How to Handle a Rip-Off of Your Site’s Design
In a previous article, I wrote about the right way “steal” another person’s design—by using it as inspiration for your own truly original work. Unfortunately not everyone can be bothered to do something original, and copycat designs show up all too frequently. The problem is especially pronounced on the Web, where everything that a rip-off artist needs to steal your site’s design is as close as the “view source” command.
If you have a website with a unique and eye-catching design, the chances of its look getting stolen—or “ripped”—are high. Fortunately, there are steps you can take if or when this happens to you.
Code is Poetry (and Intellectual Property)
It may—in some circumstances—be illegal to blatantly copy someone else’s design. The law varies from country to country; your level of protection will depend on both where the original design was created and where the ripped version is hosted.
The Plagiarism Today article “Web Design Plagiarism” describes the laws that apply in the United States:
One of the cornerstones in United States copyright law is that it protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. …[I]n the U.S., a design is considered an idea and is not directly copyright-able. U.S. law only protects things that are fixed into a permanent medium, A design, though it can be represented in a drawing or picture, can not itself be fixated.
That’s bad news for most types of design. It throws the issue squarely into the realm of trademark and trade dress law, where protections are weaker and more conditional than those offered by copyright.
When it comes to Web design, however, US copyright law does offer some protection. Although the look and layout of a website are not subject to copyright, the code for the site is protected. If someone copies your site’s design by duplicating its HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code then they’re guilty of copyright infringement.
To Catch a Thief
So what should you do if you find out that your website design has been copied?
Before you decide to do anything else, try to make direct contact with the person responsible for the other site. Some people truly don’t know any better and will fix the problem if made aware of the possible repercussions. By taking a polite and helpful approach, you give them the option of claiming ignorance and replacing the pirated design willingly.
When Diplomacy Fails
If you can’t contact the copycat, or if they won’t change their site, your next steps will depend on whether they’ve stolen your site’s code or just its look. View the source code of the offending site and compare it to the code from your own site (have someone else do this if you don’t know how).
If a substantial amount of your site’s code has been reused, you’ll have copyright law working in your favor. If the ripper’s site is hosted with a US company, a DMCA complaint may bring a relatively speedy resolution1. If the site is hosted elsewhere, check their hosting company’s website for guidance.
If the look is the same but the code is different, your legal options are slimmer (at least in the United States). If the design thief absolutely refuses to redesign or remove their site, and if your own website is commercial in nature, you may be able to sue for trademark or trade dress infringement. Trademark and trade dress are a bit more complicated than copyright, so talk to a lawyer about your chances of success before you start making legal threats.
The Shame Game
If legal action isn’t an option, you could always try shaming the offender into submission. Post evidence of your design’s theft to the forum at Pirated-Sites.com and write about it in your weblog. If you’re lucky—or if your site has a devoted readership—the perpetrator will end up buried in negative publicity until they give in. This kind of mob justice has been known to work, but be aware that it can backfire on you.
The Good News and the Bad News
Believe it or not, there is an up side to having your site’s design ripped off. If someone has gone to the trouble to duplicate your site’s design—especially if it’s happened more than once—then you must be doing something right with the way your website looks and functions. Of course this only makes getting ripped more frustrating, since you’ve undoubtedly invested either plenty of time or plenty of money (or both) to achieve such a high level of quality. Still, you could consider the fact that your design was copied perversely flattering.
The bad news is that all of the measures I’ve outlined above could fail. If the perpetrator:
- copied your site’s look and layout but not its code, and
- hosts their ill-gotten design in a country with shoddy intellectual property laws
...then you may be left with no legal recourse. You could either choose to redesign your own site with a new and unique look, or just live with the fact that there are one or more rip-offs out there. Which route you take will depend on how important your site’s uniqueness is and how much time and / or money you can invest in a redesign.
Man Site Overboard!
Have your own stories of design piracy on the high seas of the internets? Tell your tale below with a comment.
Footnotes
1 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a powerful tool that should be used wisely. It can bring plagiarists and rip-off artists to heel, but it can also be used unfairly to stifle competition and inhibit free speech. Before sending a DMCA notice, learn how to use this law ethically. If you’ve received a DMCA notice that you believe is baseless and unfair, there are ways to fight back.