What can one do?
 

Ok here's the hypothetical situation:

I spend a few hours making a design in photoshop producing a psd and all. Then i slice up the image and implement is as my new design on my homepage. Then i find out that someone has ripped my design. What can i do? Is there anyway that i can definately prosecute them for infringement of any copyright laws?

Regards

- miSt

Let them know that you know, and if you think that they aren't budging, then well, send a little message to the host... they should sort them out.

But that only means they take their site down and i've had experiences with friends where the host hasn't taken the site down.

- miSt

Talk to them first. If they don't agree, embarass them on other boards. Then if they STILL don't agree, tell them you got their IP address and theoneandonly is gonna do evil things wit' it. ;)

More like save the site, print the site, threaten legal action if they don't take it down (cease and desist) while CC'ing the host, domain registrar, and ISP, and if they don't comply within a specified time frame, get legal advice from an attorney.

Most hosts will take the site down once they've been notified.

If they don't, kindly send them an email telling that that because of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, hosts are held directly responsible for copyrighted material.

If you still don't see action, post both your emails at www.webhostingtalk.com

The people there are great at flaming, and you'll be almost certain that your host will remove the account or risk loosing almost all their business.

I'm sorry I ripped your design Mist, I didn't mean anything by it.

:(

You didn't mean anything by ripping someone else's work?

It's too late now, but if it happens again, the file is your intellectual property, so the host must take it down. If they still don't, you can take the person and the host both to court.

I guess I should of added in a happy smiley to my post too.

I DIDN'T RIP MIST - I was joking. Was that not obvious? :p