Design theft: another perspective
Across the street, there is a vacant house. I didn’t realize it was vacant. It doesn’t have a vacant look. The yard is kept up, I “think†there is trash on trash day. Anyway, vacant houses usually look abandoned and this one doesn’t. My mind was so far the other way, when I saw the missing aluminum siding panels I thought they were working on the house. Wrong. Someone is stealing the aluminum siding off the vacant house. Talking to one of my friends the realization hit me. The houses I thought were being worked on are getting ripped off.
This type of thing happens all the time online. In the 9rules private forums about once a week a member is pointing out how their site (or another member’s) has been ripped off. Blatant copy-cat stealing. The stupidity of it amazes me. The 9rules network is large, getting larger this week. I don’t think these thieves realize how many eyes are watching for the designs of our members. Many of the designs are so unique or as designers do, they have a “style†that there is recognition or at the very least instance suspicion of these ripped designs.
I am using a theme initially called Crimson Sunrise. There is a link to the creator at the bottom of the page. Matter of fact because the creator blended two themes together, there is a link to the originating creators of the first two themes. Looking at my theme, and Crimson Sunrise at a glance they don’t look alike. To the newbie surfer, they don’t look similar. I will most likely continue to change the code until I’ve morphed it into what I’m really looking for. When it gets to the point where my awful code has completely replaced the creator’s wonderful code then I will remove the link because my awful code is my awful code. Ok, I’m going to shoot for decent code but no promises, ok? 
My point is, if a person can take a designer’s un-released theme and customize it, why not take a free theme and do the same thing? What makes the designer’s themes so great is the love they put into it. Currently, the Ping Six theme looks kind of “bland†but I’m proud of it because 1) I never had such a plain theme before and 2) I’m tweaking it exactly the way I want it but giving readers an option to pick colors/designs (when I get around to adding more).
If you think taking the siding off a vacant house is stealing and it’s wrong…so is taking someone else’s design and putting it on a site without permission.
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