Copyright Infringement — website design?

[dtdtdt]

My jurisdiction is: Washington, DC

ashington, DC.

My girlfriend started a small business here in Washington, DC.

She found a website that she liked the idea of, and proceeded to post an ad on craigslist asking for someone to design a site that "looks something like this site."

Her designer and she finalized a site, which was posted live in the last day or two.

Today, she received an email from the owner of the original site, basically saying she was talking to her lawyer about copyright infringement.

Needless to say, my Girlfriend is a little freaked out.

We immediately took her site down, but have not contacted the party.

This seems like a harsh reaction and probably an overkill of a threat; if we need to redesign the site, that's fine. Suggestions?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Infringement depends upon just how much it looks and acts like the original site and how unique the original site is. To make it very simple, let's take a few examples I use to analyze infringement and this list is by no means exhaustive. It's just an off the cuff thought which should get you thinking where the "right place" might be.

Actual Copying/Technical Analysis: Was there any actual copying done? If someone copied virtually all of the code of a complex web site that was entirely original and consisted of many tables or "div" css markes and changed a few colors, I'd say that it's more likely than not you may have an infringement case. To think that if there are 500 different variables in a web page and that 480 of them happen to be the same - it seems like this could constitute blatant copying. It would seem probably that the person who created the site template performed an unauthorized duplication of the site. By the same token, if we're talking about a much simpler web site that is a rather common layout and there are some but not all similarities, it's challenging to say any protection should be granted as it's too vague or general a design to point fingers and state that this was an actual copy. If the coding is all different but the overall look is similar... should that make any difference? Maybe, let's look at the next component.

Uniqueness: How unique is the original site? Does it look like it could be similar to any of thousands of other web sites with a rather generic design? Are there unique elements of the site? Specific identifiable drawings, illustrations and marks? Could trademark or trade design protect the template?

The owner of the original site can threaten all they want, but unless they have proof or good reason to claim copyright, it's your word versus their word that their web site is protected by law and it would take a judge to affirm that claim. Do they really want to go that route? Do you want to create bad will? That's up to you.

 

[dtdtdt]

Thanks

Thanks. She did end up changing the site.

As far as code goes, the code was unique and not derived from
existing code.

They were both built in flash, and they had a degree of similarity.

However, on further dissection - we found that her site was, in fact, not unique but was instead a customized (just barely) professional template purchased from a template vendor.

The pot calling the kettle black does not a copyright claim make.