One sure fire way to lose any respect as a designer is to copy or steal from another site. With so many Web Galleries around these days its easier to find good looking sites to help fuel your inspiration, but unfortunately there are too many people who are using these galleries to steal images, code and layouts from people who spent time creating something unique. It’s one thing to take inspiration from a design, or have similar elements, but these are just too much in my opinion. I don’t want to say too much as I think the examples below speak for themselves.
Bigfilebox
Original Design
Rip Off
I think that this one has to be one of the most blatant and obvious rips ever. I hate to think that someone might have been paid to produce this.
Fluoro
Original Design
Rip Off
Changing a color does not make a design “yours” – If you like the look and layout, make something similar – Don’t just steal it.
Elliot Jay Stocks
Side by side comparison, original design on the right.
I came across this article by Elliot Jay Stocks, a popular designer & blogger, as I began to research this article and I thought it was important to add as he’s written quite an extensive account of his personal experiences with this issue.
Clear Left
Original Design
Rip off
Another really blatant “design” – This one is horrendous, they even stole the logo. Clear left actually had 6 rips they found. But the one above is the most obvious.
CdeVision
Original Design
Rip Off
There have been a few changes made on this one, but I think that it’s too close to the original, even down to fonts etc. I think that you could have used the same feel here quite easily without ripping it.
SpinBiz
Original Design
Rip Off
Admittedly this one isn’t particularly obvious, as there have been a lot of modifications, but some of the details are just blatant rips, as well as the color scheme and layout.
Swindle Magazine
Original Design
Rip Off
This is another one which has been heavily modified, but you can see the elements align exactly and only things like colours have been modified. With a layout like this there is so much freedom with layout, I can’t understand why you would need to rip it so obviously.
Brush Network
Original Design
Rip Off
It’s quite clear to see how this site was heavily influenced. There are a few different elements, but the main curve and buttons have clearly been copied too closely.
Mitionographer
Original Design
Rip Off
This website has a similar subject, so it seems to me they’ve seen the success of a competitor and tried to replicate it, quite literally.
Kinetic Kreations
Original Design
Rip Off
The original here is beautiful in my opinion, and copying something so unique is quite a silly idea, as it’s clear that you had only one “influence” in your design.
BrandUp
Original Design
Rip Off
Now on first glance I wasn’t too sure this was a rip the design is quite generic, but if you read the text you can see they they even stole the text, not a great decision.
Conclusion
I’d say that a lot of these copies were completely unnecessary, In the fact that they could have used the sites as inspiration, finding styles and elements they like, without completely ripping it off. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with seeing something you like, and making something similar, but similar does not mean trying to replicate it exactly, or stealing graphics and code.
One good example that I can think of to illustrate this point would be to look at “tag clouds” – They must have come from somewhere. Someone saw one on somebody’s blog and thought “yeah, nice idea” then set about making their own. But the variety out there is astounding, there are many creative ways of presenting the same element or information, without the need of stealing. I’m sure this is something everyone has an opinion on, so I’d love to hear them.
Sources: Pirated-Sites & You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice
Further Reading: Elliot Jay Stocks
Gabe
July 30, 2008 at 8:57 am
On a similar note, I always wonder how many designers and/or firms re-use their own work. I know sometimes I get stuck in one “train of thought” or I get wrapped up in a particular style, and it bleeds through to several projects I am working on. That’s when going to a few galleries helps inspire me to weave something new (to me) into my work.
liam
July 30, 2008 at 9:03 am
@Gabe, thanks for the comment. I think that re-using your own work, or certain elements of your own work is on a different level, because you aren’t gaining from the hard work that somebody else has put in. But in some ways the client might be let down by the fact that what they’re getting isn’t completely unique.
JY
July 30, 2008 at 9:04 am
It’s possible multiple sites purcahsed the template from the same source. (not referring to the ones in your examples in particular).
liam
July 30, 2008 at 9:07 am
Yeah, there are chances that there are a lot of sites out there that are using the same templates. But the chances are the person who made the original theme is still gaining from this, as they chose to allow their template to be used on multiple sites.
But what we are talking about here is people stealing exact copies of a site and claiming it as their own. In which case the original designer will be losing out. Thanks for the comment, and all the ones in my examples were reported by the original designers to be rip-offs.
Chris Spooner
July 30, 2008 at 9:20 am
It’s unbelievable how similar they are, the word RIP definitely fits in these cases!
Paul Jamie Kidd
February 22, 2010 at 10:23 am
I am 100% positive you can’t beat this MoFo!
Please take time to read the blog… we are only just recovering from it now! haha
Blatent!
http://www.kidd81.com/blog/?p=105
Andrew
July 30, 2008 at 10:02 am
Great post! That’s really frustrating, seeing these blatant rips!
John Campbell
July 30, 2008 at 10:11 am
Wow. I have never seen such a good collection of ripoffs. Didn’t know it was that bad. Great article.
