can i see it? the other blog that is. sorry, just curious

Hey Deb -- I've got a CC license (but didn't know how toothless it was). I also put a big old link to CopyScape on my site: http://www.copyscape.com/

You can scan the web for others who are using your text (not sure if it works on design - doubt it does). For a fee, they'll do it automatically.

I post a lot of original fiction on my site, and copyright is a concern. I'll be interested to see what other people say about it. Thanks for raising the issue.

The FAQ here is great, might address some of your concerns. I don't think I'd call CC "toothless", however.

http://creativecommons.org/faq

The CC license is an excellent tool to make clear exactly if, how much, and in what form you allow other to discuss and use your content. But, like many others, I have treated it like a copyright when it is not. Technically speaking, your work is copyrighted as soon as you write it, whether you slap the c-logo on it or not. However, in terms of protecting your work from theft, I fear there's little beyond threats and lawyers.

I'm hoping today to learn that I am wrong.

I guess I should've been more upset than I was at the time. I was mildly irked but the design in question wasn't very "me" so I wasn't attached to it. I don't think it was online for more than a couple of weeks because it felt like wearing someone else's underwear or something. Just not ME.

But you've had designs like this for a long time and it's basically Deb-branded. It's more about stealing someone's online identity than stealing a simple template. I would imagine being way more upset about that.

If the design had been one I made for a client, I would've had my claws out, because I put a lot more work into designs for other people.

Stop calling me a web guru, woman! :P

Hi--
Personally, if I couldn't find a middle ground between letting her steal your design and siccing a lawyer on her, I'd monitor her site and every time someone compliments her, I'd take credit and link them back this way. She'll probably delete the comments, but if it causes her enough inconvenience or embarrassment, she might change it.

None of this constitutes legal advice, only my impressions from discussing these same issues in fora several times in the past ten years.

1. Do Creative Commons licenses apply to web design?

Yes. This was covered in an earlier comment.

2. What other options are available to protect your work online?

A polite dialogue with the offender's hosting provider might well bring results. Typically, a rep for harboring IP thieves is something a hosting provider will go to great lengths to avoid.

3. What are other writers and designers doing?

See above.

Good luck.

I remember this issue coming up a while ago with regards to people ripping off CSS Zen Garden designs - have a look at http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/09/09/copywrong/
for the background, and the comments thread for a good discussion.

A Creative Commons license can apply to anything you want to slap it to: music, writing, design, t-shirts, etc. But the kicker is that you have to designate it as such.

It would seem that you state in your footer that "ALL CONTENT" has a Creative Commons license attached to it. You do not say that you have granted any rights to use your design.

I would take that to mean that your content (writing, photos) can be used with attribution, but not your design.

Im pretty sure Copyright does apply to all things digital but enforcing is another matter

Hey--they changed their site back. FYI.

While I know I used that - unnamed - site as a starting point, and I am glad to see the design down, my point was really about protecting my/our work and what's avaialable that I might not know about.

Valette - Good call on the "all content". Sometimes even I don't read my own damned words.

Hi. While I'm definitely not as technologically suave as you and your contemporaries appear to be (as far as a random dude reading random websites can judge), I am equally interested in protecting my writings/rantings from plagiarism. Would a CC take care of my stuff and how do I get one? I mean, can I just say it's copyrighted and then it is? blah.

David, sadly, nothing will protect your text from plagiarism. That's what I meant when I said the CC was toothless: you can't configure it to ban people from using your stuff. As long as they attribute it to you, it's cool.

But check out copyscape (see Comment #2 for the link). You can at least scan the Internets for thieves periodically.

Basically, what I am getting from this is that unless you've got some fancy lawyers backing you, scaring off thieves, you will have to write your own cease and desist letters, and decide how far you want to take it if these are unsuccessful. Therefore, Copyscape is essential. (Though, pricey to keep a subscription; and running your URL's daily is time-consuming.)

I'm not sure what I was hoping to hear - maybe that there was some great, all protecting clause that I hadn't heard of before. I've gotta start laying off the rock.

having seen that layout and this one and drawn no correlation between the two at all (fairplay to you: i don't come here as often as i go there) i think it's quite easy to see parallels in work even when they're a bit stretched.

since the "offender" is gone, i can't compare and contrast the two, but it's gone now and she did apologize.

i could say that a lot of layouts look the same these days. one long column centered with header/footer. 2 columns header/footer, and so forth and so on. and as far as color scheme, well no one should be angry about a site that has their color scheme.

of course this is all my long, rambling opinion about which nobody probably give's a rat's ass. and the bottom line i think is although i'm not condoning intellectual property theft or copyright violations - if it's on the internet; it's ripe, ready and waiting to be stolen.

License, shmicense...Let's just whup her ass and be done with it.

I typically do little but lurk, but this is up my alley.

- If it's on the internet and is even marginally good, it will be stolen/copied by someone, somewhere.

- CC is just as "toothed" as any other license to use content. All you're really doing is "relaxing" the point at which something is a copyright violation.

- "Content" is a fairly ambiguous word -- unless layout and design was excluded explicitly I'd (personally) interpret "all content" to mean "everything" because, really, where is the line? Are the location of bold tags "design" or "content"? Links? Etc.

For those of you who are more knowledgeable about this than I --- I would be curious to know where the distinction of "copyright" and "trademark" come into play.

check yo'self before you wreck yo'self:
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/