Imitation.. the highest form of flattery?
11:15 am Wed, 21st April 2004Oh. My. Gosh. I got the shock of my life this morning. I was doing my usual checks through my sitemeter, when I noticed a strange url coming up. So I click on it, and what do I find but an almost EXACT duplicate of my website! Not only did this guy rip off my code and design, he also ripped off my content. The main welcome page content is exactly the same as mine (at the time of ripoff), with him substituting my names/links for his ones.
Here is the site: http://home.comcast.net/~sdrls/main.htm. Check it out for yourself and do the comparison.
I’m just….. speechless.. Really. Not only did he blatantly copy my site, he was really really stupid about it as well! For example, some of the links on the nav drop-down box still go back to my site!! And my webcam thumbnail image is still up on some of his pages. Also, on some pages, he is still using my sitemeter code (which is why it showed up on my site). He is also stealing my bandwidth a little, by using some images which reside on my webserver. (Although he has at least created his own header image.)
This is the second time someone has ripped off my website/design. And I guess it is a compliment that people think my design so good, they want to copy it. But really… can’t they at least change it a little, so it’s not so blatant? At least try and come up with something of their own? I don’t even mind if they use ideas from my site – coz hey, thats what I do too. If I come across something that I think looks nice, or is a really cool new functionality, and I think it would work with my site, then I’ll come up with a way of implementing it into my site.. like something as small as how my navigation dropdown list works, or the greyscale fade on my webcam image… they are both ideas I got from some website I’d come across. Nothing is truly original. But yeh, blatant ripoff…. I mean, surely he could at least come up with his own welcome message!?!? *shakes head in disgust*
/rant
Going through that site, I felt like I’d entered the twilight zone..
Current listening :: “Fired” – Ben Folds
Posted in Uncategorized (Old Blog) | 13 Comments »
13 Comments on “Imitation.. the highest form of flattery?”
juusu
Apr 21, 2004
woah, this is unbelievable! I feel very embarrased for this guy *tsk tsk tsk*… I checked his ‘guestbook’, and yep, it has my msg on it and my link is there too. It’s quite flattering that your web design is so desirable yet sad that this person can’t muster a bit of originality when he uses it. If it were up to me, i’d be pretty peeved!
How did he manage to get your code?
aq
Apr 21, 2004
Heh. Time for a submission to http://www.pirated-sites.com, methinks.
Fuzzi
Apr 21, 2004
hey ur going to michael buble too ?? š heheh. cool.
i’m going on friday night though. š
rat
Apr 21, 2004
pretty bad when he rips off the content as well.
if it’s your own webserver can you block him?
Kazzart
Apr 21, 2004
juusu: Yeh. Its not hard to get the code. You just right click, and view the source.
aq: Done! š
Fuzzi: Yep, can’t wait. Its tomm nite! Woohoo! š
rat: Well, I can’t really.. he’s just copied my html code and stuff…. and put it all on his web hosting.
aq
Apr 21, 2004
What you should do is, change the URL of your current images, and then replace those image files he is linking to with different images (e.g. an image saying politely that his site is pirated… or something worse. š
rat
Apr 21, 2004
well i meant blocking so the images he’s still linked to don’t show up. but i like aq’s idea better š
CC
Apr 21, 2004
Wah, he has very similar tastes in music as you, similar musical influences, heck, he even looks like you, according to one of his pages!!!!!! It’s freaky!!!!
Shirley
Apr 22, 2004
oh man, hahaa, i saw his site, exact duplicate. Just thought that there’s a CMS program behind to change only the data. the rest is completely the same!
nate
Apr 22, 2004
i say we forward his e-mail address to a few spammers.
Sam Yip
Apr 22, 2004
I think the dude is gay. Look at his blog entry
“and theyre sayin its goin to snow tonight and all day tommorrow *sigh* There goes summer… Then again, now its snuggle-in-bed-with-a-good-bf-and-good-music weather… if only he were here. :'( ”
Bf?
Keisha
Aug 8, 2005
haha OMG I was like reading his site and stuff and went to make acomment and it sent me to this site. so I sent him a message and well It turns out He didn tmake the site his friend did. which totally sucks but hahaha I guess hes goin to feel really stupid cuase I guess the guy who did his site did liek 3 peoples sites just like yours cause I went on google and googled it up. HAHA that totally sucks I wonder why people do that kind of stuff anywas, cuase I mean liek its just soo hard to come up wiht your own site. *blah*
Kazzart
Aug 8, 2005
Do you think you could send me the urls of the sites that still rip off my design? I wasn’t aware there are still sites out there that are doing this.