I also agree with you that, an unfortunate side effect of having an open web, which I whole heartedly believe that we should, is rampant thievery. But, what I cannot support is outright copying, in its entirety, another person’s work. Recently, a designer (name withheld) discovered that his entire site (design & copy) had been lifted and used as the portfolio for another designer. Not simply a design element, layout or technique, but the entire site. And, I’m sure, we’ve seen this happen before. But, wouldn’t you agree that this infringes upon the original designer’s ability to work and legal action must be taken if civil discourse does not work?

Again, having not encountered such an issue, I don’t have a clear cut answer. I guess I am only wondering “out loud”.

Thanks for the post.

@Rob – I actually believe that copy IS one of the creative elements to a website, and should therefore be treated with the same level of respect regarding copyright as a layout or visual design. I spent a lot of time getting the tone of my website right (not being a professional copywriter), so was a bit peeved to find others doing the CTRL + C / CTRL + V on my work which had taken several days.

Paul, I found one of the best ways to combat this was to follow the culprits on Twitter! The text in question would either change quickly, or a gentle @message saying their copy looked familiar would do the job!

Great work for highlighting this important issue.

As paul said, we emailed him asking for it to be taken off politely and ended up getting a response saying that it wasn’t a copy etc which was not only a blatant insult to our intelligence but seriously rage inducing. Just the idea that someone else was taking credit for a badly hacked up version of my hard work was almost too hard to take.

Luckily for me, a few design friends hunted down the designer and my boss who was even more rage filled threw some legal terms into the emails now pointed at the designer, not the owner. The owner now was passing the buck to the designer. Whether this was valid or not, I’ll never know but the guy sounded genuine enough. (I understand he got a refund from the ‘designer’ eventually too)

The whole thing was messy to be honest, I don’t think it was particularly handled well because tempers were flaring. If it ever happens again, I plan on making sure that its dealt with a bit more decorum.

Sadly however I think it’s very easy to take it personally when it’s your work on display. A real exercise in will power and restraint.