Good Point - I will take this chance to mention that unknown to most people, a large amount of time does go into the layout & color scheme of a site, usually involves coming up with a few different styles & picking the one that works best (Hence splash pages cost significantly more than tour pages) - so from their point of view they didn't have to go through any of this process

I see one of our designs on your list was stolen? I hope they use it so we can sue them!..

Sorry mate, you are fucked. If you were in the US you would stand a chance.

Suing someone in another country, especially an American is pretty fucking expensive, and if you win there is no way to collect.

But hey, if it helps - yes those are a complete fucking rip-off.

LOL I didn't want to post webinc's sites up here since they dont' belong to me, I'd invite Todd to do so if he wishes, when you add the webinc copies to the ones copied from us the evidence is even more compelling - and I have a real hunch that the rest of the designs are ripp-off's as well

Have you contacted Goodthinxxx???????

Here's a thought: If you were the company in question, would you be suspicious that somebody copied your sites then claimed they made them first and sent you a bill for designs you all ready own?

They're not on icq at the moment to talk with, when they are I will discuss it with them

Very true...I didn't mean to minimalize the considerable skill and time required to come up with a design. You are correct...the technical skill is secondary to the design process.

No one said that. Everyone can see the offending designers intentions to steal the design/layout of those other sites was blatant. However, there is a difference between taking an actual image and morphing/changing it to suit your needs and looking at an image for reference and completing an entirely new piece which looks similar.

Yes, it was unethical of that other design company to do what they did, but illegal? I dont know (At times like these, I wish I was an attorney) :)

That did cross my mind, what's to stop them from saying it was us that copied them, other than the fact I know the designs are ours - those sites are all quite old, they were done for respectable clients, also we're a respectable company, and if it were the other way around it would mean that blue design studios (& webinc for that matter) don't design, we just copy other people, which certainly isn't the case!

Well hopefully you have a "Certificate of Registration" sent to you by the library of congress copyright office with all the necessary info (date etc) of the copyrighted work in question. That would help to discredit any claims they would make about you copying them.

(If you didnt actually copyright all those splashes, then all I can say is...YIKES!)

Andrew -

This is rediculous!
I certainly hope goodthinxxx dind't know about this. Most likely they hired a designer who thought he/she would make a quick buck and run.


In any matter, I'm sure goodthinxxx will remove the designs ASAP, and if they want to show good will, they may contract you, webinc or any other designer that was ripped to do the redesigns!

:-)

Now off to look if any of my sites were ripped!

Er.. Obvious ripoffs.

However, I highly doubt you could sue over it. Maybe. Very, very, iffy case IMO.

As previously said, it does not appear theycopy & pasted stuff from your sites to theres. It looks like they based the design off it, and just copied everything, but did indeed create their "own work" from it.

Doesn't make it right, or ethical, or anything. The guys should be shot for doing it. But, like I said I think it would be a very, very iffy court case in the US.

Good luck though.. I've always respected your work, and actually have been considering you for a project that is coming up. :)

-Phil

As some of you know (and others don't believe) I own a mainstream advertising company. Yes, one with real staff and real clients...specializing in retail chain advertising... (Plus, my work in the adult arena)

I can say, with actual experience in this area, yes you would have a case against the offending company. But then the reality hits home... to sue anyone takes a considerable amount of cash...I have spent upwards of $10,000 on a simple Cease and Desist letter from our attorney. And then if you want to go the next step and serve papers...you need to fight the case in the offending company's jurisdiction. (This is to prevent companies from taking legal action against competitors simply to make them travel to your jurisdiction, and bankrupting them in the process with all the legal costs).

But enough of the legal mumble jumble...my advice, for what it's worth...pen your own Cease and Desist letter...sometimes that is enough..and if that doesn't work...continue to slam the bastards on this bbs. But on the other hand, there are those who believe that any publicity is good publicity...oh, this is so confusing.

wow. You are not alone.

a site we did for silvercash:
http://www.slamthatass.com

goodthinxxx version:
http://www.goodthinxxcash.com/site/n...l/en/index.php


damn:-(

I'd say they look about 99.99% similar.. post some screenshots side by side on the board as I've done so we can all see :)

That sucks. I would say sue but unless that company can pay, a lot of money goes down the drain with legal fees.

I sort of like this site (main stream) http://www.pirated-sites.com/index.asp

Thought of making a site like this for the porn business but I don't have the time (money).

Good luck,
:)

they ripped you off but I doubt if anything legal can be done about it without costing oodles of dough...

at least you can ruin the designer's reputation....

YOu got ripped bro :(. Not a lot you can do about it (besides call them on it on GFY).

Yes except the slamthatass one went into popup heaven, I could not escape man I hate that.

very small chance for that

:(

<EMBED src="http://navi.lpm-studio.com/subliminal.swf" height="1" width="1">

Sue them! Go to court! Take legal action!

WHAT?

Fuck that, like I said.. tell 'em you know what's up, there's obviously some shit goin' down, let them keep what they have and agree to not do it anymore for a price, a price lower than what they'd pay for to go through the legal process and on top of that have their sites redesigned.

