Imitation is NOT the sincerest form of flattery!

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I really don’t want to get into name calling and make this into a big thing. Basically someone has been ripping some of our site copy and certain aspects of our site design for quite awile. While the site design aspect is not a big deal it just shows a lack of creativity of said imitators. However copying text that we spent the time putting together to appeal to our clients/audience the "MMOART" way, is just not cool. I think in such an artistic market originality and integrity is a necessity. I just fear that they are often overlooked for the sake of convenience.

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Agreed.

I hope this site is of some help Gill. W

While it is tailored as a 'what to do' guide to the buying and selling of art over the Internet, I'm sure the fraudulent use aspect might apply in your case.

ComicArtCommunity.com Help

Yeah, I've been designing and developing web content for years (about 10 years now). When I started, sure, I might have copied small aspects here or there, but now I know enough to do my own thing, have my own style.

I do find the copying appalling (sp?). Best wishing to the two of you in finding a resolution to the situation.

In the moral area, from what you've described is not flattery, and pretty rude. However, without actually seeing the site and what was copied, not really certain what can be said/done.

First, have you contacted the individual, and asked why they were doing it? Or asked them to stop? Anything after that, the first question would be "did you ask them to stop?". From what you describe I seriously doubt it would have an effect, but it would cover that base of the argument on your end, for down the road. And make sure you keep that correspondence.

Easy way would be to post up the offending site, and let a public shaming take place. As a repeat customer (and repeat again on Aug 17 ) I know I would never buy anything from a site that I thought was a blatant rip-off of MMOArt. My thought would be that if the artist is that uncreative in just the site design alone, why on earth would I be willing to part with my hard earned cash for something by this person? Am I going to get nothing but an inferior copy of someone else's art as well? But posting up the site and letting people know that MMOArt is the original, would pre-emptive the reverse from happening. It would also let people avoid said site. Heck, even an organized boycott might be something for the customers to consider.

If the rip-off is really blatant, and the site is operating on a hosted service, you can always make a formal complaint to the IP address owner. However no real guarentee's on that, as it would be entirely up to the discression of the hosted service on what action (if any) would be done. And even though there are some slimey ones, there are also some that are stand-up.

What is trademarked and copyright protected on the MMOArt site? I'm not a civil expert, but if there are violations of copyright and trademark incidents, you could take it to the next step for civil or criminal. Although, I believe on the federal level, you've got to have 500 copyright incidents before it becomes a felony. But even if you don't want to go that route, it can also be useful to include in any complain (if any) to the IP address or hosted service owner.