Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#31

Post by jre » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 12:59 PM UTC

escaped_hn wrote: post #25

timdorr wrote: post #17

It's actually quite easy: Find their host and, if they're in the US, issue a DMCA notification: $ dig resinternationalgroup.com ;; ANSWER SECTION: resinternationalgroup.com. 18788 IN A 66.206.15.100 $ dig -x 66.206.15.100 ;; ANSWER SECTION: 100.15.206.66.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN PTR cpanel.siteplot.com. Send the email over to support@siteplot.com. If that doesn't work, go up to their datacenter: $ whois 66.206.15.100 ..…

That would be an abuse of the DMCA since its just a design (see Flat-Ui).

FlatUI was inspired by another website. In this case, both websites seem to have copied all the assets up to the javascript from gocardless since they received sentry notifications.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#32

Post by cwisecarver » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:00 PM UTC

Use the "is this my domain" javascript trick and then remove all elements from the DOM. Better yet, location.href them somewhere else.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#33

Post by jacobr » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:04 PM UTC

charliepark wrote: post #20

Just add this to your JavaScript onload (and replace "yourdomain", of course): if(window.location.origin.indexOf("yourdomain.com")

You just linked to a domain registrar, please use example.com in examples.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#34

Post by meerita » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:06 PM UTC

escaped_hn wrote: post #25

timdorr wrote: post #17

It's actually quite easy: Find their host and, if they're in the US, issue a DMCA notification: $ dig resinternationalgroup.com ;; ANSWER SECTION: resinternationalgroup.com. 18788 IN A 66.206.15.100 $ dig -x 66.206.15.100 ;; ANSWER SECTION: 100.15.206.66.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN PTR cpanel.siteplot.com. Send the email over to support@siteplot.com. If that doesn't work, go up to their datacenter: $ whois 66.206.15.100 ..…

That would be an abuse of the DMCA since its just a design (see Flat-Ui).

If they do the same design, but using different bits, they're not copy. But yes, they copied the design, files and everything, this changes the rules of the game. Now you can sue them for that, but you cannot stop people of using the typography, colors and layout of any design, that's called style.

It's silly the ripp-off, made me laugh.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#35

Post by dabeeeenster » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:09 PM UTC

stuartmemo wrote: post #11

I'd stop worrying about it and concentrated your energies elsewhere. By thinking about stuff like this you're focussing less on your own product, which is the important thing. If people are copying you, then you're most likely ahead of the competition anyway.

Given that they just did a big upgrade that has broken their API I would agree, and we're one of their biggest fans and customers!

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#36

Post by sageikosa » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:13 PM UTC

The classic counter-punch to resource linking is to make some of the resource grabs dynamic based on the referrer. I remember one site host who realized someone was using his images for avatars on various forums, and changed the contents to p0rn.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#37

Post by the1 » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:20 PM UTC

submit a DMCA takedown notice. and blog about how mean people are when they complain about it.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#38

Post by minikomi » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:22 PM UTC

ratherbefuddled wrote: post #9

There is something fishy here. The Secure Broker Online company is not registered with Companies House in the UK. The Kensington Gardens Square street address is that of a hotel and the CA address looks fake too from StreetView. I would guess somebody's nicked your design to create a fake portfolio for a CV, or it's being used for fraud.

Also the address of Tofman Energy Services ... ? http://www.tofmannenergyservices.info/Contact%20Us.html

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#39

Post by benmanns » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:32 PM UTC

Mahn wrote: post #21

charliepark wrote: post #20

Just add this to your JavaScript onload (and replace "yourdomain", of course): if(window.location.origin.indexOf("yourdomain.com")

...unless they copied the JS files instead of linking to them directly, of course. Note to self: add remote self-destruct function within any JS I ship.

Second note: Make it time delayed (set statically to something like 2 weeks from compile time). Then, when they use the script in development it works, but in 1-2 weeks it breaks in their production site. Otherwise, they will just find out why it isn't working and remove the self-destruct function.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design?

#40

Post by seferphier » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 1:33 PM UTC

huhtenberg wrote: post #30

I'm going to bet that this is a setup for the phishing scam. Random addresses and phone numbers, fake endorsements, blatant design rip-off - it all points rather unambiguously at a quick-and-dirty attempt at creating a believable online presence. It could've been just a designer's "sketch" or a proof of concept for a client if it weren't for two clones. This indicates that this is a redundant setup, with possibly mor…

phishing scam websites spend a lot of effort to fake their website.. amazed.