10 Jan 2003 | Mal Ross said...

You know, you really shouldn't go stealing other people's site designs, Jason. ;)

Incredible, really, isn't it? Do they think no-one will notice? Actually, how did you find out?

10 Jan 2003 | Cam said...

It's sad really.

- the image of the video camera and the Mac graphics are stolen directly from Apple.com
- the eye part of their logo looks very familiar too, no doubt lifted from somewhere

10 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

Check the sources for the sidebar table from line 80 (original) and line 67 (iaip) it starts with

Plus a lot of other stuff:

This can't be a coincidence.

10 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

Oops this should be:

Check the sources for the sidebar table from line 80 (original) and line 67 (iaip) it starts with:
<!-- sidebar -->

Plus a lot of other stuff:
<!-- dotted divider line -->
<!-- main body sections -->

10 Jan 2003 | Stephen DesRoches said...

Even the tabs are 121 by 22 pixels. They didn't try to hid it very well.

Even the little wizard in the top left of Mind Storm Productions is from a clip art gallery.

10 Jan 2003 | f5 said...

Technically speaking, this qaulifies as "Stealing the S@#* out of" DNF.

10 Jan 2003 | Brenda said...

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

yep, you got hijacked

10 Jan 2003 | cb said...

When in doubt, always check the stylesheet. Since the stylesheets are identical, they should just link to yours. That's more like borrowing... right?

Report the crime: pirated-sites.com

10 Jan 2003 | jim said...

I just noticed that the right-hand column bg just mysteriously changed from the identical yellow as DNF to grey. Coincidence?

10 Jan 2003 | Jesper said...

Morons.

10 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

They have to change names now, because possible clients who look up Mind Storm Productions on google will find this page and see they are a fraud.

10 Jan 2003 | birdman said...

I hope noone was paid for this criminal act.

10 Jan 2003 | Steve said...

Ya, I somehow see some striking similarities. Seems the "elite team of digital media experts, providing cutting-edge Web development, custom-application programming, Webcasting and Wireless application solutions," are living up to their claims.

Theft is bad enough. Telling others that you're some sort of great design company even though you steal designs is pathetic.

10 Jan 2003 | cj said...

Send 'em a bill. I would think your hourly rate X 40 would be about right.

10 Jan 2003 | barry said...

how in god's name do you find them?

10 Jan 2003 | barry said...

and by them I mean people that hijack your shiznat

11 Jan 2003 | alisha said...

uh, YA! flat out stolen. you guys should start putting up links on your site to the copycats out there - good for business and lets your clients know youre the honest ones. :-)

11 Jan 2003 | Dekay said...

Good god... This is insane. Did they actually expect to get away with that?

And on top of that, the site was made by a "Webdesign" Company who probably got paid a good amount of money for it.

Don't people just suck?

11 Jan 2003 | Dekay said...

edit: Whoops, they "made" the page themselves....

At least that means no one benefited economically from your hard work (directly, at least).

11 Jan 2003 | fajalar said...

Starting to look a wee bit different. Just a wee though.

12 Jan 2003 | Benjy said...

Isn't that eye logo the one from older versions of Photoshop?

12 Jan 2003 | JF said...

Another one! Just view the source and check the META tags to be sure.

12 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

haha! They even use your stylesheet!

12 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

I didn't know you guys used frontpage ;)

13 Jan 2003 | UrpBurp said...

"Due to unforeseen technical dificulties, the web site is currently offline. We are working hard to get all content back online as soon as possible."

(Translation) - Ooops,... we've been caught!!

14 Jan 2003 | Jakob S said...

I wonder, with Google indexing/caching HTML wouldn't it be possible to create a "Find sites that look like this site"-service?

14 Jan 2003 | James said...

The look and feel of the page is hardly the same.

I would not have picked up on it if I have browsed through the sites one after the other.

This might be an unpopular thing to say, but who cares? If it was any other site on the net that ripped a basic template for a table, and some css, no one would blink twice.

How are they stealing your 'design'. Its just some engineering behind a design, and the design itself is not that similar. Meh.

14 Jan 2003 | John said...

I didn't find the sites all that similar either. Simmer down.

14 Jan 2003 | fajalar said...

James and John. Did you see them on the first day of this post? Both were the same as dnf. Just the words and images were different.

I think the point is that this isn't 1995 anymore. If you are going to offer your services in design and usability, do your own work from the ground up. Would you want one of these companies ripping off someone to design your site?

14 Jan 2003 | James said...

No, I didn't see them on the first day.

Sorry.

15 Jan 2003 | Hungry said...

doesn't look like anyone besides inexperienced web designers would want to copy a 37signal "design" -- so i have to agree with james... who cares? it's a text-based template at best that only warrants any ranting when a real company copies it.

15 Jan 2003 | alisha said...

Did you see them on the first day of this post? Both were the same as dnf.
---
ohmygosh fajalar, youre right - everything has changed since then.

15 Jan 2003 | fred said...

Hey since mindstorm still resembles 37signals, give them a call a voice your opinion of copyright theft.

1 866 249 0442

Or view the site

15 Jan 2003 | JF said...

For those who are interested, here are screenshots of the originals:

Flightcraft
Mindstorm

15 Jan 2003 | Hagbard Celine said...

Flightcraft's site is still MIA. I wonder if it should more accurately read "Due to the canning of [email protected], our website is unavailable and will remain so until we find someone else to build our site."

19 Jan 2003 | David Gmez-Rosado said...

Yeah ... those guys may have changed to hide their shame. But there is Big Brother Google to keep the truth for a while longer ... Check their cached pages and you still have the smoking gun.

09 Nov 2003 | rockheinz69 said...

Anyone give me some advice on how to change the rear brakes on my 2000 VW Passat Wagon, besides taking it in.

20 Nov 2003 | long term insurance said...

yes