To Catch a Web Design Thief

I’m not going to beat around the bush on what this post is about…  Fred Astaire Cincinnati tried to steal the web design I created for Fred Astaire Columbus Northwest.

How do I know?  Well, here we go…

Web Stats are Fun for Everyone!
I’m always interested in the web stats for the sites I’ve created.  A few months ago, I noticed a lot of hits from the same IP address in Cincinnati on the Fred Astaire Columbus Northwest site stats.  The IP address was associated with a domain name: roguepunk.info.  No one in Cincinnati would probably drive up to Columbus for a dance lesson, so I figured someone in Cincy wanted to admire a great dance studio web design.

Shortly after the roguepunk.info address appeared, a file path appeared in the web stats for the site.  The home page code for the Columbus Northwest web site had been copied to a computer who’s user’s last name was Lombardo.  Mr. Lombardo saved this HTML in a Fred Astaire site folder called “New Idea.”  Umm… he should have named the folder “STOLEN IDEA.”

Of course, I used “Who Is” to find out who belonged to roguepunk.info.  It is Vincent Lombardo (Whoa!  It’s the same as the web stat.  His website is roguepunk.com.  There’s no content on it yet.  It’s due to arrive in October 2008.

One Business Type.  Two Different Designs.  Is it Possible?!
Madness, you say!  But, I’ve actually created two different sites for two different Fred Astaire Dance Studios: Columbus Northwest and Canton.

Fred Astaire Columbus Northwest website

Fred Astaire Canton website

Please Note: That even though these sites are both for the same business type, the sites don’t look the same.  They use similar elements, but they are not the same.  They are classy and elegant, but THEY DO NOT LOOK THE SAME.  This is proof you can create two different looking websites for the same business type without having them look the same.

The Failed Attempt
This is a screen shot of Fred Astaire Cincinnati’s website before they decided to steal my design…

BEFORE: Fred Astaire Cincy's Old Website

Here is the knock off attempt…

Fred Astaire Cincinnati
“Designer”: Vincent Lombardo
URL: www.roguepunk.com

How do you think they got from their original design to the newest design?

There are actually a number of things that don’t work for this design, so it is a poor attempt on a blatant copy.  I could go into great depth about what doesn’t work for this site, but I’m not offering a free consulting service.

AFTER: Fred Astaire Cincy's Stolen Web Site Attempt

FREE Web Design Lesson
While my consulting services are not for free, I am providing this free web design lesson… DO NOT STEAL WEB SITE DESIGNS.  Start looking at websites and identifying the elements work and why.  Your user should benefit from the placement of elements on a web page.  If you cannot explain why you put a design element in a certain place (other than saying “well, they did it” or “it just looks pretty”), then your design does not work.  True designers create websites. They don’t steal them.

So What’s the Point? – The “Stolen” Web Site is all CSS and not HTML
Well, one could just say “I was speaking Spanish while I was coding the site.  You speak English.”   If you’re going to try and copy someone’s website design, DO NOT copy the source code for the original designer’s webpage, DO NOT save the HTML to your computer (which will display the complete file path in web stats if you open the stolen HTML page in your web browser), and DO NOT label the folder that the stolen code is saved in as a “New Idea.”  It’s obviously not.  It’s STOLEN.

Wanna Steal a Website Good?
Here’s a fun blog to read on “How to properly steal the design of a website” [I must know! >>]

I like their first point:

1. First things first, admit it: you suck. You’re a moron and a cheat. It’s likely that you’ll never ever really achieve anything in life because you lack the talent to create or to do anything for yourself. In fact the act of dressing yourself in the morning is the closet you will ever come to doing something for yourself. Also, please stop bathing in Calvin Klein One, as it just further reduces your significance on this planet (not that you were off to a great start…think on that).
( “SuperBad.”  Online Posting.  31 August 2007  <http://www.airbagindustries.com/archives/airbag/superbad.php> )

Forward Thinking
I can’t wait for roguepunk.com to go live.  I wonder if the stolen web site design for Fred Astaire Cincinnati will appear in the roguepunk.com portfolio as an “original” idea.  I wonder it people searching for his website will find this blog first.  Hmm… I think so.

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