taking inspiration from other great sites... plagiarism?
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- GollumX
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2817
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hi,
would like to hear views on this. is it ok to copy someone else's layout?
is it ok sometimes?... like when you're not in competition with the copied website... or not at all?
i see heaps of threads in the request forum asking for templates similar to popular websites.
one of my websites has a layout based on another i saw on the internet... i only did this because i thought it shouldnt be a problem seeing as we are not in competition and there is basically zero chance of any of that websites visitors ever seeing my site and vice versa.
is that justification?
i'd like to see debate on this. whats your opinion. - Say no to Internet Explorer 6.
twitter.com/mark_up
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Can you link to the other site or at least take a snapshot of what it looks like so we can see? My site uses the Mobius template. But I have yet to come across a site with the same theme, except for when I am puposefully looking here or Joomla.org for theme designs. I suppose that if I were to find a competing site (i.e. classroom management) with the same theme it would bother me. However, as you have mentioned, your site is not related to the other one.
Screenshots please.
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- GollumX
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2817
- Thanks: 0
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I'd rather not just yet Steve :-\
gimme some time to find out more about this. i did a quick search on google.. as i understand it plagiarism is the copying of ideas or works. i would think that a website layout is covered by this definition and would therefore be protected by standard copyright laws.
my website can be found here Qwillan Design - Say no to Internet Explorer 6.
twitter.com/mark_up
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- leeann swanger
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 146
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You can clarify what you really mean by "copy other site's layout", that would definitely help.
If you like how the contents is being laid out, apply it to your own site, fine.
Don't copy their entire color scheme, or use their graphics.
Thats all.
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- Donna Vincent
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 348
- Thanks: 0
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Don't do a direct copy and paste of their graphics or text without permission. Create a "knock-off" of their graphics and re-word text.
For graphics, an idea: go to istockphoto or dreamstime and search for something similar. You might even find the same graphic! Then you can purchase it for yourself for about $1.
Knock-offs are definitely legal as long as you don't try to pass it off as the original. I work in the garment industry, they send someone down the street to Macys to buy designer clothing, bring it back to the office and have the desigers make up "economical versions" of the designer clothes. Then they have the clothing manufactured overseas for very little money and sell it to the big "competitively-priced" retailers.
If you go to the drug store or the supermarket you will see that the store brand and generic versions of brand name goods are labeled very similarly -- same colors and package shape.
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Well I don't wanna sound like an a-hole here, but if you're in the web design section, for some reason I would think it would be crappy to represent your own company with a rip-off of some degree. I mean if the designers can't come up with something on their own - Houston we have a problem.
But inspiration from other sources is of course normal and should of course be used. Suck up all the ideas you can and then turn your head away from everything and use that knew knowledge and inspiration to do something new and unique.
And if you feel like you should use a lot of ideas from another site, make sure you credit the people and don't pretend you did it. The link you gave is for your own site - right? I can't say how close you are to the original so I won't comment on that, but imo you send a signal with your homepage and if you did not do it your self, youre sending some fake signals to potential customers.
Bottomline - if you pretend to be a webdesigner that provide attractive, accessible and high ranking websites you could at least design your own site by yourself...
But I can't really comment any further and would like to see the original, just to see how "criminal" your version is...
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- GollumX
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2817
- Thanks: 0
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:-[ :-[ :-[
oh the shame of it.
i am quite aware of copyright on graphics and have not used their graphics. i did however made what donna called a "knock-off" of some graphics (scotch tape, paper clips and even the frame used for the "about us" and "support" links in the leftnav.). Also, colour scheme is almost an exact copy.
Posted by: Thomas
Well I don't wanna sound like an a-hole here, but if you're in the web design section, for some reason I would think it would be crappy to represent your own company with a rip-off of some degree. I mean if the designers can't come up with something on their own - Houston we have a problem.
But inspiration from other sources is of course normal and should of course be used. Suck up all the ideas you can and then turn your head away from everything and use that knew knowledge and inspiration to do something new and unique.
And if you feel like you should use a lot of ideas from another site, make sure you credit the people and don't pretend you did it. The link you gave is for your own site - right? I can't say how close you are to the original so I won't comment on that, but imo you send a signal with your homepage and if you did not do it your self, youre sending some fake signals to potential customers.
Bottomline - if you pretend to be a webdesigner that provide attractive, accessible and high ranking websites you could at least design your own site by yourself...
