
Find a lawyer and sue them? It is probably not worth the value to sue them because most of them are small business or personal website. The lawyer fee will probably cost you more.
How do you handle your copyright infringement issues? Any advises or suggestions that you can share with us?
July 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Regardless it states that a link back must be retained in the FOOTER. No one takes a look around a crap site to find the author of the theme you are stealing.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:42 am
mark.z:
The link you provided is not a case of ripping at all. As far as I can see the website is in compliance with Nick’s license for iTheme, which does have provisions for modification except for removing the link back to him (which is still intact).
July 16th, 2007 at 11:32 am
This comment is to “Meme” (of course that’s a fake name because you’re afraid to provide your true identity). I fully credited ndesign-studio.com in my “Domain” section of my website for his theme that I used. Stupid ass.
And to Nick, if the credit link I provided isn’t appropriate for you, just let me know via email. Thanks in advance
July 15th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
LOL @ “mark”. How is that a rip? Please elaborate.
And do you really think misspelling my name is going to strike a nerve? lol. Like I stated before, spend the rest of your weekend picking apart my websites. 8-)
July 15th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
hmm about miss channel another great rip (and what a sick rip of the theme Itheme) here : http://bitchfit.net/
doodeedoo miss channel …
July 15th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
* chanel.:
I am merely pointing out that you have broken the license that Nick released the theme under contrary to your own beliefs. Whether or not that constitutes theft I really do not care. Nick’s opinion is the only one that really matters in this case.
July 15th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Blah blah blah @ John. You all are way too concerned with a “misplaced” LINKBACK. This does not constitute as THEFT. I did not STEAL his theme. I did not claim that I created it. All I did was move his link elsewhere. This “matter” is not even as close as serious as the content of his blog.
Furthermore, the only person that can tell me what I need to do is Nick. I will be kindly awaiting his email on if he would like for me to restore his link back in the footer, versus him being credited on my Domain page.
And for everyone else who have an issue with it, you all can go knock yourselves out and spend the rest of this lovely weekend picking apart my website. I digress. Good day and Godspeed. 8-)
July 15th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
* Chanel.:
Even though you are linking back to him in a colophon type page, the license explicitly states “A link back to N.Design Studio must be retained in the footer”. Unless you have contacted Nick and he has granted you a different license (approved the removal of the link in the footer), what you did has not satisfied the second term of the license. Even though the fourth term of the license does state that you may modify the theme, that term does not grant you permission to break any of the other terms. This is similar to the Second Amendment granting US citizens the right to own and discharge weapons, however it does not allow citizens to get away with breaking other laws such as murdering someone with the weapon.Sure the fourth term allows modifications to the theme, but you can not use it as an excuse to break another term of the license (second term).
July 15th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
John: He stated you may MODIFY it. I modified it, and moved to my Domain page, where I fully credited him. :)
July 15th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Elliot. Changing the color is allowed. He notated that you are allowed to modify the theme in it’s terms of service. That’s the point of being provided a css stylesheet. The only thing that’s NOT allowed is reselling it for profit (you may redistribute it however).
Bottom line is, I did not steal it nor am I presenting it as if I created it.
Thanks in advance.