Siting Your Site Elsewhere

by Heather Champ

"Everything on this Web site is protected with small explosive devices. If you attempt to break any copyright laws or use my images in any way not officially approved by the nice people at Picture Show, the image will explode, causing great harm to you. Then, of course, you'll get a call from my lawyer, who isn't very nice, and that will all just ruin your day. So why bother? Thank you. Giant supermarket for stuff"--Brian Briggs, Picture Show

While this may seem somewhat overwrought, any designer who has discovered his or her work on another's site can appreciate the strength of the sentiment. Auriea Harvey, creator of the popular Entropy8, recently posted to the WWWAC list of such a situation in which an individual in Norway had lifted bits and pieces of her work.

Glenn Davis recently discovered a site that had lifted the complete look and feel of the redesign of Project Cool. Both situations were eventually resolved with varying degrees of frustrations, and threats of litigation.

Sniffing Out Offenders
In some instances, when individuals are not only using your imagery but also stealing your bandwidth by linking directly to your work, it's possible to use the search engine to ferret out possible offenders. Both Alta Vista and HotBot have detailed instructions for such a search. It's important to remember that the search engines may not have reached the far outposts on the Web.

You spend a lot of time and resources to create a site and, unfortunately, given the nature of the Web, it's very easy for someone to come along and scoop your work and present it as his or her own. Whether it's ignorance or just plain greed, just because you can doesn't make it right. It's been my experience and that of others that an e-mail to the parties involved can usually resolve a situation to the creators satisfaction.

But what do you do if an e-mail to the party involved is ignored? You may find results by contacting his or her Internet Service Provider. It's quite likely that the guilty party has, in some way, violated the terms of service. It's a rather inelegant solution as the individual may just pick up and move the site elsewhere (that is, if he or she has a backup squirreled away).

Other Online Resources

• Cyberspace Law List: Information on how to subscribe to the announcement-only list though a discussion area has recently been created. Topics covered to date have included copyright, trademarks, free speech, the CDA, and privacy issues among others.
• The Virtual Magistrate Project: "offers arbitration for disputes involving (1) users online systems; (2) those who claim to be harmed by wrongful messages, postings, or files; and (3) system operators (to the extent that complaints or demands for remedies are directed at system operators). The goal of the project is to have the arbitrator issue a ruling very quickly."
• The Online Ombuds Office: "mediation to parties involved in conflict. Web site developer/newspaper dispute that was in the first message was mediated successfully by the Online Ombuds Office and a transcript of the online mediation process."

Past installments of Design Diary