- John
Fath
July 30, 2008 at 10:17 am
What a total rip off from Fiouret! Man, I just realized there are so many of them. It’s just that I never come across the rip offs. Or probably I thought of them as original designs!
This is definitely a great post. It raises awareness among the designers and the rippers themselves and at the same time, it educates the people out there. The new designers or potential designers – never steal anyone’s creation!
We Function
July 30, 2008 at 10:33 am
@Andrew, John & Fath Glad you found it useful, thanks guys!
calvin
July 30, 2008 at 11:06 am
is there anything we can do about this? can we not copyright our style sheets or something like that?
it feels futile to just complain about it.
liam
July 30, 2008 at 11:18 am
@calvin, I think in many cases just emailing these people and pointing out the fact that they are similar may resolve the issue. But other than that I’d love to hear any suggestions on how we can protect ourselves against this? Anyone have any ideas?
calvin
July 30, 2008 at 11:23 am
a shotgun usually protects me from those that stole things from me…but useless for internet purposes.
damn
roger
July 30, 2008 at 11:31 am
as a self confessed coding idiot i have copied/borrowed code from other people to use and also in the process of adapting it learnt how to do it myself.
all times i have contacted the designer and asked permission and/or acknowledged there input on the site as you see from the links in the footer of my blog.
there is a line between inspiration/learning and piracy!
Ramon
July 30, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Some guy once offered to pay me to dupe my site exactly except for putting his face into it. I did, charged a hefty fine, then redesigned my site a few days later
Noah Woodland
July 30, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Did my comment go through?
Youri
July 30, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Omg these are such…hardcore…rips. Good finds though, if you can be complimented on finding these;)
Max | Design Shard
July 30, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Thats quite scary some are almost identical clones, clearleft logo is identical ,i suppose it would be flatttering if some one copied your design..although i wouldnt reccomend it, always interesting to see what people are up to
Pablo Rodriguez M.
July 30, 2008 at 3:03 pm
It’s a really really sad situation.
I see this things on the web from times to times and thought it happens only on the ‘major leagues’. But recently, I’ve been a victim of such a rip. My portfolio is http://www.arsnovadesign.com.ar/ (even a ‘couple’ of CSS galleries featured it), and suddenly I see a rip: http://www.marksimons.co.uk/
The worst is that this guy calls himself a designer…
I don’t know how to feel angry or sad. I think I’m gonna redesign and let the whole thing go. Thanks for the article (and for letting me express!)
Ólafur
July 30, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Another one that you can add:
http://www.midi.is is an online ticket sale system in Iceland and this site copied the layout very clearly: http://www.united-ddl.com/.
Thanks for this post.
Joe
July 30, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Imitation is the ultimate form of flattery. Wake up folks, this has been going on in EVERY creative industry known to man — from music to fashion to product design, “sampling” will never end…And lest not forget the infamous programming mantra “Good programmers write good code, great programmers reuse code.”
liam
July 30, 2008 at 6:41 pm
@Joe – I think that yeah imitation is quite flattering, to have people aspire to make something similar to what you have can feel good, as you are inspiring people to be creative. However stealing content (which is the case in most of these examples) is not flattering at all, and in all of these cases is frustrating for the people who designed the sites, as they are the ones who reported them in the first place.
Zhu
July 30, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I’m a little bit shock to see how similar are these rip-offs! I came across a couple of “seen that before somewhere else” websites, but never exact copies such as those you showed.
I’d be embarrassed to even put a copy site online!
Erika
July 30, 2008 at 10:29 pm
You know, I had never heard about the “You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice” website before, but I swear I just spent the past hour browsing through that website. Crazy.
As for EJStocks, he’s ALWAYS getting ripped off. The most ironic thing about that background thing is, if I recall, he posted a tutorial on how to create your OWN. LOL. WTH?
Ollie Kavanagh
July 31, 2008 at 1:17 am
I can’t believe some of those, the Clear Left one is the best! How on earth did they think they would get away with that.
Alex
July 31, 2008 at 6:56 am
Most of you probably know the website of Veerle Pieters, an icon when it comes to website design. http://veerle.duoh.com is in my eyes still one of the best looking blogs out there.
A few months back I came across website, which looked almost exactly the same – http://www.jhzenith.be – and I informed Veerle about the fact that her site has been ripped off. As a consequence, she set things in motion to have the other site changed. Unfortunately, she did not entirely succeed with that, as the rip off site still looks too similar.
This is really frustrating!
Suffian
August 1, 2008 at 4:42 am
How infuriating. It’s amazing how people think they can get away with it. That’s a pretty thorough list though, Brian. Good work!
Web Design Glasgow
August 2, 2008 at 4:47 am
These examples clearly show a certain lack of integrity. Howeve, the really interesting question, that you begin to touch on, is where to draw the line. Is it ok to copy the font of the log. What about also putting the a different icon, but in the same place in the logo? But what if that icon used the same colours?
