Josefu - 9:56 pm on Dec 4, 2007 (gmt 0)

The answer is pretty simple, but a few of you are mixing things up a bit. Correct that HTML (or any other markup language) is not "computer code".

There's nothing at all keeping you from "snipping" someone else's hard-made markup, but that doesn't mean it's right. But would you? If the layout (I speak not here of the colors, graphics, etc) is commonplace, or it comes from a common and known source (extendable liquid three-column <div> layout, anyone?) "cut n' pasting" could be acceptable... but personally I would either ask permission to "use the creator's solution", and/or give the creator a commented credit above the code (many ask exactly that).

But "copyright" the use of a markup code? Not at all. For some perspective, just think of the billions of websites out there, and slap this up against html's few layout possibilities, as well as its many limitations - how many sites are alike? If markup were protectable, the lawsuits would never end!

[edited by: Josefu at 9:59 pm (utc) on Dec. 4, 2007]