Has anyone had an experience where you suspected/or knew someone has copied a site you already have?
I think it's possible it may have happened to me? But, I don't feel like I can say anything because I could be totally wrong.
(Like a clique of mine named "Eternal Hero" for Link, there is actually a shrine to Link called "Eternal Hero" that I found after making/naming it. Of course if I would have just looked to see if that was already a name in the first place >>)
Anyways, I received a message from them about the site I feel may have been copied yesterday. They explained to me that they had thought about something similar, I told them to let me know when it was up, which was about 12 hours later. And, there are quite a few similarities to mine - enough to make me consider a 'copy' :0.
I guess my issue with this is that I'm not sure how to feel. Flattered? Deflated? Angry? Dumb that I even think this is more than a coincidence? What do you guys think?
My boyfriend thinks that since I don't make any money on this I shouldn't feel any way at all XD. And personally I never thought anyone would want to copy any of my stuff XD.
I had some experience with that in the past and this is a tricky situation. No one likes to feel copied or like people have stolen their code. But I think the thing you should ask yourself is: "Is this a battle I want to fight?" I think that if someone hasn't blatantly stolen your code/writing/art/designs then it's not worth the energy to pursue. Things change online so quickly that this other person might end up taking it down or something in the future.
As some people say, "copying is the sincerest form of flattery". Maybe they were just "inspired" by your work?
Sorry to say but your bf is being a bit of an idiot. Money has nothing to do with it. If I write a big fanfiction and someone copies it, am I not allowed to be mad? Websites are creative work too.
That said, as Destinie pointed out, you should decide if this is the hill you want to die on.
Actually I got my stuff stolen plenty of times. It's not happening that much with fansites anymore (I suppose because who the hell cares about stealing my thoughts about the crotch armor of Quake 3 characters), but a couple days ago this happened: I had made a free tumblr theme that got featured by the staff and so I've seen a spike of people installing it, which is great, but someone used it and then went all the way to credit himself for the thing. At first I got a bit mad, then I laughed because 1) I found out about this because, before removing the credit, they used the link to view my stuff and I would have never found out about them if it hadn't been for this and 2) he was jerky enough to replace the credit, but not intelligent enough to remove the comment with attribution and version notes!
So I don't even care to fight because if the thing ever comes up, I can always prove that the original was mine because I have the files and because of the posting date. I agree with Destinie in terms of, do you think this is worth fighting for?
Also wtf sort of reasoning is "you're not making any money so don't be mad if people steal from you"????? According to this reasoning anyone can steal anything as long as it's not work-related AND they don't get to be mad about it, either! WTF????
You feel about it how you feel about it and NOBODY gets to say how you SHOULD feel!
I've had this happen to me once before with my fanlistings and fanlisting collective years ago. There was someone who had blatantly copied my css, html, and the way I displayed my owned fanlistings. All of it looked exactly the same as how I did everything at the time. Obviously I wasn't impressed but I didn't do anything about it, mostly because I was still really shy then. At least they're gone now. xD
I haven't seen anyone else doing it lately, thankfully. I don't like it when people copy my stuff. :(
There are shadows before us - but only because the light is at our back.
Are you guys cool with me moving this to shrine discussion? It relates heavily to shrines, too, and I'd love to see everyone's input. I don't check the General board often enough, haha.
Anyway, I've had stuff copied before, and it sucks, but like some of the others said, it's often fleeting, so I don't have to deal with it for long enough to bother messing with it. My Knuckles website in particular has been ripped off a ton. One guy who owned a Knuckles site before I put mine up added an Echidna page and some personality pages that I had written, but put my thoughts into his own words. It annoyed me a lot because my shrines tend to be very personal and reflective, so many of those thoughts were my experiences, you know? It just didn't make any sense to me. I didn't say anything to him, and he eventually took his site offline, so I'm glad I didn't waste my time.
I think there is a difference between copying and borrowing or being inspired, though. I had this conversation with Crystal the other day, because we've been borrowing inspiration from each other's work, which in my opinion has helped us both grow. I told her I don't mind when friends do something my way, or use something of mine, but when a stranger does it without credit, it feels almost offensive.
@Destinie
I guess it's not really worth the fight as you said, I tried to figure out how old the person is on their domain, but I couldn't really tell. I was thinking, well, maybe they are a lot younger than me or newer at this than me and just starting out on the web. Which could be the case because their domain was put up just last month.
I wouldn't steal source code when I first started making sites in 2003, but I would download pre-made layouts and put in images and things just to see how it worked. When I understood what did what, I would make my own. And, I will say I was inspired to make my own domain and fansites after seeing others on the web.
I though about posting the link to their site here, but if I am wrong it's not really fair to them.
@nyxmidnight
He doesn't consider what I'm doing unimportant or anything, but he basically said since I don't have any copyrights to anything and since I'm not losing anything money-wise from it, that I should expect to be copied and move on. Especially since there really isn't anything I can do about it.
I understand though, plagiarizing a fanfiction would make me awfully mad. Not much of a 'fan', are they? :/
@dubiousdisc
I guess I don't think it is, it was just really the first time I'd seen that happen. And that quickly o.o! I was hoping someone here had more experience in handling this than me ^^.
@Crystal
And, I think this is what Todd Destinie may have been saying but it sounds like if they are copying then they can't keep up doing it for long, right? (if they do, they're obviously crazy). Or at least that they will move on to the next person that they feel is worth copying.
@Todd
Fine with me ^^.
I'm sorry that happened to you! It really stinks that people would want to pass off others thoughts and experiences as their own. I mean, if you are taking the time to tribute something, wouldn't you rather express your own thoughts and things rather than someone else's? Isn't that why you did this in the first place?
I agree with you, if it isn't a friend and it's a stranger it does feel offensive.
I had a domain layout copied once, and a shrine layout copied once as well. It was my old Talim from Soul Calibur shrine, and they completely ripped off the layout but wrote that they liked mine so much they wanted to copy it? That was so bizarre. It wasn't that their layout was "inspired" by mine, but that they liked mine so they basically replicated it. That site's content got ripped off a ton... I'm kinda glad it's closed now because I got so much weird attention from it lol.
I've seen bits and pieces of my other shrines copied here an there, mostly on fandom wikis and such. Nothing to really warrant anything other than a grumble from me, though.
seek you the sun-cryst, slumb'ring star. in tower on distant shore it dreams.
I've had someone copy some of my pages from Sesshoumaru's Castle word for word. They even asked to affiliate with me to which I denied with [roughly] "No. You have rudely copied some of my content". It was back in 2006.
Then I've had someone recently copy the information that I typed up for a roleplay blog for a certain character I use. While I was mad, I did tell them politely to please rewrite it in their own words and they did. I wouldn't have minded if they asked since it's different than a shrine.
I don't mind though if the information is quote on a wiki but if it's an ENTIRE wiki where it's my content, then nope, I will not let that slide.
@neo
Your boyfriend is wrong on one point, actually. You don't own the copyrights to the thing you are shrining, of course, but you do own the copyrights to the actual shrine content and the way it is organized (content and layout).
I agree it's not worth losing sleep over, though. There are much better uses of your time. Like sleeping and making more shrines :D
