Two more new copycats found running in the wild. Thanks to our visitors for letting us know.
Copycat No 1: Site taken down as the owner gracefully explained his situation to us. All the best Dan.
This one is the ultimate, Copycat No 2: Taken down but we are getting very tired of hearing the same old “I’m just trying out the CSS…” or “I’m learning how to build tabless website” story.
Seriously, if you bother to change the graphic and text, I’m sure you can put in some effort to change the look and feel of it. Or put a big text that says “Training Session - rightful owner, thepixelage” and don’t put them under your actual domain name!
Have you ever imagine how it is going to look like if our prospective client where to stumble upon your website first? We will end up being accused of stealing someone else’s design.
This is not a joking matter. Do keep in mind that this website is a business website, not a personal website. So if you want to learn CSS or learn how to build a website, take some effort to at least make it look like you are doing that.
Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 3:55 am
Hmmm, My web designer is a friend. I was very happy with the way the website came out but I guess I will have to change it. Thanks for the information and sorry for the problems. I had a company that I use to work for www.eSmartImage.com that I had helped develope and someone that was looking to buy us, which we turned down, actually copied our business and website content so I know how you feel. I will get corrected….
Best Regards,
Dan
Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 9:10 am
I don’t know if I’d call him your “friend.” He’s put you at serious risk with his blatant plagerism. The question you need to ask yourself is, is he just lazy, or untalented? Either way, you should consider dumping this “friend” for his dishonesty toward you.
Compare the “Contact Us” page! They’re identical, right down to the non-American spelling of “enquiry”. I’m not trying to fault you Dan. Seems you were just swindled by him is all.
Look at the bright side, Amran: imitation is the strongest form of flattery! :-)
Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Hi Dan,
Thanks for your email and comment here. We are sorry to hear that you have been ripped by your friend. I guess what Jason said is true, for someone who puts your company’s reputation at risk like that should not be your friend. Anyway. I’ve taken down your company’s website screenshot and also deleted all the links which might link back to your company’s website (including your comment). This will allow you to start fresh again. Do tell us when your new website is up, we would love to visit it. Cheers and all the best.
Jason: True, sometimes it feels good when you know that people appreciate your work so much that they want to even use it for themselves. But I think it is a double-edged sword, people who visit such copycat websites first might think that we are the one who copy them, which in return, puts our company at risk of being labelled copycat. I’m thankful to my visitors who take their time to write an email to us to inform us or enquire who is the rightful owner of the design.
Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I would like to apologise unreservedly for copying your original script and for leaving it up for the last two months. A colleague, who was smitten with your site, brought to my attention the XHTML errors within your original script (within the original noscript tags etc,) but insisted that they had to be present in order to achieve the layout. So I got a little carried away whilst rehashing it to show him that it was possible (as you have done since my last visit).
I had no intention of leaving the page up for that length of time or developing it into a site. In fact it hadn’t have been for my mail server having a coughing fit from all that annonomous gmail spam on the subject I wouldn’t be here now.
Again, my sincere apologies and keep up the great work. On the possitive side, If there is a possitive side to this, you are now getting hits on the blog from all this.
Regards,
Steve.
Monday, August 28, 2006 at 3:07 pm
I was sending the following e-mail to digital-media-works.co.uk:
From: ANONYMOUS Mailed-By: gmail.com
To: deleted as per requested
Date: Aug 26, 2006 2:55 PM
Subject: Regarding your website!
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Report phishing | Show original | Message text garbled?
Whoever developed your website, that person or team is a copycat. Your website is an exact copy of http://www.thepixelage.com/. It\’s a shame, for the developers and you as the owner.
And then, they reply:
From:
To: ANONYMOUS
Date: Aug 26, 2006 6:06 PM
Subject: RE: Regarding your website!
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Report phishing | Show original | Message text garbled?
A. Its not a website its a page mock-up.
B. It isn\’t an exact copy
C. It wasn\’t \’developed\’ it was an exercise in CORRECT XHTML
D. Haven\’t you got a site to finish?
- Hide quoted text -
—–Original Message—–
From:
Sent: 26 August 2006 08:55
To:
Subject: Regarding your website!
Whoever developed your website, that person or team is a copycat. Your website is an exact copy of http://www.thepixelage.com/. It\’s a shame, for the developers and you as the owner.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 at 6:05 pm
I am not sure I follow you on this -
Saturday morning was the first I knew of all this and I sorted it immediately and informed you I had done so. How the hell can you be tired of my excuses (especially excuses I didn’t make)? I outlined the circumstances leading up to this embarrassing situation and apologised unreservedly. As for ‘learn to build tabless website’, again I have no idea what you are referring to.
I am not sure what kind of person you are used to interacting with, however I would suggest that perhaps this isn’t the way to conduct yourself on a commercial site.
I would also urge you to consider removing the links to my email address in the comment above from ANONYMOUS junkcenter@gmail.com as I feel certain that you wouldn’t condone this continued veiled and intimidating behaviour on the site www.thepixelage.com Or are we, the readers and your prospective clients, left to presume you do?