Is there any way to draw up some ‘rules of thumb’ about what is acceptable or not? I guess the best rule of thumb would be, “if in doubt, request permission”.
Goran Web
August 2, 2008 at 10:35 am
It seems that it is easier to steal the wheel, rather than reinvent it for these folks. This is only the tip of the iceberg, and lots of examples can be seen in the WordPress realm.
Arwen
August 5, 2008 at 7:37 pm
When it boils down to basic design and placement of elements, how much can be done before it gets repetitive? I agree that some of the examples shown above are uncanny likenesses.
I was accused of “copying” the design over at http://www.guitarangel.net a couple months ago. I admit that I used her design as inspiration, but that was all I used it for. I had a different color scheme, the fonts were different, the “curve” on the header was on the other side. My theme was more earthy and grassy, while hers is pink and gray and wispy. However, since “similar elements” were in play, a lot of people accused me of “copying.” Even though I wrote all my code myself, created all images myself, and didn’t “copy” anything.
Terry Ng
August 6, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Here’s one for ya:
http://flickr.com/photos/kineda/2738820159/
Hyo Byun
August 19, 2008 at 5:21 pm
You know, some of these may be from one of those template stores.
Qbrushes
September 7, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Wow outright theft!, If your going to rip at least change abit so its no so obvious lol
Program Bul
October 16, 2008 at 9:15 am
Bad designer is copier, good desinger is stealer
Jeremy
October 21, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I hate rip offs and this one is again a beautiful example.
original: http://deaxon.com/
copy: http://www.make-money-fast-online.com/
digg: http://digg.com/design/make_money_fast_online_com_are_theives
Dave Wrightson
December 19, 2008 at 8:06 am
We’ve had a similar rip, but whats annoying is that this is a decent sized agency, who have not only ripped of our main site for themselves, but also have another site in their portfolio thats also a rip of one of ours!
Our site:
http://www.engageinteractive.co.uk
Their rip:
http://www.renksiz.net
Our site:
http://www.arcinspirations.com/kobe
Their rip:
http://www.cagritanitim.com
Its almost amusing that a creative agency cant even create their own site and resort to stealing
parsifal
December 19, 2008 at 8:12 am
problem with people is that they see a site and they say to designer: make me a site that looks like this. and if designer has no work ethics, and just works for money, he’ll do it, and that’s the end of the story. it’s really a shame what some people are willing to do just to prosper. in case of BigFile box is obvious that same .psd file was used fro BookIT. And if this is not a theme, and design is reported as rip off, then clearly designer works just 4 money, and work ethics is history for him. other cases are just variations on theme, but when it comes to neftysworld – stealing design from designers itself is the lowest form of theft there is on web. (Bartelme had problems with this as well, as more other famous designers whose sites stand out from the crowd). I’ll just comment Fiouret as a rip off of clear left, and I’ll say that person who did that is not designer at all, because in order to be designer it takes at least “know how” to make some changes. Saving one page from web, and editing it’s text in dreamweaver or some other editor requires really no knowledge at all. Every idiot could do that. Painfull and tragic is when idiot gets money
for doing something like that, and I really don’t believe someone paid for that. It was “homemade”.
Richard Arran
August 13, 2009 at 5:21 am
@Richard Arran:
Sorry, correct URL for rip off is: http://www.paris-mariage.com/GUIDE.com/index.html
kerry
September 13, 2009 at 11:15 am
Just curious how can you tell which site is the original and which is the rip off, I mean say your site is being ripped off and you complain to the owner whats to stop them making out your the one ripping off them and making a complaint about you?
Alex Flueras
December 2, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Well, here is another mind blowing rip-off… Originial: http://www.album.alexflueras.ro and the clone: http://www.johnbeara.com. He barely managed to change the email address…
Dean
February 18, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Complete Apple rip off all the way down to the gradient logo.
original: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro
Rip Off: http://www.wiredrive.com
Paul Jamie Kidd
February 22, 2010 at 10:29 am
I am 100% positive you can’t beat this MoFo!
Please take time to read the blog… we are only just recovering from it now! haha
Blatent!
http://www.kidd81.com/blog/?p=105
Alan
July 15, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Did you ever heard about website templates???
LOL
xD
Craig Pennings
August 2, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Very interesting find! Do you know as a fact that none of these are actual just reskinned templates as opposed to a fully “custom” design?
Liam McKay
August 3, 2010 at 12:30 pm
@Craig Pennings Most of the ones shown here, if not all of them, were found on a site where the original designers we’re complaining about the rip-off sites. So from what I can tell none of these are using similar templates, plus the fact that most of the rip-off sites didn’t stay online with the same design for long.
Peter Stuart
March 16, 2011 at 4:03 am
I totally agree with your stance on originality but unfortunately in this day of cut and paste I don’t see anything changing. With complex multi nation laws this elephant ain’t leaving the room. Indeed modern India was forged on reverse engineering.
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