Are the designs of websites copyrighted?

[austin316]

Are the designs of websites copyrighted? Can I look at ESPN.com and then create an extremely similar looking site as long as I don't use their code, nor their graphics or content?

 

[Hammerhead]

There's a chance you might make it on this page if you copy their site.
Pirated Sites

 

[Modeps]

Go for it, it's really cool to copy designs! you'll be teh win!

--for an unangry response, stop reading here---

ok now that I've gotten the funny sarcastic sh!t out of my system. It's people like you that make people like me REALLY pissed off. Why? Because I take hours sometimes days to come up with a design, then some fvcking schmuck comes along and says HEY LOOK AT THAT. *ZOINK*.

"If imitation is the greatest form of flattery...punk don't flatter me."

 

[rh71]

lol do you know how many copies of 2advanced.com there are ?

But no, there's no legal reason stopping you.

 

[austin316]

Originally posted by: Modeps
Go for it, it's really cool to copy designs! you'll be teh win!

--for an unangry response, stop reading here---

ok now that I've gotten the funny sarcastic sh!t out of my system. It's people like you that make people like me REALLY pissed off. Why? Because I take hours sometimes days to come up with a design, then some fvcking schmuck comes along and says HEY LOOK AT THAT. *ZOINK*.

"If imitation is the greatest form of flattery...punk don't flatter me."

whoa dogg. my bad. I came across a site I saw on the internet that looked great and I wanted to imitate a site like that. didn't know it would cause this many problems. Since its not illegal and the site I like is not very ellaborate, I'm gonna e-mail the webmaster and see if he cares if I design a similar looking website.

also, if this is so bad, why do people point to oswd.org, which has templates designed after major corporations? like sinorca

 

[notfred]

From the bottom of espn.com's "Terms of Use" page:

© Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

There you go.

 

[CptObvious]

Simple answer - yes. The site doesn't have to put up any copyright notice in order for it to be copyrighted either. The longer answer is that it depends because any commonly used or functional elements of the design can't be copyrighted.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: rh71
But no, there's no legal reason stopping you.

Umm.. It's called copyright.

 

[JustinSampson]

CptObvious knows his stuff. You can be sued and they'll have a field day in court. Someone stole a design from a site created by a web development company I used to work for. They ended up getting sued and the settlement was close to 2 million... And it was only a small company that stole it, probably not knowing the differnce, like you.

 

[austin316]

ok, so I can't use a design of another site.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: rh71
But no, there's no legal reason stopping you.

Umm.. It's called copyright.

How do they enforce an idea ? How much constitutes a copy ? I can see a case against him if he swiped some of the design code+graphics... but if he creates it from scratch while taking layout/color ideas from a site, how is this wrong ? How is this different from someone getting a patent to "save" an idea (and yes you can patent anything including processes/procedures - I know) vs. someone just throwing something up as a webpage ?

If I had an idea on content presentation, instead of taking years patenting the process/presentation, I throw it up on a webpage as the final product... does this mean I can sue for it since it's there ? That would make the US Patent office obsolete in this case, wouldn't it ?

You guys should hit the Flash boards. Do you have any idea how many functional ideas are taken from each other ? People would be getting into Flash for the money. :roll:

 

[rh71]

^ need clarification

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: rh71
But no, there's no legal reason stopping you.

Umm.. It's called copyright.

How do they enforce an idea ? How much constitutes a copy ? I can see a case against him if he swiped some of the design code+graphics... but if he creates it from scratch while taking layout/color ideas from a site, how is this wrong ? How is this different from someone getting a patent to "save" an idea (and yes you can patent anything including processes/procedures - I know) vs. someone just throwing something up as a webpage ?

It would depend on the extent of the similarities. If he copied just the color scheme, that would be fine. If he copied the color scheme AND layout, that would be bad. It's really a judgement call, but if you look at the site Hammerhead linked to, it's pretty obvious if it's a violation.

If I had an idea on content presentation, instead of taking years patenting the process/presentation, I throw it up on a webpage as the final product... does this mean I can sue for it since it's there ? That would make the US Patent office obsolete in this case, wouldn't it ?

You can't copyright an idea. If you invented something and posted the blueprints on a website, you could prohibit people from copying the blueprints, but you couldn't prevent them from producing your invention and selling it.

You guys should hit the Flash boards. Do you have any idea how many functional ideas are taken from each other ? People would be getting into Flash for the money. :roll:

That's a question of people defending their copyrights, not whether it's legal or not.