theft of website design - HTML Forums

gianluca · 06-24-2006, 09:17 AM

*link removed*

This site was stolen from our company. It is a site one of the co-owners of disfasia.net made last june and we have the .fla file to prove that we made the site. The thief, *name removed*, adjusted two buttons (the two yellow ones) and as you can see she is incapable of stealing properly because the films from these two yellow buttons do not load properly. It is both funny and sad that someone would steal and then be incapable of taking care of what they stole. Yet, as one of the founding members of this collective, I think there must be legal recourse we can take against this woman who blatantly steals creative material from others. Does anyone have any information about this?

If anyone would like to send an email in solidarity of our case to encourage *name removed* to pay for her website or to remove it from her site while still paying for the unauthorised use of her site, we at disfasia.net would be grateful.

You can write this website thief at *email remove*

I thank you for any ideas and support you can give me!

gian luca

Joe · 06-24-2006, 09:49 AM

I can advise you to remove both the email address and the website link from your post, this could be seen as an act of malice against the woman who copied your design.

Just confront her yourself and ask for the site to be removed. If that doesn't work contact the hosting company or the ISP provider to notify them of a breach of copyright.

waffles · 06-24-2006, 10:49 AM

Can I see the site that she copied somehow?

Horus_Kol · 06-24-2006, 04:47 PM

Gianluca,

As Joe suggests, I would be careful passing information like emails around - even if you have the truth on your side, you can find yourself in trouble for slander.

As for what you can do:

1. Write her an official email with your concern that she has stolen the design, and that you will take action if she doesn't either pay or change her site. Do not get personal! Throwing insults in there will make it harder to make a case if it goes further.

2. If she ignores your email, then contact her host - explain to them the situation, and they will most likely take your side (on production of sufficient evidence of course) and pull her site down.

3. If it escalates, its time to get a copyright lawyer in - and then you got to figure what the cost of the legal case will be against the (un)recovered fee for the design.

Hope this helps.

gianluca · 06-26-2006, 05:04 AM

This we have done. A lawyer has written to her and as expected, this went ignored. But I have been advised by many people to publicize the theft by naming it and her and the act. Slander in the US, as in most countries, is only slander if it is untrue. Since we possess the original document and a promise written by email from the party to remove the website, there is no slander. Contrarily, this person would would be the slanderous party as presenting someone else's work as her own...which is what she is doing we have come to learn.

Since the person who made this site has the original file for this website, there is no slander in saying that it was stolen and name the person who stole it. This is one of the few pressures upon her to simply remove the site. In all honesty, she was too cheap to pay for the site after stealing it from the computer of my associate, so all we really want is for the site to be removed. Compensation is not really our aim ultimately--we just want this person to remove our design at this point. As well, we have contacted the police since a computer was broken into to take this site and charges are pressed and an arrest warrant is issuesd. Nonetheless this person is a drifting thief who keeps residences wherever she can find an advantageous situation. So finding her has been difficult from what the police have stated.

I appreciate your help with this, but I think the public advocacy slant is the only way of pressuring this person to stop.

thanks once again!

gian luca

Joe · 06-26-2006, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gianluca

If anyone would like to send an email in solidarity of our case to encourage Ms. Smith to pay for her website or to remove it from her site while still paying for the unauthorised use of her site, we at disfasia.net would be grateful.

You can write this website thief at #####@#####

Posting the name and email address of the theif could be considered provocative. And no, pressuring the theif by publically naming them isn't the way to solve your problem ... it is only making matters worse.

As you have already been told, contact the host and explain the situation, prove to them the file is originally yours and they should remove the site.

gianluca · 06-26-2006, 02:39 PM

I did that and the host replied that they do not get involved in legal matters. Is there an international law or French law that would oblige the hosting company to take it off?

Thanx for your help!

gian luca

gianluca · 06-26-2006, 02:42 PM

Well, something worked. I just checked the site and it is off. Perhaps the hosting service did something?

But I would appreciate knowing of French law for this since this might be temporary.

thanks

g.l.

eddy9 · 06-26-2006, 02:45 PM

That site link didn't load for me.

gianluca · 06-26-2006, 04:32 PM

it would seem that this person is playing with the address knowing that the lawyer in North America asked it be simply removed. I just found the sites, and she made a french and english site based on the work already done.

the addresses are now:

and so you can see that this file was truly stolen (the site was made, payment not received, but this person broke into a computer of one of my colleagues), here is the site:

rivolli.bravehost.com

since this is a free webhosting company, they don't let me put up the .fla. if you want to see the fla i can send it by electronic mail--you can email me at gianlucarivolli@bravenet.com and i will be glad to send it to you. but as you can see from the file, it is the same file, just a few changes...

any ideas are greatly needed and appreciated.

g

Pegasus · 06-27-2006, 06:26 AM

You've posted one message about this person, that's enough. We're not here for you to continue venting about a site, with updates as things change. We don't have the authority to do anything for you, and what we've mentioned is all the advice that we can help you with.

The more vitriol you post on the subject, the more likely it is that we can be drawn into a legal battle about libelous statements. We do, after all, only have your word for the situation.

Peg

gianluca · 06-27-2006, 02:27 PM

Peg:

There is no "vitriol" here. There is a definite case of internet theft however and I came here under the thread for "legal matters" to get help on this matter. You should expect people to come here for information and to give it. I am willing to send you the fla. file if you would like. But please don't get hysterical over someone posting information that is not at all sensitive (for instance, if it were, our web site would not be currently posted elsewhere).

Believe me, I would not be wasting my time here trying to figure out what to do if I were inventing this. I have a job and family and am trying to keep this situation from happening again and to recuperate losses due to this fiasco.

Cheers!

Horus_Kol · 06-28-2006, 04:48 AM

gianluca - if you were to proceed on a legal course of action against the alleged thief (and until they either admit culpability or a found guilty in a court of law, they can only be an alleged thief) then the personal comments you have made in this thread can be used to weaken your case.

As you said, you have come here for advice on how to proceed, and we have given it - including about personal comments.

If you continue to make personal comments, then we will close the thread.

Robertson · 06-30-2006, 05:46 AM

It is an act of malice and defamation. Gian Luca, or the person behind these posts (also seen on pirated sites.com) should take away these posting today, June 30 2006 because it is causing prejudice to *name removed*. Gian Luca was either ill informed about the history of the website in question or is a slanderer.

I ask the administrators of this site to erase this thread as search engines are listing it. Thank you.

Horus_Kol · 06-30-2006, 07:16 AM

Mr Robertson - I have removed all personal details posted in this thread - however, I will not close or delete it, unless there are further personal details.

We also have no power over what Gian Luca posts elsewhere.

I would also ask that you refrain from labelling Gian Luca as a slanderer - this is not an appropriate forum for determining a legal argument, and so we will not broach any further attempts to attach labels or guilt to either party.

This will now continue as a discussion on what to do if there is an apparent case of copyright theft.