But I can't really comment any further and would like to see the original, just to see how "criminal" your version is...
well said thomas. i probably would be misrepresenting my abilities. then again, if i didnt modify the original bubblicious template at all and merely removed all reference to rockettheme, i would still be misrepresenting my abilities wouldn't i.
lol maybe my business should be called "made-in-china web design" and tag line could be "would you like your website to look like the best site on the www? ... we can make that happen!" hehehe
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how criminal??... by my own judgement... not "electric chair" criminal.... but probably close to "10-yrs-in-the-locker" criminal.
darn it!!... and i so loved the scotch tape and paper clips.
what if i kept the scotch tape and paper clips but changed the colour scheme? i really dont have the energy right now to change everything. - Say no to Internet Explorer 6.
twitter.com/mark_up
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- Donna Vincent
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 348
- Thanks: 0
- I wouldn't worry about it (as long as it's not something illegal)! There's a place in our economy for knock-offs! Not everyone can afford an original design that was created just for them -- in any field, whether it's fashion, home decor, health & beauty products, food, etc. You're just following the trendsetters. If you can create a $1,000 website that looks similar to someone else's $10,000 website, you've performed a valuable service for those who don't have such deep pockets.
- Last Edit: 18 years 4 months ago by Donna Vincent.
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GollumX wrote:
:-[ :-[ :-[
oh the shame of it.
i am quite aware of copyright on graphics and have not used their graphics. i did however made what donna called a "knock-off" of some graphics (scotch tape, paper clips and even the frame used for the "about us" and "support" links in the leftnav.). Also, colour scheme is almost an exact copy.
Posted by: Thomas
Well I don't wanna sound like an a-hole here, but if you're in the web design section, for some reason I would think it would be crappy to represent your own company with a rip-off of some degree. I mean if the designers can't come up with something on their own - Houston we have a problem.
But inspiration from other sources is of course normal and should of course be used. Suck up all the ideas you can and then turn your head away from everything and use that knew knowledge and inspiration to do something new and unique.
And if you feel like you should use a lot of ideas from another site, make sure you credit the people and don't pretend you did it. The link you gave is for your own site - right? I can't say how close you are to the original so I won't comment on that, but imo you send a signal with your homepage and if you did not do it your self, youre sending some fake signals to potential customers.
Bottomline - if you pretend to be a webdesigner that provide attractive, accessible and high ranking websites you could at least design your own site by yourself...
But I can't really comment any further and would like to see the original, just to see how "criminal" your version is...
well said thomas. i probably would be misrepresenting my abilities. then again, if i didnt modify the original bubblicious template at all and merely removed all reference to rockettheme, i would still be misrepresenting my abilities wouldn't i.
lol maybe my business should be called "made-in-china web design" and tag line could be "would you like your website to look like the best site on the www? ... we can make that happen!" hehehe
**********
how criminal??... by my own judgement... not "electric chair" criminal.... but probably close to "10-yrs-in-the-locker" criminal.
darn it!!... and i so loved the scotch tape and paper clips.
what if i kept the scotch tape and paper clips but changed the colour scheme? i really dont have the energy right now to change everything.
Just to clarify my point...
There is def. nothing wrong using elements like scotch tape, paper clips and so on, just because other do it - that's normal decorative elements everyone can use..
The problem comes when you add these elements excactly the same place as the site you were inspired by.
Perhaps you could add the link to the inspiration source - it would be so much more easy to judge, and perhaps it could give you some peace in mind....
But you could look at this site and see how "bad" you are
archive.pirated-sites.com/archive/
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how criminal??... by my own judgement... not "electric chair" criminal.... but probably close to "10-yrs-in-the-locker" criminal.
darn it!!... and i so loved the scotch tape and paper clips.
what if i kept the scotch tape and paper clips but changed the colour scheme? i really dont have the energy right now to change everything.
Just to clarify my point...
There is def. nothing wrong using elements like scotch tape, paper clips and so on, just because other do it - that's normal decorative elements everyone can use..
The problem comes when you add these elements excactly the same place as the site you were inspired by.
Perhaps you could add the link to the inspiration source - it would be so much more easy to judge, and perhaps it could give you some peace in mind....
But you could look at this site and see how "bad" you are
archive.pirated-sites.com/archive/
pirated-sites.com/vanilla/
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