ProBlogger talks to AmBlogger!
January 21st, 2006 by Vince Chan :: Darren wanted to approach me about the design of AmBlogger.net which is very very similar to his ProBlogger.net. You would not be inaccurate to consider this a copy or spoof of his website. I’ve informed him of my pending response and will definitely offer him a forum to respond on AmBlogger if he so desires. In fact, let me iterate my interest in getting fellow AmBloggers to join in and contribute to AmBlogger.net. This site is here for you!
Where should we start? Why do I choose to respond in a Blog? Simply Link Bait? (Update: If you think that’s the case, please don’t link to this post) I think there are a issues here at play here that are begging to be examined. What are the copyright issues? Darren himself has been a fair reporter and has written a few posts on this particular subject:
To formulate my response, I decided to re-examine why I adopted this design in the first place. I also wanted to address the issue of web site design copyright? Lastly, I should be accountable and let Darren know about my response in simple terms.
My Original Intent
The honest truth is that I was inspired to create AmBlogger specifically by Darren’s honest helpful discussions about Bloggers and Blogging. However, I found at many times that I cannot fully relate to all the talk about making a living out of Blogging or earning massive income. It all still seemed like an unofficial country club to me. A club that allows many from the outside to peer in with envious ambitions. I wanted AmBlogger to be a counter to that attitude, but at the same time to work together side by side with sites like ProBlogger. I chose the design with the naivity that Darren would one day approach me and say that he’d give me his blessing to work and push the envelope to promote Amateurs in Blogging - a collaboration of sorts. I had not approached Darren yet because I was hoping to build up archives to show him that I am in no way plagarizing his content.
Content or Container?
Which brings me to my next point. What is being copyrighted? Is it the content or the container? Even from Darren’s posts, they have been predominantly focused on content issues. For example, an author’s work can be contained in book form, CD form but it’s always the content that is copyrighted. The book/CD is the container for the author’s copyrighted work. But the transmitting medium is not subject to copyright unless there is a uniqueness to the container’s packaging. That would be afforded to the container through the use of a patent. To understand more of what I’m alluding to, I would like to quote a few resources I found on copyright issues from Australian and even U.S. websites.
From IP Australia:
Although making copies of copyright material can infringe exclusive rights, a certain amount of copying is permissible under the fair dealing provisions of the legislation. Copyright doesn’t protect you against independent creation of a similar work.
Also From IP Australia:
Design refers to the features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation which, when applied to a product, gives the product a unique appearance. You can register a design but it must be new and distinctive.
From U.S. Copyright Office (What Is Not Protected By Copyright?):
Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
To summarize, I feel that the simple style similarity of heading, lettering sizes, the orientation and organization of information in columns and sidebars of a website is not something that should be subject to the protection of copyright. There are an overwhelming number of sites with very similar layouts and this could be the slippery slope start to proceed. Keepin mind, that I have not used any “images” on Darren’s site without permission. A mere examination will reveal that my website look similar to his only because the .css stylesheets are very similar!
I would like to illustrate an example with a site that I’m hoping to help out by directing traffic to it! It seems like the Blogger on Hello Dollar! has not been blogging recently, but I hope that any traffic directed to his site may encourage him to start again! But Hello Dollar!’s design is absolutely similar to that of many Weblogs Inc networks. The square advertising space with 2 narrow columns below it and a Blog content section, rearranged to look differently. We can spot similarities if we want to, but I do not feel that there should or could be a case made for Web Design copyright.
What Are Your Thoughts?
This has been a very long post. I still have not stated my response to Darren as yet, but rather examining some of the issues concerning his ponderings. I would like to let this post stew as it is currently to solicit comments and suggestions on this issue! What are your thoughts? I would like to continue this discussion completed with my response to Daren as well!
Update: Since the first posting, I have taken some steps to update this situation. My final response will be updated shortly. Please feel free to read my comments below for an update!
