Design Robbery // equivocality

Posted in: Random | Tags: design, website

After my Perishable Press interview, and having Version 10 featured in a Crestock article titled “13 Minimalist Designs You Really Should See”, this site has seen a surge in design-related traffic. But increased exposure is a double-edged sword. Higher profile sites make you a bigger target for security issues, spam, and design robbery.

Such as the case with eric-akmal.com.

Does this look familiar?

Sure, the titles are different, but that’s probably because he doesn’t have Avenir in his font library. The entry background is different, but it’s still a grid.

Note: He seems to be changing certain design elements now, perhaps in an effort to distance himself from me.

Part of the reason I don’t release my designs as public themes is because I want this space to be unique, unlike the other million blogs out there. So it’s rather annoying, when I spend time coming up with an original design, convert the layout to CSS, and tweak it to satisfaction, only to have someone take all that work and pass it off as their own. Not only that, but he’s hotlinking my images, which means he’s stealing my bandwidth too.

What I find particularly ironic is that the title and tagline of his blog is “It’s nice to be different”.

There have been instances in the past where people have ripped off entire entries of mine, word for word, and posted them on their blogs, but never one of my designs, pixel-by-pixel.

At least Samuel Kordik, who’s current layout is obviously based on Version 8.0, had the decency to mention in his Colophon “In designing this website, I drew inspiration and code snippets from several remarkable designers, including Khoi Vihn, Jeff Ngan, and Matthew Mullenweg.”¹, even though I don’t condone credit as justification for any kind of copying.

There’s a fine line between inspiration and stealing, something that designers argue about all the time, but this is certainly a case of the latter.

To be mentioned in the same sentence as the trailblazer of grid systems and the creator of Wordpress respectively is certainly kudos I don’t deserve. [↑]

11 comments — Follow the feed

#1 Xibee

I hate to tell you this, but if it were a design infringement case, you still couldn’t make it fly, since he has tweaked the elements enough to render a difference.

You could, however, nail him on the bandwidth issue, which would be great additional evidence against his overall design mechanics theft.

I really don’t see that you have anything to worry about since his design makes little to no sense, whereas yours is a logical outgrowth of function. And I noted when you changed it hat it fits so nicely in my window on my iPhone. Wheee!.

#2 Pepijn

I commented on his blog!
He’s just a damn stealer!

Good luck!

#3 Jeff

@Xibee — I’m not looking at making a case out of this, or receive any kind of compensation; I was simply expressing my discontent that someone would so readily take my design when I put so much effort into it, and it’s obviously copyrighted.

@Pepijn — Thanks!

#4 Pepijn

P.S Your tattoes are awesome!

#5 Pearl

Good ideas spread unless legislated out of existence. In that case bad-ubiquitous spreads as the easiest path of least resistance. Take the eye-cruelty of many free WP templates for example. ..

#6 Maeko

To those who say “imitation is the best flattery,” i say, “Bullshit, it fucking reeks.”

Not only has he insulted you by stealing your hard work, he made it look BAD!

This is just nasty. I’m sorry. It looks familiar, but totally contorted.

#7 Xibee

Oh I knew you weren’t!! I’ve just been n the legal biz too long, can’t help but pose hypotheticals in a joking way…. to me, litigation is just…. rarely even worth considering …. kind of spiralling downward effect, you know?. I’ve seen the effects far too often….

#8 Jeff

@Pearl — Yeah, a lot of free WP themes are horrible, but there are a few that stand out that go against the rule.

@Maeko — The larger grid background doesn’t really work. Stealing does suck, but the butchery is worse.

@Xibee — My lawyer friend always warns me against any kind of litigation, even if I’m in the right, because the costs aren’t worth the return. As he says, it’s the lawyers who win in the end.

#9 akmal

Thank you for your attention and review of eric-akmal.com . it’s first time in my life have attention from my idol (I’m your fans), even i should done the wrong thing first and called design stealer .

That’s mean “I’s nice to be different” for me.

Once again thank you, I’ll change my layout because i’ve already receive my aim to have attention and review from you. Good luck for your future.
If you don’t mind,please visit my site again for the last time. Thx

_your fans_

#10 Jason

Comment #9… uh… what? People are so weird sometimes. With Carlo stealing your entry, how did you find out about that?

#11 Jeff

When I find out that people are stealing from me, it’s usually because they’re hotlinking my images, so I see the referrals in my server logs. And usually they don’t steal just one thing.