[thelist] Site Copycat (Special Circumstances Involved)

David Bindel dbindel at austin.rr.com
Sun Jun 22 01:17:18 CDT 2003


> From: Russell Griechen
> Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 9:28 PM
> 
> Hey David,
> I use glish.com css occasionally...They and others offer them 
> for use just as you did. If your CSS names and properties 
> work ...and you gave them to him... He has every right to use 
> them. You do not have copyright in this case. You can't give 
> something like a design to some one and expect them not to 
> use it.

I showed them to him under the explicit request that he change it so it
wouldn't look like my site.  Sorry about the lack of clarity in my last
email -- I highlighted that he was using the same structure and CSS
properties merely to demonstrate that his site was the same as mine.  I
really don't mind him using the same class names and the like, I just
don't want his site to look like mine, and I told him this.

> People on this list give code...css examples...code 
> names to anyone who asks. He must have ask you for help 
> ....you gave it to him. Then you decide that because it 
> worked for him that he must now change it....

Again, I didn't give him The Design.  I let him use the code that
produced the design under the explicit term that he change the design so
it did not look like my site.

Here is the instant messaging transcript (S/N's changed) in which I
"'gave' the design to him":

[snip]
Kevin: can you just send me a copy of the files you use for your
website? I just want to use them but change them around
Kevin: different colors
David: just save them from the server
Kevin: how
David: File -> Save
Kevin: the ones for your website?
David: yeah
David: kevin, please don't copy my site
David: try to be original
David: i don't mind you looking at my code to see how i did stuff, but
making a copy and changing the colors just isn't cool
David: so don't
Kevin: i won't, i just want s side-bar
[/snip]

Nowhere in there did I say that I even "gave" him rights to use my
design.  All I told him he could do was 1) download the files from my
server, and 2) look at my code, but don't copy it.  I didn't give him
permission to reuse the code, nor did I ever give him permission to copy
from the site I developed for Custom Leader.  Did I forfeit my copyright
to the design?  Absolutely not.

> This is just a 
> lot of rubbish... Grow up!! You are just envious that he got 
> a design job.

I don't care if he got a design job or not; I'm not after his customers.
I just don't want him stealing the work that I did and presenting it to
his client as his own, when in fact, he has no idea how to produce on
his own.

Thanks,
David

-- 
    David I. Bindel
  Website Development
 dbindel at austin.rr.com
  www.davidbindel.com 



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