Ian Usher wrote -
> 
> I repeat the question: if you create a superbly laid-out page, with original
> low-bandwidth GIFs, simple but effective design etc. and someone lifts it
> all, changes the colour and replicates the layout, should you bother
> pestering them or just be flattered? If I replicated the BBC News layout
> exactly but merely replaced their GIFs with my own similar ones, would they
> come after me with a big legal stick for doing an impersonation of Auntie's
> website?
> 

If someone takes your humblest little grey GIF and uses it without 
your permission then they would be infringing your copyright and so 
you could take them to court. However the most you could hope for is 
that the court would rule the infringement would cease. You would 
gain nothing unless you could show some form of loss in income, 
reputation or that the other party achieved some tangible gain from 
the action. Seems unlikely to me that you would bother.

The same holds true for the BBC. Copy their style and block graphics 
and I guess that they wouldn't stir. Use the logo or otherwise "pass 
off" your site as a BBC offering and you wouldn't have to hold your 
breath for long.

How far you can go with stealing the layout is an interesting point 
and one which raised you original question. I suspect that a court of 
law would take an Expert's view into account and that would probably 
revolve around the number of combinable similarities that were used. 
i.e. It would be difficult to sue someone for copyright infringement 
on the basis that they used the same foreground and background 
colours as you given the relatively low count of available "web safe" 
colours. The same would probably hold true for block graphics. 

IMHO you would have to prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that the 
combination of colours, graphics and layout was not just a co-
incidence. This is one of the reasons that text can so easily be 
copyrighted. There are so many available words that any combination 
above a couple of sentences is almost guaranteed to be unique.

On the basis of this it seems to me the that the Elonex example is 
borderline - the pages look similar but the source HTML is 
constructed differently. The eWEB graphic is not a co-incidence etc. 
In any event what would Elonex gain by suing the infringer? They 
could perhaps force the other side to change the layout but it is 
difficult to see what financial damages would be based on. My guess 
is that a strong email is about as far as it would be worth taking 
it. (Sorry Elonex)

Regards

Paul Chimicz


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