Themes that Mimic Copyrighted Design

[Elpie]

Actually you are mistaken. The visual design itself can be protected by copyright just as photographs and paintings can be copyrighted.

Umm.. not mistaken actually. It cost me several thousands of dollars in a lost court case to find that one out. But, (big BUT) as I said, this depends on jurisdiction. The only way to know if your web designs are protected by copyright is to seek legal counsel in your own jurisdiction.

Images are protected everywhere, but a web design is made up of several elements, each of which may be protected by copyrights, but the compilation of these into one overall visual design may not be. It wasn't for me, and the individual images themselves were not sufficiently unique for copyright to be able to be enforced.

After I was ripped off, and lost, I registered my trademark and made a practise of taking a screenshot of each design. For design work I really want to protect, I use the screenshot as the cover of a PDF. Courts might not "get" the web, but they understand printed material

[MiroslavGlavic]

Umm.. not mistaken actually. It cost me several thousands of dollars in a lost court case to find that one out. But, (big BUT) as I said, this depends on jurisdiction. The only way to know if your web designs are protected by copyright is to seek legal counsel in your own jurisdiction.

Images are protected everywhere, but a web design is made up of several elements, each of which may be protected by copyrights, but the compilation of these into one overall visual design may not be. It wasn't for me, and the individual images themselves were not sufficiently unique for copyright to be able to be enforced.

After I was ripped off, and lost, I registered my trademark and made a practise of taking a screenshot of each design. For design work I really want to protect, I use the screenshot as the cover of a PDF. Courts might not "get" the web, but they understand printed material

Prove that your version is the original...........the poor man's copyright:

make 3 copies of your work (print out your design), send one copy to your lawyer, one copy to a trustworthy person and one to yourself.

Canada Post is a federal crown corporation, they are "trustworthy", I send everything I do via registered mail (yes even the one to myself), registered mail will have a tracking code with dates and times.

I raped this asswipe right up his arse for copying one of my designs thanks to Canada Post.

I am sure New Zealand Post (or whatever it is called), has tracking services.

The cost: $8 x 3 (CAD) for the registered mails. Lawyer's fees...who cares, asswipe paid it (after I won).

You don't need a lawyer to enforce your copyrights...Go to small claims court.

Canada Post = Federal Crown Corporation that delivers the mail in Canada.
Most countries have their own post company which is usually owned by the federal government of those countries.

[Rarst]

Prove that your version is the original...........the poor man's copyright:

Plagiarism Today had extensive post on how unreliable that approach is (at least in context of US laws).

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/...ans-copyright/

[conorp]

Here is one that mimics the Coda website: http://wordpress.bustatheme.com/coda/

[Ryan]

Here is one that mimics the Coda website: http://wordpress.bustatheme.com/coda/

Interesting theme that one.

I wouldn't use it myself, but at least it does something a little different from the masses.

[wpmuguru]

The trick is actually enforcing the copyright... on the other side of the world.

That's it exactly. That's the main reason copyright infringement is so common on the Internet.

[Jeffro]

Thought it might be time to bring up this conversation again in light of:

http://www.themelab.com/2010/01/31/w...mes-your-take/

[chipbennett]

Thought it might be time to bring up this conversation again in light of:

http://www.themelab.com/2010/01/31/w...mes-your-take/

I think TweetPress is free and in the clear. All of its distinctive style elements is provided by the Twitter API, which means that Twitter is giving explicit license to use those style elements.

In other words, Twitter provided an API, and said, "here are these style elements, and here is an API for how to use them."

I'm not sold on the use case (who would really want to blend their personal web site with their Twitter profile?), but I think the legality is pretty clear (and the implementation pretty genius).