68 Responses to “ProBlogger talks to AmBlogger!”
Honestly Vince. You won’t make any friends or gain respect by using this an exact replicer of Darrens site. Do you want to be a successful blogger? Grow some balls and be realistic. Stealing other peoples designs is no way to make friends.
Vince, this site looks almost identical to that of problogger. You are doing nothing more than being unoriginal copycat artist.
Vince, I think you have made an error in judgement with your approach to this blog and how you are interacting with Darren. Luckily for you Darren is a really nice guy and you may get away with a lot more than other people would let you. Perhaps if you had first approached Darren about your blog project you may have had him as a supporter, rather than your current approach of burning bridges with him.
The way you are going presently will lead to failure, your karma is not good. Even if you do get a lot of traffic as a result of the controversy caused by replicating problogger the end result will still be the same - you won’t have a positive image in the blogosphere.
There is still time to change though - just go with your own design instead, you are a good writer, don’t let this mistake be your undoing.
I appreciate the comments and suggestion, constructive or otherwise. Some judgement in errors have been made. My first step is to remove Darren’s email excerpt from the post. Darren, I sincerely apologize for that slip-up!
What I’m still trying to examine is where does this all lead to? Who’s to protect the “little guys” when the “big guys” come knocking on the door to talk about the design of their website? The amateurs vs the pros? Nobody has written about such a subject that I’ve found. Though my methods seemed like madness, so are people like Andy Kaufman that have been misunderstood by many and hailed as genius by some.
No, I’m not trying to infer anything about myself. But I just want to explain why I’m publicizing this ordeal since I’ve been made aware by a few that this should have all been done in private.
Like you said Yaro, there are many ways to approach Darren and I’ve probably picked a lower route. Karma eventually will catch up to this site if I do not address this issue and you’re right about that since Darren is not probably going to give his blessings.
You are also correct that Darren is really a nice guy throughout all this, I guess I wanted to publish his email to show that he is an ultra-cool guy throughout this incident.
There are only a few limited ways to orient and organize data. My personal feelings are that the only thing unique and different with ProBlogger are those 3 boxes in the header used to point out to popular posts. Something I have not been able to take advantage. As an experiment, I will remove those boxes for the duration of this suggestion /comment solicitation. I hope to reinvite comments again assess how you feel?? This is not my final response, but the results will factor into my decision.
I just wanted to respond individually to the comments given so far.
Yaro, I appreciate your comments the most because you are making me aware or your thoughts and also offering some sound advice.
Marc, I would like to use this example. If I dressed up as Elvis but I perform original heavy metal music. I believe most would not be considered a copycat Elvis impersonator but more perhaps a weird heavy metal musician (a la SlipKnot?). Again, my argument is that the contents in my container are different than that of ProBlogger.
Jack, whether I wanted to be a successful Blogger depends. I don’t care about monetization, there’s a heck of a lot more templates out there that are better for this purpose. In terms of building a community, yes that’s my goal. You make a good point that spoofing another website’s design is not a great way to make friends. But stealing would really be the case had I used copyrighted images or other stuff like that. My point is still that mere column widths and font sizes do not a copyright make. Homage was my intent. Can you imagine one day a network of “ProBlogger” approved websites regarding the subject on the different aspects of Blogging? A “Blogger” network (pro or not) with the same template? That was my vision and it may have clouded my judgement.
I’ll keep my comments very simple - this design is a complete ripoff of Darren’s site. You’re violating his copyright on his design. You’re ruining your own credibility by using this design. Your halfhearted attempts at defending yourself only tarnish your reputation further.
I recommend that you go invest in your own design - or use of the many free available wordpress templates rather than stealing the work of someone else.
matt
Vince, although it would pretty much serve my purpose to echo exactly what Matt said, I would like to take this opportunity to provide my two cents about your skewed approach to the whole issue.
In situations such as this, it is always interesting to observe how the perpetrator (this would be YOU) perceives things. In your article, you state that you were attempting to form some kind of partnership with Darren, but the interesting thing here is - how many partnerships begin out of plagiarism and ZERO up-front communication?
