Web Site Plagiarism

[logical muse]

Some of you have seen this web site of mine:

http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/

It's about as simple as a web site can be, yet despite that it gets thousands of hits every day, people blog about it, it features in design reviews, and newspapers write articles about it.

Here's a screenshot:

http://www.logicalmuse.com/images/d_original.png

Recently, I found this web site:

http://icantspelldefinitely.com/

Here's a screenshot:

http://www.logicalmuse.com/images/d_ripoff.png

Look familiar?

It's a direct rip-off. Not only has he stolen the design and layout and content (and source code), he's added a story explaining why he made the site, which gives no credit to my original. In fact, he claims it's his own design and idea.

Now, I'm not that bothered, I think it's rather pathetic actually that he couldn't even come up with his own design. In the past, people have emailed me asking permission to make similar sites and I've been glad to grant it.

Of course, I was curious to find out who is behind this blatant rip off, so I did a whois (http://whois.domaintools.com/icantspelldefinitely.com), and found this:

Domain name: icantspelldefinitely.com

Registrant Contact:
GospelLabs, LLC
John Hamman ()

Fax:
6062 Mooretown Road
Williamsburg, va 23188
US

Administrative Contact:
GospelLabs, LLC
John Hamman (john.hamman@gmail.com)
+1.7575613596
Fax: +1.5555555555
6062 Mooretown Road
Williamsburg, va 23188
US

Technical Contact:
GospelLabs, LLC
John Hamman (john.hamman@gmail.com)
+1.7575613596
Fax: +1.5555555555
6062 Mooretown Road
Williamsburg, va 23188
US


Please note that this information is publicly available; just follow the whois link above.

Further investigation (http://www.jhamman.com/) discloses that:
HELLO, I am John Hamman. I design websites, specialize in SEO and SEM. I am also a Google Adwords Professional.

His business websites, http://williamsburgdesign.com/ and http://www.gospellabs.com/ indicate that they are:
A Small Web Design and Internet Marketing Firm, based in Williamsburg Virginia Focuses on Web Design Services.
and
My name is John Hamman and I am the Founder of GospelLabs, LLC, an internet consulting firm in beautiful Williamsburg, Va. I have over 10 years of internet based design, marketing, and programming experience.

It turns that Gospel Labs is some kind of christian-based organisation, to the extent that a reference to religion is explicit in its name. One of its web sites is the Christian Life Center (http://www.clc.vg/), a church in the same town as John Hamman.

So, I've been ripped off, and by, of all people, someone who appears to be a devout and practicing christian.

I've sent him an email. Let's see what he's got to say.

[AgeGap]

Sorry to see that logical muse. They get all their ideas from a old book and show little or no original thought. Still no original ideas then.

[Powa]

Thou shalt not steal.

[Monketey Ghost]

This could be interesting. Yes, I've seen that, but for the life of me I can't say where in my internet travels.

Direct, shameless ripoff. You should be pissed. It's just so ...unaltered.

[a_unique_person]

This could be interesting. Yes, I've seen that, but for the life of me I can't say where in my internet travels.

Direct, shameless ripoff. You should be pissed. It's just so ...unaltered.

Definately.

[Powa]

definately.
d-e-f-i-a-n-t-l-y.

[Ducky]

Shoot a DMCA notice at them. Be prepared to follow up, though.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Take some action at the very least in case any confusion cause you pain or injury in the future.

I suggest you download and save a copy of the code from the offending site in case it is taken down suddenly.

Spend the money to buy a postage stamp and send a letter suggesting you will take legal action if you are not provided compensation for your copyrighted work. Head the letter "Without Prejudice" so you can change your mind later.

Iamnotalawyerandwouldnotdaretopretendtobeone. ;)

[logical muse]

I'm still waiting for a response to my email to him.

In the meantime, for those of you who are interested, here are some web sites that have mentioned my site recently:

From today's Canadian National Post newspaper - Australian Steve Passiouras created d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com in defence of one of the most commonly misspelled words on the Internet -- the site now gets several thousand hits a day. It's often linked from discussion boards where people are fed up, he says, and he occasionally gets e-mails professing love from people thrilled to see someone taking a stand against the misuse of "defiantly" and "definately."

