Ripper's site: http://www.verticalhost.com/
Original site: http://www.mediatemple.net/

I also have an image attached with a screenshot of VerticalHost's ripped version.

Sad.

Why do people do that? It's not that hard to create a web site.

Yup, horrible rip too, it doesn't even look remotely different. It seems as if they took a screenshot and cut it out.

Sigh. Check out some other images that are copied too!

http://verticalhost.com/images/ss-linux.gif
http://www.mediatemple.net/_images/hdr_content/ss_4_title.gif

Not exact, but so similar.

good catch.. that cant be good for their business:(

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery I guess...

Originally posted by gearworx
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery I guess... That may be. But I've experienced it first-hand several times, and it's annoying, even if it is flattering! :P

lol, no arguing there but there was a bit of sarcasm served with my post :)

Have you tried emailing there host to find out if there are any solutions to this?

Originally posted by elix
Ripper's site: http://www.verticalhost.com/
Original site: http://www.mediatemple.net/

Nice site (i mean the original one)... Could it be that these sites in both cases are simply built around the same template? It happens... Like the site of New York Internet (NYI) http://www.nyi.net/ -- I bet you can came across a few similar sites. What I don't understand: NYI is so extremely expensive, it stresses it's uniqueness and 'high-endness' so much, -- and though they use a cheap template without even having bought it out.

Media Temple do not use templates.

Media Temple designs are probably the most ripped hosting sites out there.

Originally posted by blue27
Media Temple designs are probably the most ripped hosting sites out there.

You took the words from my mouth.

Another (mt) rip example is xnet.com

Originally posted by blue27
Media Temple do not use templates.

I see, I didn't know that; templates are quite popular nowadays, so theoretically it could happen in this case too...

Shame on rippers then. Bad boys.

Ariel74, do you really think that
It's not that hard to create a web site.

Maybe it's not that hard to create a web site (actually HTML is not so complicated) but to develop a site with really creative design which will not only look good but help in sales... You have to be a pro with many areas. And when ripping - creative thinking is not involved, right? :)

Maybe I should have clarified my comment a bit. It's not that hard to come up with a nice site design and put it on paper, then have a professional design it for you if you can't do it yourself.

If someone can't afford to pay for a designer for their site - or can't do it on their own - perhaps they picked the wrong industry to be in. What is really amazing is that people think they can get away with stealing others work like that. Sad!

Ultimately who cares? I mean Media Temple might be annoyed but both sites are selling hosting not web design. I don't think Media Temple is losing any business because someone else used the same navigation design.

As far as the design goes, yeah the navigation is the same, but the rest of the home page is completely different. Not to mention the Media Temple design is pulled off much better.

Copying and borrowing happens - that is just the nature of the internet. But oh well, to each their own.

I tend to disagree with you there.

Copying someone else's design is a copyright violation, plain and simple, and it IS NOT "just the nature of the internet." That's a lousy excuse to make, and excuses like that are the reasons stuff like this still goes on.

With the amount rips that Media Temple gets, its almost like free advertising since so many people know who they are =D

Originally posted by sash
Like the site of New York Internet (NYI) http://www.nyi.net/ -- I bet you can came across a few similar sites. What I don't understand: NYI is so extremely expensive, it stresses it's uniqueness and 'high-endness' so much, -- and though they use a cheap template without even having bought it out.

Do some research before posting such rumors, please. Instead of speculating that there must be many sites similar to NYI's, post a link to one. Preferably more than one. Then, paste a link here pointing to the source of NYI's "template". I'm not sure where you've gotten the idea that NYI's site is a template, or that they would use a template for their site, or that they made such a decision without thinking it out, or any of that. There seems to be an assumption nowadays that any host with a nice, professional-looking site must have used a template.

@MyNameSolutions:

You are right, "copying and borrowing happens", but in most cases it has been completely illegal. In the case of VerticalHost, you can see that their packages (BOTH of them) are exactly the same like (mt) packages (TWO as well). Enough evidence that it is a rip? Yes! It is so obvious. :D

On the other side, you said
I mean Media Temple might be annoyed but both sites are selling hosting not web design. I don't think Media Temple is losing any business because someone else used the same navigation design.

Media Temple is selling hosting, just like XNet.com and VerticalHost.com . I must say that I do believe that MediaTemple is not losing any business because of rip. Why? Because I really can't believe that anyone would have any trust in a web-hosting company that use stolen web-site design.

Media Temple is not just "another" web-hosting company, but it is obvious that (mt) is getting free advertising from design rips. It was well known and without rips. And now with all those rips it becoming famous!

Congratulations to the (mt) web-designers on a goooood job, what else.

Originally posted by BigBison
Do some research before posting such rumors, please. Instead of speculating that there must be many sites similar to NYI's, post a link to one. Preferably more than one. Then, paste a link here pointing to the source of NYI's "template".

Hi,

This template came from this collection: http://www.mydomain.com/design/index.php .

I don't need to do 'some research', because I simply *saw* this template there (I don't know whether or not you can find this template on others similar template sites though).