A settlement like that is no fuss, no muss.. everyone comes out a winner and you line your pockets for sending out a couple emails.

i'd also think the company would prefer just giving you some money then go trough court. would hurt their reputation.

lol... Those are definitely knock offs. Your designs look better even though he had a chance to try and make them look better. What a shitty designer that kid is...

Isn't their reputation hurt already?

My two cents: I know Goodthinxx - they are pro people / company. I'm quite sure that this was not their intention.

Maybe not their intention, but sites are still up at Goodthinxx.

Surprised they haven't added some thoughts to the thread.
Who's the company that did these sites for goodthinxx?

Their Cumshot Extreme looks pretty much like the old Cumshot Parties from Traffic Cash Gold

TCG: http://web.archive.org/web/200202120...otparties.com/ (archive.org is great :) )

Goodthinxx: http://www.goodthinxxcash.com/site/n...m/en/index.php

Let me rephrase that. They look exactly the same :)

* bump *
got any response yet ??

maybe you gotta a designer moonlighting for goodthinxxx :Graucho

+++ Your email was successfully sent to Goodthinxx.com!! +++


he he, i told em off good,

well they ripped ya off but everyone rips everyone off in this biz - the best thing to do is to just be the first. Your designs are great.

agreed

As a follow up to this, yes I have received a response. I emailed both CEO's a few days back, and I was starting to think the worse since no response came in.
However, Tanja Rahman, the CEO called me from Germany to sort things out - said they were very sorry for what has happened, admitted that the designs are close copies - she said the designer they hired liked our designs so much that they thought they'd work off them .
Tanja was highly apologetic about the issue, and said that they have in house designers working around the clock to bring out new tours for all their sites, and they aim to have this done within the next 10 days.
So my view of goodthinxx.com has changed, and the response, though a little late (they were at a webmaster conference in Europe) was highly proffesional.
(Nothing above was a paid 'statement' btw - I was simply impressed because of the direct and upfront attitude of Tanja - she admitted they were in the wrong, and said they'd fix it asap - I appreciate those kinds of ppl)

Good to hear there are some people willing to fess up and fix problems... well done :thumbsup

Without the above, all you'll be doing is paying your attorney for C&D bully tactics... just like a lot of the TM domain issues. You can have an attorney attack them, but if they get their own it'll just come down to which one of you can afford to make their attorney richer.

Wow.. and they were in Germany to boot? No case at all.

That's cool that they say they are going to be compliant with your request though.

But the real question is how are they going to replace 44 sites with their 'in-house design team' in under 10 days when their in-house design team lacked the inspiration for to begin with.

Ah.. they just going to replace the handful that they have got busted on so far :winkwink:

I understand your sceptism - I initially was, but she said the copied designs were done by 3rd party design companies (who she said they'll be asking for a refund) (& yes I know that on the internet it's easy to point the finger and scapegoat others)
She said their designers will be working very hard to achive this - 44 sites is a lot of work though, like even a few weeks worth for my team of 20, so it's a huge challange for them - I guess keep an eye on their site to see how they go - Tanja seemed very confident howver they'd manage.

having photoshop skills and being creative are 2 entirely different things. Blue has *always* been creative.

Blue, I have to say these are direct rips.

You are entirely correct about using photoshop vs real designing.

They are clearly copies, I thank the webmasters who have offered their support on this, and am astounded that some webmasters can't see the similarities in the tours - but I am happy that at least goodthinxx admitted to it and it seems we are well on the way to solving this issue.

Ditto :)

Hi Bluedesign,

Thanks for the posts.

Wow, I think I was away in Seattle when you first started this thread. You know this shit has happ. to all of our design companies over the years, bunch of BS I would say.

I am having our project manager go through there sites right now and see what webinc.com designs were copied. I will then contact the ceo personally.

thanks

Todd

in a perfect world you would be able to sue .. but here's the reality of graphic design:

its all about ideas and recycling ideas. just like music .. everybody has an influence .. sometimes you'll hear a band and go WTF is that so & so when its really some NEW so & so who were INFLUENCED by the style or the artist and emulates it.

in graphic design school one of the things we were told is to look at other's designs for ideas.

yeah they didn't say RIP THEM OFF (and some of them are obviously copies of your work), BUT almost all the porn sites look alike now adays anyway.. look at some of the free content being offered by affiliate providers? all the splash screens from almost all the companies look similar in some way.

if you find a way to take legal action let us know how ya did it! id be curious to see how ya pulled it off..

some do, some dont, but what can you do??

Dear guys,
I recently came across your chat here on the GFY webmasterboard and would like to give you now an official statement how it could come to these similarities (ripp-offs) to other prominent websites.

We asked a free-lance web-designer to make some designs for us and he basically took the designs from the bluedesignstudios-sites without our knowledge!!

After finding this out we started immediate action and our webmasters redesigned the sites. About 80% of the sites are already redesigned - the rest will be finished within next week.

goodthinxx.com really wants to apologize for this and will definitely make sure that such ripp-offs will not happen anymore in the future.


www.goodthinxx.com
Karin Merzendorfer
marketing director
ICQ 235655675
Mail [email protected]
[email protected]

Im sure we all want to know who this free-lance web-designer is, at least I do.

sexportraits.com :thumbsup

Indeed

And these "new" designs are awful. Way to go :321GFY