Someone copied our exact design + layout, can I do anything about it?

[vividbreeze]

I have noticed someone has stole our exact CUSTOM design, color scheme and more, the only thing they did is change out their logo.

Can I do anything about it?

[legacy123]

Not really there is nothing that I know that you can do about it just maybe if your good with coding make something they don't have and don't let anyone get it. But really I don't know anything that can be done about this but it does show that they are not very good with customizing and you could put that your the original or something but sry.

[vividbreeze]

Yeah its freakin stupid, especially when its two business websites and now they look identical.

[legacy123]

Yeah if I was you I would make my site look completely new it will make your current members be like NICE! and add a couple forums or anything you can discuss about maybe some new skins. May I please see the site to better help you?

[Hell Bomb]

Well I’m sure that there is something you can do about it. There is some cases that have been made of people copying code and using it for themselves something about copyright infringement. If you added and copyright to the bottom of your website you can get their host to take down their website if they just copy/pasted the html of your website.

[Front Range 4x4]

Any original material, creative work, etc is legally covered by copyright laws the moment it's published with or without copyright notice. Politely ask them to remove your copyright protected work from their site noting that if they fail to do so you will have to ask their host to take down the site.

[CaseLogic]

Any original material, creative work, etc is legally covered by copyright laws the moment it's published with or without copyright notice. Politely ask them to remove your copyright protected work from their site noting that if they fail to do so you will have to ask their host to take down the site.
he is absolutely right, you don't have to explicitly mark your work as copyright. It is implicitly covered under copyright law

[Videx]

Interesting related article in the Washington Post this morning. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/04/AR2010040402569.html?wpisrc=nl_tech

[TigerC10]

Politely ask them to remove your copyright protected work from their site noting that if they fail to do so you will have to ask their host to take down the site.

Or... Don't warn them at all. Inform the host of your intent to bring litigation if they don't refuse to remove the copyrighted content. The host will, in turn, shut down the website. When the site owners find out it's because they stole the look, they'll switch it pretty quick to get their website back.

[Jaxel]

I have the same problem with a website not only taking my layout, but the images for the layout from my website. Unfortunately, there is nothing I could do about it since my website is American, and their website is German or something. The guy actually ASKED to buy my skin from me for $50 (which I turned down) on THIS website, and then he went on to steal my skin.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=198859

http://www.8wayrun.com/?styleid=4
http://www.gevezeonline.net/

He doesn't even credit our design anywhere on his page. He also removed the copyright notice from my Video Directory Remix mod, without buying a license removal from me.

[TigerC10]

@Jaxel - German laws protect foreign copyright.

German copyright laws published on 9 September 1965, as last amended on 8 May 1998...

Article 121 Foreign Nationals

(1) Foreign nationals shall enjoy copyright protection with respect to their works published in the territory to which this Law applies, unless the work or a translation of the work has been published outside that territory more than 30 days prior to its publication within that territory. Subject to the same limitation, foreign nationals shall enjoy protection with respect to their works published in the territory to which this Law applies in translation only.

(2) Works of fine art which are an integral part of real property located in the territory to which this Law applies shall be assimilated to works published in that territory for the purposes of paragraph (1).

(3) The protection afforded under paragraph (1) may be limited by a statutory order of the Federal Minister for Justice for a foreign national who does not belong to a member State of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and, at the time of publication of the work, had his domicile neither in the territory to which this Law applies nor in one of the member States of the Berne Union, and if the State of which he is a national does not afford adequate protection to the works of German nationals.

(4) Foreign nationals shall further enjoy copyright protection as provided by international treaty. In the absence of such treaty, such works shall be protected by copyright if, according to an announcement by the Federal Minister for Justice in the Bundesgesetzblatt, German nationals enjoy in the State of which the author is a national equivalent protection for their works.

(5) Resale royalty right (Article 26) shall be available to foreign nationals only if the State of which they are nationals grants, according to an announcement by the Federal Minister for Justice in the Bundesgesetzblatt, German nationals an equivalent right.

(6) Foreign nationals shall enjoy protection under Articles 12 to 14 with respect to all of their works, even if the conditions contained in paragraphs (1) to (5) are not fulfilled.

http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/UrhG.htm

I think there was an amendment in 2003 about academic copyrights, but it doesn't apply to you.

[Jaxel]

Sorry, the website is TURKISH.

[TigerC10]

Turkey is a little more difficult, because you need to apply for copyright protection separately - but they do have international copyright agreements.

http://www.onkagency.com/english/default.asp?p=13

Although the rules and practices concerning copyright applications have been fairly established in the case of book and drama rights, certain other rights, such as with serialization and press-publication placements, unfortunately the royalties most of the time are open to negotiaton.

ONK Agency in general requests 10% of the production budget as a royalty when it comes to TV- drama and serial rights but this is not not a set rule and the percentage figure is open to negotiation by all means.

The taxation rate over such gains can be as high as 25%, however, it is frequently possible (if a bilateral agreement exist between the counties to prevent double taxation) to reduce this to 10%.

The countries with which such agreements presently exist are Albania, Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Rumania, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, U.A.E, U.S.A, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

[Jamie G]

How is it even possible to get all of that off of your server? I don't understand?

[TigerC10]

In order to look at a website, you have to download the images and style information of the website to your computer. it normally gets stuffed into a "temporary internet files" folder somewhere. But you could also download the files manually. In theory, you could even write a program to steal the style information for you.

[barcena]

My skin is custom made, nobody else has is, period, a website steal it from me to parody my site and it lasted two more days, I never spoke to the owner but directly to the hosting, politely but firmly.