Style Theft

[bigdog829]

I recently created a style with a custom header & I'd say more than 80% of the images were custom mainly the buttons were all custom.

I didnt have time to complete all images before it was stolen.

A member saved all my images less the header cause I dont believe he knew how to code it or it would have been stolen also (my opinion only) the person(s) then edited there css to match my style exactly loaded all my images.

Proceeded to edit my copyright in the footer to make it there own & sold it to another site.

I contacted the site owner luckily I knew him form previous boards we were on together. The owner paid me for my style so I am ok with him using it now.

Now to the question

Is there anything I can do about this if the style was indeed created by me & I have all original artwork (images) psd's & such to prove it is in fact my work & if so who would I contact in order to take some action ?

The reason for this thread is basically I am in the process of creating some more styles & I don't want this to happen again.

-bigdog829

Any response to this matter would be greatly appreciated !

[Neal-UK]

Contact your local civil courts, and speak to a solicitor. Keep all your work and evidence and see what they say. If you can prove it, they haven't got a leg to stand on unless you offered it to the other party for free.

Have you asked them to remove the images from their site first?

I'm not a solicitor, so don't take my word for it.

[Dean C]

The reality is this: the expenses related to taking someone to court over copyright of this nature far outweight the benefits.

[bigdog829]

Contact your local civil courts, and speak to a solicitor. Keep all your work and evidence and see what they say. If you can prove it, they haven't got a leg to stand on unless you offered it to the other party for free.

Have you asked them to remove the images from their site first?

I'm not a solicitor, so don't take my word for it.

I didnt offer any of the images for free as stated above the style wasnt even complete so they didnt get all of them but got the majority,

I asked them to remove it at first then he offered to buy it so I decided to allow it, But I wanna see if theres a way to protect it next time .... if there is a next time. I hope not.

The reality is this: the expenses related to taking someone to court over copyright of this nature far outweight the benefits.

Thanks to both of you for responding.

[harmor]

Is it possible to write a htaccess file that doesn't cache the images and blocks anyone from trying to save them?

[Colin F]

No, caching happens on the user side, and saving images works the same way as displaying them.

[rjordan]

Are files/images/etc. from secure sites (SSL) cached or is it only encrypting the comm traffic? I do not know... just a thought...

[filburt1]

If the end user can see it, the end user can copy it. End of story.

[ManagerJosh]

If you can find out the location of this person, threaten if he does this again, you'll take him to court over copyright infringement.

[bigdog829]

Thanks everyone for your replies I guess all I can't really do to much.

I have now made my site invite only & banned all I.P.'s the user(s) that I feel had something to do with it & hope it doesnt happen again.

[Neal-UK]

The reality is this: the expenses related to taking someone to court over copyright of this nature far outweight the benefits.

It cost me £30 to take an ex-employee to court for non-payment of wages, it depends on how go about it I suppose. Take a free legal consultation and do it yourself. I can't see it being that expensive at all.

[Dean C]

It cost me £30 to take an ex-employee to court for non-payment of wages, it depends on how go about it I suppose. Take a free legal consultation and do it yourself. I can't see it being that expensive at all.

That's different. Taking action over digital copyrights is far more tedious and costly.

[Floris]

If the hosting provider's TOS doesn't permit copyrighted material on the hosting account you can request them to enforce their TOS on their customer, as you're the author of those images.

[phill2003]

If you can find out the location of this person, threaten if he does this again, you'll take him to court over copyright infringement.

ROFL. I would take my chances ...