Has The Porn Critics wrongly copied The Best Porn? You decide... (urls inside)
 

I approached Alky, the owner of "The Porn Critics", today after being informed by a felllow review webmaster that they ripped us off:
http://www.theporncritics.com/

I've chatted with him, and he admits similarities, but claims they've done nothing wrong. I'm not an attorney, and want to avoid spending money on one (for now). To me, they've ripped off our html design and concepts.

What are your thoughts? Should I ignore it and move on? He'll be responding to this thread, so let him know what you think. My instincts right now are to blacklist them (no trades), and get other review sites behind me. The good thing about the review webmasters is we all look after each other.

Some comparisons:
1. http://tugjobs.thebestporn.com/ and http://tug-jobs.theporncritics.com/
2. http://www.thebestporn.com/reviews_new.html and http://www.theporncritics.com/new-reviews.html
(many instances where exact text was taken from our site)

How pissed off would you be, and what would you do?

I run theporncritics.com...

anyhow.. the design is completely 100% not stolen. you can look and see for yourselves that much.

granted, functions of the site are the same, but that is not a copyright issue.


i do not want a legal battle and want to resolve this peacefully also.

You would probably be wasting your time and money going after him, but yes, his complete review process is a total rip-off.

If you're going to copy someone, at least make some changes, hahaha.

unfortunately this biz is full of people just copying off each other, I have been a victim of it several times.

Yes, they are similar - but I would recommend you guys actually combine forces and call each other 'mirror sites' :)

"can't we all just get along?"

:rasta :rasta

Theres always going to be people imitating sites that they see high in the search engines, it's life

What's funny is that I changed that on my sig wks ago. I guess it's not working... here's another site we found yesterday: http://www.linksok.com/ (even worse)

The shitty thing about all these copycats, is that users/webmasters get them confused. I had a webmaster asking me if linksok.com was owned by us over the weekend.

its the same ideayes, but the sites are completely different

Actually Alky's site is better if you ask me

I would say they are similiar but not identical at all, and a legal fight wouldn't be worth it IMO.

At least it's got to be a little flattering that everyone is modeling their sites after yours. :winkwink:

You are either friends with Alky, or you didn't look at both sites.

Honestly, this situation sucks. I think That it looks like an obvious rip off too. The Porn Critic layout looks way too much like The Best Porn. The same thing with LinksOK. Plain and simple copycats and unoriginal ideas. I am actually the one that pointed out LinksOK to the owner of The Best Porn. Even though we are somewhat competitive because we are in the review business, I still find that we should work together on shit like this.

the sites don't look even remotely similar - they just share a similar concept - you can't sue someone for that :2 cents:

I dont know about you guys but i really hate it when people come down on people for this...i read another one of these like a month ago and felt the same way....


Does CNN sue the other cable news networks for following the sam format? Does ESPN sue fox sports? Ever watch infomercials...one good idea comes out and 6 others that are similar follow suit....

...What i'm trying to say is....if you feel copied then further advance your product to stay ahead of the competition. There are only so many ways you can do a porn review site afterall.

No, and yes

I just call it as i see it - sorry :pimp

Seriously? The site info is almost identical: category, launch date, popup notes all up top. Then comes cost, pictures, videos, vid format, drm info, etc all in the same order, and with the same notes (even the words in bold are the same).

The review score is in three main sections, with 11 sub-categories if you will, and all are identical. There's even a "curve" available. We came up with this scoring format over the better part of a year, I doubt they came up with the exact same on their own.

Their webmaster page at http://www.theporncritics.com/affiliates/ has an identical footer as all of the pages on TBP do.

I can spot these things easily since I've worked on TBP for years now, but it's obvious text/ideas were copied verbatim. We don't mind competition, but I think this one goes a little too far in the similarities.

are you the only site with that scoring criteria? i think not.


and that is a patent issue anyways.

Which other sites have the exact same scoring sections? Many will have similar options as there's only so much you can do, but they shouldn't be in the same order, with the same verbage, in the same html table. At least the numbers changed a bit I guess.

BTW, why do you have "Official" above your review scores? We have that on our "Official" reviews so users know if it's an official review (4 editor review) or an express review (1 editor review). But having that above your scores makes no sense. Was that supposed to mean something or did you guys forget to remove it?

all of the kinks aren't worked out yet, but there are official reviews, and unofficial. if a review meets the minimum amount need to be official, well then it's official. otherwise its unofficial.

i think i messaged one person to check out this thread, how about yourself?

i was also trying to stay out of the thread so it could serve its purpose better as far as letting people decide on their own.

but now you are having your employees jump in here too?

This really is a bloody silly argument... the layouts are functional, so not surprisingly they are in some respects similar to each other (and to hundreds of other sites around the web). And all of them include features and naming conventions that are logical/obvious choices if you were designing a review site. It isn't as if any of them have any sparklingly original ideas...

