Forum Moderators: not2easy
THE DETAILS (IF YOU CARE):
I am dealing with a webmaster that has stolen one of my designs.
When I complained to the webmaster, he challenged my copyright claim by saying the designs were slightly different.
I then filed a complaint with his web hosting company.
Similar to the webmaster at fault, the hosting company rep was challenging my ownership of the design, on a page which has been online since March 2004. He asked that I point out how the images were similar, and I answered in full detail. It was an easy exercize, since the designs are virtually the same. In response, he sent me an image overlapping both images to highlight the small differences between the designs.
I am beginning to thing that the web hosting company and the webmaster at fault are one and the same.
I know some WebmasterWorld members have had good luck pursuing these matters on their own.
My experience has taught me that companies such as web hosts won't pay as much attention to an individual as they will to a lawyer. I make one attempt to get the webmaster or host to act on a properly submitted DMCA complaint. If I don't get any results in three business days I turn it over to my attorney.
We're having a bit of a battle right now with a major photo hosting service member who has stolen not only the logo for one of my sites but hundreds of user-submitted photographs as well. I guess that means we're headed to court.
However, you can't exactly copyright HTML of a page layout except in it's entirety as a certain amount of change makes it a new work, which is sounds like they are claiming. But you can copyright individual graphic elements contained within that page layout assuming they're unique. I'm not talking rounded corners and graduated colors, but actual uniquely identifiable images. Doesn't matter how much of the page they changed, if you created specific images that were stolen you might have a case.
I've actually dropped a DMCA on a couple of companies for stealing my layouts but it always involved unique hand crafted custom graphics and I had an invoice to prove they were mine.
Be very careful though because you can be counter-sued if you drop a false DMCA, meaning that it wouldn't hold up in court, so if it's iffy and not clear cut, consult an attorney.
[edited by: incrediBILL at 12:37 am (utc) on July 15, 2007]
turn the matter over to an attorney who specializes in intellectual property matters.
Too right.
In the UK, the hosting company will be dragged into the claim if they fail to act upon legal challenge of copyright infringment.
So most pull the site down immediately whilst they conduct checks etc. They don't want to get held liable for some idiots copying!
Good luck.
