Hello I need your answers and help on this.
Of course as you know it is not the first case that happens. I designed this design back in 2004 for my website and a live version of a sub page is still at this www.kooshin.com/kooshin_articles

Now today as I was checking the stats which the site gets I found out this website http://geocities.com/faruksom/ which seems to be using the design. How can I prove this design is mine ? Well the answer might be a lot simpler than the question might look.

Ok lets say . Try to view the code of the site and see where the url of the css file powering the site is loading from? http://kooshin.com/styles/newstyle.css

And now check the footer and hover your mouse over the about us link and see what it says "About Kooshin.com " Also do the same thing to the rest of the links like Aids Programs which shows "Read Our Acceptable Use Policy and Terms Of Service" and also Khat Programs which shows "Read Our Privacy Policy" tooltip.

The only slight change that is done is the header as it is flash. So guys what do you think? Of course the guy who did this is a guy who knows where am from as I can read from the website and see the links he has that he is from the same country I'm originally from -Somalia - if that matters.

What made me laugh is the text at the bottom of the page that says powered by haluul business solutions. A business solution huh? Wow....

e-mail yahoo/geocities to take his account/site down, make sure to provide them proof that yours is original. (but for how long can you stay hunting him not to use that design layout somewhere else?)

Why would you care? It'll probably take far more effort in stopping him from using it completely (as mentioned above) - and he probably gets no visitors.

Wait till he makes a bit of money - and sue for the profits he made (off of your layout). (:

As stated above, the hassle it would cause you chaseing the guy around all the time wouldent be worth it, soon as you get it taken down on one site he will simply move to another, afterall how many free webhosts are there around?

Its hard to prove that the design is origionally yours but in future what i would suggest is that you put a faint watermark on one of your images... keep this consistent with all the templates you make and then if you have the problem in the future you have your proof.

You can take them offline..but what if others take the design too? You can't hunt them all down I guess. I agree with the watermark idea, it would help

Sedn a DMCA notice to Geocities. It takes a few minutes to adjust a template letter (do a search - you'll find thousands), and in my experience, most hosts will pursue this sort of thing pretty quickly once it has been brought to their attention.

Send a notice to the site owner first a couple days before sending a DMCA letter, just to give him/her a friendly opportunity to make good. In the four cases I've had myself thus far, two times the issue was resolved casually.

well how can't i prove the design is mine? you can even see the code by your self and also the css file which is loading from my server to power the site. How can I contact geocities then? They don't have an emial on their site or a form whatsoever.As for DMCA where should I get that?

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html

There's everything you need to know, including everything your notification needs to have in it. Yahoo will be obligated to remove the offending materials unless the site owner can claim his site was the original. If you have source files and can show screenshots, that will probably be fine once Yahoo asks for proof from you. An Internet archive (www.archive.org) would be helpful as well.

Cross that bridge when you get to it. I've never had a problem with this yet :)

thank you very much. I sent them an email to their copyright section.As for web archive here it is http://web.archive.org/web/20050129144731/http://kooshin.com/ . What do you think?:)

the_pm is right. The burden of proof is not on you and you will probably not have to prove that the design is yours. When I say the burden of proof is not on you, that's because the DMCA laws govern that the artwork creator automatically is considered to have the equivalent of a copyright certificate.

Sure it can get to be a bit tedious and time consuming to go after scum like these, but myself, I think it's worth doing and I too speak from experience that most webhosting companies will take prompt action to a well prepared complaint letter, that's especially true for a company like Yahoo who has much to lose even if it is from a PR viewpoint and that is why they will act to protect your legal rights.

Good luck

You cant do too in this kind of issues... if it was a big company I would fight, but it doesnt look that... so just think you are as good designer as people rip your designs :)

Its sad... but it is, dont spend too time or effort, save it to do good designs.

Btw: about whatemarks... anybody can copy the design by scratch or when its online, specially this kind of templates... so keep showing your designs without watemark, It looks more proffesional.

Very interesting front page message - 'FARUK Anti Narcotics and HIV/AIDS Association (FARUK) is a non- governmental, non-political organization founded in 2004 in Hargeisa, Somaliland by a group of experienced Somaliland community leaders, intellectuals and men of religion.

envisions a future where we could achieve a society free of Khat abuse and HIV/AIDS. click here '.

But would you really be concerned wasting your time over this. Sure it looks like some aspects of this site were inspired by your website, but how many other sites before and after has the same coloured category buttons and panels.

lynette11
Very interesting front page message - 'FARUK Anti Narcotics and HIV/AIDS Association (FARUK) is a non- governmental, non-political organization founded in 2004 in Hargeisa, Somaliland by a group of experienced Somaliland community leaders, intellectuals and men of religion.

envisions a future where we could achieve a society free of Khat abuse and HIV/AIDS. click here '.

But would you really be concerned wasting your time over this. Sure it looks like some aspects of this site were inspired by your website, but how many other sites before and after has the same coloured category buttons and panels.


well it is not about buttons or colors or the same panel but it is about taking the whole design and also even hot linking to my server where the main css file that powers the site is loading from.

sergiosuanez

You cant do too in this kind of issues... if it was a big company I would fight, but it doesnt look that... so just think you are as good designer as people rip your designs

Its sad... but it is, dont spend too time or effort, save it to do good designs.

Btw: about whatemarks... anybody can copy the design by scratch or when its online, specially this kind of templates... so keep showing your designs without watemark, It looks more proffesional.
lol that is right but I think they should have asked me if they wanted. I would have given them for free since I changed to another design.It is not that I really would want to sue them or something but they atleast should have told me
and you can see that there is enough proof to show.

As for Yahoo I sent them an email but they are yet to reply so I'm just going to see if they do or don't.

I was unable to edit my last post so I had to post. I got an email from Yahoo after I send them DMCA and they told me that they have taken the action required and now I can see that when you go to http://geocities.com/faruksom/ it says This page is not available. I think they took it offline or something.

Isn't that easy? :)

you mean how they dealt with it? Well if that is what you mean then yes , it was good.