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Imagine surfing the web and finding a site that looks and behaves exactly like yours…the one you spent a lot of time and a lot of money designing and building. The logo or colors might be different, but the code, graphics, and scripts are all the same. Your web site has been stolen!

The sad thing is that this happens all the time. It recently happened to me. Earlier this week, a friend for whom I built a site called in a state of panic. She found a site that had copied her web site design exactly. The only difference was the content and logo. The code was exactly the same…even the comments I added during development.

How Does it Happen?

Web site designs are incredibly easy to steal. And there’s not a whole lot that can be done to stop it. The method is very simple: COPY & PASTE. That’s it. The perpetrator will view the source of a web page, copy the code, and paste it into their own HTML file. From the source code, they are able to see where all other supporting files (such as images, style sheets, and javascriptfiles) are located. Enter the URL of those files, view source again, copy, paste, and very soon the site design has been duplicated.

There are javascripttechniques that can prevent right-clicking on a page or viewing the source, but they are very easy to circumvent. Most browsers have the ability to shut off javascript, which renders such techniques useless.

How Do They Get Away With It?

The web is a very large place. There are millions of web sites, and the chances of finding a site that has copied your design pixel for pixel are small. It is also sometimes difficult to figure out exactly who the thief is.

Obscurity is the web design thief’s best friend.

What Can Be Done Once It’s Stolen?

The first thing I did was get angry. Well, maybe just a little upset. It’s disheartening to see unscrupulous kleptomaniacs taking something you spent the time and effort to create.

Getting angry at the site owner won’t help solve the problem. Often a site owner won’t know their site is using stolen code. Just like many other small businesses, the site owner would have hired someone to build the site for him. And that ‘someone’ would be the one who took the short road to profits.

In the case that you do in fact know who did the thievery, and you know how to contact them, start with a polite email or phone call. Explain the situation, and make sure they know your design and code is not free for anyone to use. My friend did exactly that, and everything was worked out. The perp has already changed his design and is now completely using his own code.

If the thieves are less than willing to cooperate, there are still plenty of options. Depending on your ability to do so, you could always contact a lawyer–especially one that specializes in copyright infringement. There is also plenty of information available online–just Google protecting your copyrights.

If Anything, Feel Flattered

Remember, they could have stolen anyone’s design, but they chose yours. Perhaps Jeffrey Zeldman put it best:

Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.