Hey all,

I've been seeing a lot of "site rip off" posts around lately - it really disgusts me.

I recently found someone who ripped my entire layout - and made changes to parts they could not customise themselves. This is not the first time this has happened to me, and normally I will email the site's owner and ask them to remove it - my problem now, is that the ripped site is in another language.

I have no clue what the site says, and how to contact the owner. This site stole my layout, my games and my image galleries (at least he had the decency not to hotlink). What should I do?

My site: www.darkmark.com/c.c
Ripped site: http://members.lycos.co.uk/phpoldal/

Thanks for your advice!

Whoa! Bummer! Not TOO subtle.

Seems to me that you should be able to contact his host (lycos.co.uk) and let them in on the secret. Companies like Lycos are pretty sensitive to copyright infringements so they might take some action. Seems to me that they should just pull the plug immediately on the scoundrel.

Good luck.

Before accusing anyone of 'ripping off' someone elses copyrighted material, it may pay you to take a look at some of the images on your own site.

Unless of course you have permission to use them?

Originally posted by davehooper.net
Before accusing anyone of 'ripping off' someone elses copyrighted material, it may pay you to take a look at some of the images on your own site.

Unless of course you have permission to use them?

Yeah - you're right, maybe you should tell this to the millions of other fan sites around the world. If they all listened to your comment, there would be no fan sites.

We include a disclaimer on all pages for this reason.

Looks like it's gone.

I would say the same thing about contacting Lycos.

Originally posted by xMattHawkx


Yeah - you're right, maybe you should tell this to the millions of other fan sites around the world. If they all listened to your comment, there would be no fan sites.

We include a disclaimer on all pages for this reason.

Well maybe there should be no fan sites then??

Off your site;
"This is a fan run site, no copyright infringement is intended."

Regardless of whether the infingement is intended or not, there is still an infingement IMO. If your site was truly just a fan site, the implications would be far less, but given you are running an online store I beleive the copyright owners would not be overjoyed at the infingement.

Just my opinion.

How about just emailing the guy about it? Sure, the webpage may be in another language, but just about everyone can speak basic English nowadays!

Why, I even know a Japanese girl who's just 17 but communicating in near-perfect English with me presently :D

If all else fails, I would contact Lycos as well. I'm sure they wouldn't be too thrilled that someone is "stealing" someone else's hard work and design for their own use. Maybe even run a whois search to see if you can get the contact info for that domain. There may be an English contact person listed who can answer questions.

Originally posted by CChard
Looks like it's gone.

I would say the same thing about contacting Lycos. It still seems there for me.


Contact Lycos or email their site(if any email links)