Later, while looking for a new hosting company, I've found this NYI site, was quite surprised, went back to the template site -- and the original template was still there, which means they haven't bought it at 'unique prize' (~2000 $), but for some 50-60 USD.

So please take it easy. If this template has still not been bought out, I'll post a link. Normally you can find some 5-10 sites using such templates (providing they are not ending up in some pirate collections).

And pardon me, this is quite a well known fact that it is a template. Don't be ridiculous. Make a post on a webhosting forum with this question -- you'll get the same answer.

Here it goes, dear Big Bison:

http://www.mydomain.com/design/templates_business.php

PRICE 35 USD UNIQUE PRICE 504 USD
Template Info :
Item number : 2225
Author: MadFlasher
Downloads : 10

So there are AT LEAST 10 similar websites.

I can make a screen shot if you like.

The template is actually from Template Monster's collection...
(templatemonster.com/website-templates/2225.html)
Ten other sites with the same design are not critical for NYI I guess though the template is rather old and they may think of redesigning their site.

Btw, their site wizard (pop-up) has design from the previous version. It seems that they do not care about their design at all.

It seems that they do not care about their design at all.

Yes, at all. Have you seen their prices? I don't care they are using this cheap template, but it becomes quite striking when you think about their stressing of high-endness and extreme high prices.
Anyway, I simply can't understand why such an expensive internet company is not willing to invest in unique, professional and appealing design.

I think that the point is that both design and prices work fine for them. To understand that the combination of the unique, appealing design and their prices will work for them better they probably need to make some research or hire a consulting agency to make this research which would cost them much…

Anyhow, I think that the problem is not with them but with us ;) as we cannot understand their business model and it works pretty well for them thus this is a WORKING model – charge as high as you can and save as much as you can.

Anyhow, I think that the problem is not with them but with us

Yeh, probably... You know, I just think that this template hype makes life of the web-disigner more difficult. If a company can buy a decent site for 35 USD, chance that they would hire a pro for a unique design is almost nihil. On the other hand, that's a great opportunity for a small company or even for a independent (free-lance) to get more or less good site.

And last but not least: I wouldn't give that much attention to this situation without the BigBison's pointless accusations in my address.

Originally posted by sash
And last but not least: I wouldn't give that much attention to this situation without the BigBison's pointless accusations in my address.

Oh for Pete's sake get over yourself. You made a pretty strong allegation, I asked you to back it up, you did. End of story, quit calling me a jerk in every other post. What "accusation" did I make against you, pray tell? You're the one who made an accusation against my host without offering proof, next time offer proof and people won't challenge what you say.

Hi,
BigBison, sorry if I've insulted you. But this 'do some research before posting such rumors etc.' sounded quite offensive to me. I'm here not to spread rumors.

Allrighty, fine. I should've probably said, "Do you have any links to back that up?" Same question, different tone, I'm sorry - that's all I meant. As to this, then:

What I don't understand: NYI is so extremely expensive, it stresses it's uniqueness and 'high-endness' so much, -- and though they use a cheap template without even having bought it out.

Huh, that's a good point (albeit off-topic) and I'm surprised that NYI uses a template. Their help desk, and various other bits, don't even match it and clearly there was an earlier design. It's been this way for the entire time I was with them, about a year and a half, just ended. For what they offer, they're a damn fine host and well worth the price. What I'm paying for is uptime, that's what they offer (so who gives a crap about their website) and they offer it for those on a budget.

Lesson to hosts about uptime: You'll never match NYI's shared-hosting uptime by offering shell access. NYI is an FTP-only throwback, which suits me fine. For those with static websites (or simple CMS sites, I was able to run PmWiki without needing a shell) who don't ever want to see it go down, and the minimal budget required to entrust this to NYI, I can't think of another host to recommend at all. I've mentioned elsewhere, with one or two minute monitoring I can't say if they're any better than four nines of uptime, so I have to take their word for it that in a year and a half my account wasn't down for even a second, ever. Their five-nines guarantee is nothing to sneeze at.

Edit: Oh, and they're fast. FreeBSD is somewhat responsible, but so is their hardware and network. Latency is important to me, i.e. how quickly does the page start to download after the server receives the request? NYI's as good as they say on that point, also. I can honestly say that the condition of their website was a non-issue to me, they've finally fixed some of the Opera 8 issues that broke it entirely the other month, but still I don't care. Go figure.

Okay, let's get back ontopic!

This thread is about Vertical Host ripping Media Temple's site...

How come Media Temple doesn't sue the sites that are ripped or copyright violation?

This is why you shouldn't use templates.

And if you're going to use one, at least change it around.

This vertical thing has just put online the so called v2 of the site. A bit different. Navigation is quite the same though.
You might be 'inspired' by someone's work, you even may be 'heavily inspired', I think it's more or less acceptable for personal and noncommercial sites (although... I'm probably wrong, stealing is stealing), but you certainly may not use such 'inspiration' if your site is a commercial one.

For commercial sites, if they are just starting out, I don't see anything wrong with being inspired.

Blatantly ripping from another site is a different story.