It's also logical if you are starting something, to check the existing competition and there is nothing wrong with picking over them for ideas: neither ethically nor legally. If that were not the case, we wouldn't have every single US car manufacturer advertising employee discounts right now, or a half-dozen brands of "orange" cleaner appearing on the market at once, etc, etc, etc.

Sorry, I didn't realize you guys were staying out of the thread initially. I posted here on my own trying to point out a few other similarities I saw while browsing your site earlier this morning. I live next door to Rick, so of course I saw the thread as we're pretty much always in communication for work and otherwise.

Did you see the LinksOK site? Most of the category descriptions are copied word for word. That is some bad shit. As for Alky's site. It looks just like The Best Porn with a different color scheme.

Honestly, i never asked anyone to post here (nor did I know he would)... He only posted some facts though which I think were valid. Sure i linked a few people i know to the thread, i'll admit that and only asked for their opinions (never wanted them to post) privately. Like i told you on icq, i'm looking for honest opinions, unbiased opinions. To me, it's interesting to see what people think... even if they disagree.

Man they are simular bad not as bad as you make it out to be :2 cents:

i personally know for a fact alky paid to have the design done, designed his own script, toons etc.

this is like pointing out similarities in a thumb tgp imo

Similar yes, infringement no.

To me it?s fairly obvious that The Porn Critics ripped of The Best Porn. They clearly changed just enough to make it not a 100% rip-off. What made it clear for me was when I started to look at all the details:

? URL strategy is the exact same format- http://tugjobs.thebestporn.com/ vs.http://tug-jobs.theporncritics.com/
? Header is the exact same format- Tug Job Site Review (tugjobs) at The Porn Critics vs. Tug Job Site Review (tugjobs) at The Best Porn
? Site Facts wording is exact-?The details about Tug Jobs and members area?
? Listing/ updating format- ?First Listed: 06/28/05, Facts Update: 06/28/05?
? Site Facts Format
? Official review text-?A complete 2(4)-editor review for Tug Jobs?
? Avatars with the Pros/Cons format, even down the (+) and (-).
? The way that text is bolded to emphasize points.
? The scoring system, especially the notion of a curve. ho the hell else would think of applying a curve to a freaking porn site review. That?s something so ridiculously anal that it could have only come from Rick.

The ones above are just a few examples. There are so many ridiculously tiny details that are the _exact_ same that it?s clear that The Porn Critics was (euphemistically speaking) modeled after The Best Porn.

Unfortunately, though, it would be hard to sue because you can?t really prove damages. The Best Porn will probably just have to settle for knowing that they were the ones who raised the bar in the review space and continue to innovate because there are always sites that will rip you off. I guess when you?re on top, people are always gunning for you?

As a side note, about the only idea that they didn?t take was reviewing my site, VideoBox. What?s up with that? It?s clearly the best video site on the web:-)

i've been getting around to contacting you. :)

I'd say it's too similar.

There are SO many ways to make review sites and no need to copy each other. Look at how different x3guide.com is for example. (And yes, we were the first review site out there apart from simple link-list-sites).

Plenty of sites copied our code and concepts (and it's no wonder why not many copied the design - as a coder I had to do the design myself and I can't do it for shit :)), but I think you'd agree we're VERY different from for example TheBestPorn.

I'd have to side with Rick on this one. There's NO need to be so similar.

/Egon, x3guide

Similar concept as someone else, ok.

Copy word for word, not ok.

I say sue.

...excuse me guys....i gotta jet our of this conversation to go line up my law suits with blue design studios, gold-design, and every other design firm on the web. Its totally unfair that they're allowed to design websites too...it was my idea!!! :error

You can have a common goal, but still take individual paths.

If you can spare the money... for sure go to court on principle. If you lose the case, at least you fucked with him back. Seems like an obvious copy though, a good lawyer should be able to easily prove that.

You may not be able to win in court, but the sites do look WAY to much alike.. A copy now mater how you look at it..

I'm building a review site currently, while I looked at most review sites I went with my own style, design, colors, shape, wording, etc.. Don't get me wrong, having a review site as large and functional as The Best Porn would have been nice but it wouldn't have been good business.

If you have something good, you can expect to be copied. Put a lawyer on it if you feel you have a case and move on with your life. Work on building a better site and let your attorney worry about the rest. Just my :2 cents:

I think they could have been just a tad bit more original with that new site... Awfully close.

My 2 cents

I would look into what can legally be done.

This seems to be the most important comment in this thread in my opinion. :2 cents:

It looks like a cobrand of TBP, too much is the same. Only the overall graphical design is different. Element boxes are the same.
Though - I haven't compared the review text itself, I asume it's different.

To "The Porn Critics" try and be a little more original and creative next time you will copy a concept.

To all which wanna create a review site, try and be original and come up with something yourself.

We have seen it before, and will sure see it many times again - people ripoff current ideas when they lack of creativity themselves.

My end point is: It's allright to borrow ideas, but modify and add more to it yourself.