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Wed
10
JUL
2002
Breaking Copyright Laws
Just what part of copyright do some people not get? While a few may consider it flattery if someone comes along and copies/takes their work, I do not take kindly to people who blatantly steal my work, especially when I happily give away so much already via various sites.
Case in point stolen from my websitetips.com site:
Curiously, in addition to the above they also copy/pasted one of my external style sheets as a style block within the HTML, too, which you can see by viewing the source code of all or nearly all of the site’s pages once you get past the splash page.
Adding salt to the wound
Not only did they steal my style sheets, my server is being pinged on every single page used at their site. I am not a happy person about this.
Please ask first. You might be surprised.
On the other hand, others have kindly written notes asking me about the CSS I used for one site or another, and I’ve gladly explained what I did and why for a particular design and it’s not unusual for me to allow them to use something if it’s one of my own sites and not a client’s site. I’m incredibly flattered when that happens.
Stealing is stealing
Stealing is another issue, however. Some don’t think they’ll get caught and some don’t know any better. Pirated-sites.com is a terrific effort to expose blatant site thefts as one means of getting them to remove the stolen work.
Learning about copyright
I wonder if the parvis.net folks visited WebsiteTips.com’s copyright links before stealing the style sheets from there. In addition to what I’ve already listed at WebsiteTips.com’s The Legal Side, here are a few more:
- Articles for Web Site Designers and Site Owners by Ivan Hofman. Many helpful articles by well known Internet Law attorney Ivan Hofman.
- The Copyright Website by Copyright Website LLC. Much information here about copyright, including articles, registering your site, and more.
- Web Law FAQ by Oppedahl & Larson. Good FAQ about Internet copyright laws.
- Copyright on the Internet by Thomas G. Field, Jr., Franklin Pierce Law Center. Another good article about Internet copyright.
- BSB Direct: Copyright Information by Haley Miller. Direct and to the point copyright information.
- UT System Crash Course by Georgia Harper, UT System (University of Texas). Just as it says, this is a good site to explore. Lots of helpful information.
- Links to Other Copyright Websites by Georgia Harper, UT System (University of Texas). Terrific resource of links about copyright law and the Internet.
11:08 pm, pdt
10 July, 2002 Comments, Trackbacks ·