"It's just a couple of geeks having a bit of a laugh, really, but something so simple seems to inspire people," Passiouras says.
Grassroots groups fighting bad grammar on the Internet (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1855835)

From Wired magazine - So-called single-serving Web sites — standalone pages that accomplish only one task — are popping up all over the Net. For example: islostarepeat.com offers Lost rerun alerts; d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com is a guide to spelling the word correctly; and amiawesome.com assures you yes, very.
Ask a Flowchart: How Do I Make a Single-Serving Site? (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-08/st_singleservingsite)

A web design blog -
Simple Web Design: 75 Sites Featuring Minimalist Interfaces (http://www.cherrysave.com/web-design/simple-web-design-175-sites-featuring-minimalist-interfaces/)

Another web design blog -
30 Examples of Extreme Minimalism in Web Design (http://singlefunction.com/30-examples-of-extreme-minimalism-in-web-design/#extremely_minimal_misc)

A Japanese translation? -
http://q.hatena.ne.jp/1173962912

[Shade]

ICANTSPELLDEFINITELY.COM
Creation Date: 16-jun-2009

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y.COM
Creation Date: 14-feb-2007

digg.com/odd_stuff/D_E_F_I_N_I_T_E_L_Y
Made popular Feb 23, 2007

Looking forward to hearing this persons response to your email! good luck

[Cavemonster]

Muse,
You may be interested in the site youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com (http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/)

It's a site dedicated to design ripoffs, including web design. Folks there have a lot of experience with confronting and pursuing this type of thing. You may want to post your situation there.

[logical muse]

I just got an email reply.

He has apologised, and has taken down his site, and redirected his domain name to my site. Apparently it was one of his employees who made the site.

I'm pleased with the resolution. If you visit his domain name now, http://www.icantspelldefinitely.com/, it should take you to my site.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and support!

ETA: Oh, and welcome to the forum, Shade!

[Shade]

ETA: Oh, and welcome to the forum, Shade!

:) thanks, I heard about it on the AFA forums, and thought I better check it out, unfortunately the username Davo was taken :\ heh looking forward to contributing here.

great news btw! :)

[Denial]

Hahah, I'm guilty of posting the link your website on more than one occasion. It was the example that made it stick in my head though. :)

[lionking]

Very good news logical muse. There is still some goodwill on the internet.

[logical muse]

Hahah, I'm guilty of posting the link your website on more than one occasion. It was the example that made it stick in my head though. :)

I didn't have that, or indeed any, example on the site at first. After RSL lost his domain name and moved his site to a new name, I thought it might help to link to it.

Interestingly, having an outgoing link has dropped my Page Rank somewhat, but I figure RSL's cause is greater than mine.

[Blackadder]

Great, now do one for

bussines and

existance


please

[grmcdorman]

How about your and you're?

[/rant]

[six7s]

How about your and you're?

[/rant]See http://www.dreaded-apostrophe.com/

:)

[tkingdoll]

Oh that's a great outcome. In fact, I'm thinking that your email to him must have been excellent and diplomatic, any chance we could see it? Might serve as a benchmark for how to deal with such things (see the 'Skeptigirl' thread :D).

[logical muse]

Oh that's a great outcome. In fact, I'm thinking that your email to him must have been excellent and diplomatic, any chance we could see it? Might serve as a benchmark for how to deal with such things (see the 'Skeptigirl' thread :D).

Thanks. I guess I couldn't have expected a better outcome, and I'm pleased that he acknowledged what had happened and took immediate steps to rectify it.

My email to him just pointed out the copyright notice on my site, informed him he was in breach of copyright, mentioned that in his line of work he should know better, and advised him to remove the infringing content.

I'm not sure it could be used as a template though, as it was written specifically for this case. Also, I am not a lawyer.

Even though it caused me some anxiety, and made work for me in dealing with it, I'm no longer angry about it. The outcome is entirely satisfactory and so I can happily chalk it up to experience.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Happy news.

The perfect result! :D

[logical muse]

Muse,
You may be interested in the site youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com (http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/)

It's a site dedicated to design ripoffs, including web design. Folks there have a lot of experience with confronting and pursuing this type of thing. You may want to post your situation there.
Fascinating! My new favourite time-waster. :D

[BibleWelt]

I can only stand so much...
I just searched here at this forum:

Search: Keyword(s): definately
Showing results 1 to 25 of 275

Does anyone actually pronounce THIS word THAT way? It's got to be the dumbest common misspelling I've ever encountered . . .

[Powa]

I definetly agree.

[ria_rokz]

Only 275 times in tens of thousands of posts*? That's pretty good.

*just a random estimation. I really don't know.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Note that

http://icantspelldefinitely.com/

is gone.

~~ Paul

[Dancing David]

I can only stand so much...
I just searched here at this forum:

Search: Keyword(s): definately
Showing results 1 to 25 of 275

Does anyone actually pronounce THIS word THAT way? It's got to be the dumbest common misspelling I've ever encountered . . .

I probably have most of them...