PS Main site Copyright

[Arcanacat]

Any of you noticed that their copyright has expired? Ever thought of renewing it? You see, as far as I know, we\'re in the year of 2006 now, and the copyright expands 2005. I\'ve already seen this layout on some others site (can\'t remember wich) so this layout has already been stolen. Renew it too avoid further thieveries. If this is the wrong forum too put this in, please move.

If I am wrong, and I saw wrong numbers, please lock or delete.

[Karyuu]

We\'re going to redo the site entirely it seems, and that layout will probably go. Good spotting that though :)

[DaveG]

It\'s just a listed date.  No one ever updates those things...    Not a big deal; it should be changed eventually.

[Arcanacat]

But thieves are just waiting for a copyright too expire so they can steal it, you know?

[BlackAcre]

Unless it is exactly the same ideas and expressions being stolen, I think you can use the same visual styles for websites.  It\'s pretty tacky, but I don\'t know that copyright will protect you.

[c-2501]

im not an expert in copyright law, but afaik the date doesnt actually mean anything

look at microsofts for example ;

Microsoft (R) Windows XP (TM)
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

[Netty]

You can\'t really copyright a general layout and vanilla code. How can anyone copyright something like \"margin-top: 0;\" anyway?

When people copyright websites, they mostly copyright graphics and content, with some exceptions on complex and isolated navigations.

Form follows function and there are only so many functional designs that don\'t turn visitors off. The trick is in personalizing it with your own unique feel.

It\'s very hard, expensive and time-consuming to prove in court that someone has stolen your layout. I remember Apple tried to sue someone for ripping off their layout and lost.

Most of the cases I\'ve come across where someone was successful in persuading another site to change its layout (because presumably it looked too much like a copy of another site) is by directly e-mailing the owner, sometimes even with threats of taking legal action. But if they were to actually take that person to court, they\'d be hard-pressed to make a case.

Now, that doesn\'t mean it\'s ok to blatantly rip famous sites off. Don\'t copy/paste lines of code, and definitely don\'t rip off graphics and text content. That can be proven in court to be stolen and you can get in trouble.

There are also templates that more than a single person can buy from places that sell such templates. People that use the same WYSIWYG programs can end up with similar code too.

You have to realize though that every web designer/developer has learned from publically available examples and others\' work. That\'s not considered a rip off. People also get inspired by well designed sites, and that\'s normal. Even most popular sites\' designers probably got inspired by something/someone else.

Basically, the advice is \"copy the inspiration, not the outcome\".

Read this article titled Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal

Everything you see on the net and even in pure art and design is a variation of something that came before it. So, complete originality is overrated and can even ruin your success.

Pretend that a site you got inspired by is yours. Then compare it to what you consider a similar one. Does it make you angry? Is it an obvious and blatant rip-off or just an inspiration? If your reaction is \"ah, yes, I love clean layouts like that\", then the site is fine. But if it\'s \"how can this person sleep at night?\", then it\'s probably stolen.

You\'d be surprised though how many sites get posted at \"pirated-sites\" website with someone screaming \"stolen!\" and yet get voted as \"No - not stolen\" by majority.

What are those site you saw that stole PlaneShift\'s layout anyway? Post some links, so we can see.

[Xordan]

The date shown is the date(s) that the copyrighted item was made in. It doesn\'t mean the date that it expires.