I’m baffled by your approach, and I’m even more baffled by your “innocent” attitude towards the negative commentary that you’ve received about this whole matter.
On a more personal note, I think it’s fair to say that people typically take great pride in the design of their websites, especially if they were the ones who designed them! If I came across a site that was utilizing something that I had created, I would be BRUTALLY offended. The chances of going into some kind of amicable partnership with the offender would be slim to none. Actually, no, it would be none. Period.
Do yourself a favor and put up a new design. Oh, and stop playing the ignorant role - you look like a douchebag.
I can’t believe this shit.
Amateur Blogger + Stolen Design = Professional Douchebag
No further comments.
Vince, you’re right, concepts like where a nav is, etc, can’t be copyrighted. But code can be, and it’s obvious you took Darren’s code, and not just a vague look and feel.
My concern is that in doing this you are stirring the wrong debate. You’re stirring the “can the little guy get away with being the bad guy” debate, instead of “how can little guys succeed”, which is a far more valuable debate.
If you’re going to lead any group, you need to do so with integrity, and this is completely lacking in that key trait.
All the best though :)
It’s actually Rachel Cunliffe’s code. Im sure she’s not happy. Argh. This is just evil.
Right, you are putting the wrong emphasis on the wrong things. I’m rather surprised that you take the “Hey I don’t think stealing design is that bad, I’m doing good things with it here” stance. The issue is not whether or not you are providing valueable content, it is that you have stolen identity.
Believe it or not, web design is subject to copyright. You, almost letter for letter, stole his site. On the internet, a website is an identity. Design is something that seperates one site from another. You didn’t just take visual cues here. You stole the very foundation of the site.
But that isn’t even the issue. The issue is that you feel it’s justified. Can you really justify blatant theft of code by saying that your content is different? And more importantly, as someone who is trying to teach fellow “AmBloggers” do you really want to be the guy who says “Stealing design is okay if you change a few colors and make your own content”?
There are many blog themes freely available, as well as open source design. Why not those? If content is what you care about, then why do you insist on using someone else’s design?
Since we are all in the mood to steal. Do you mind if I steal some traffic?
Everyone visit my cooler site: http://jackofallblogs.com
Thanks for the kind words guys!
Is it worth anymore to defend myself? I didn’t realize I was doing that yet! I wanted to merely present the facts as I have found and have a discussion about this situation. That’s what Blogs are for! I’m no lawyer, and I certainly can’t think of all the angles.
From this, I’m glad that Jeremy Wright was able to offer the thought that code similarity is an issue here. Doesn’t this situation also serve as a wake up call to other Bloggers out there? I myself have been researching as to whether there are ways to protect .css stylesheets and I haven’t seen any of them. Any thoughts on that front?
The fact is many people out there are looking at everyone else’s stylesheets codes and incorporating bits and pieces during their design process, even if they are professional graphics designers.
I’m also happy to receive a few private correspondence from people trying to see from the objective point of view about what this post is really about. This post is not about me defending myself. I have no intention of defending myself. I am guilty as charged in terms of looking at ProBlogger’s stylesheet. A design that he paid money to achieve. And I should do right by then, very shortly… (why not now?? you’ll see)
I have not decided when this design will be taken down, but it is surely leaning towards this. Till then, I’m more than happy to take any slings and arrows, stones and rotten tomatoes that are hurled at me. I still want to ask for your comments and suggestions. Every angle, every perspective, anything new that you can add to the conversation will be very much appreciated.
Vince, are you for real? You aren’t sure if there’s anything wrong here?
I spent no more than a minute looking at your code. You seemed to have named your WordPress theme “ProBlogger.” The ALT text for your header image is “Darren Rowse.”
What’s worse is that you have Google AdSense code on this site. Therefore, this site is a commercial endeavor.
Give me a break!
Wonder if it violates Google TOS, and Chitika too huh, another email to fire off.
The design is copyrighted.
I can’t speak for Darren, but I’m not impressed. Darren employed me to create a unique design for his site, according to specific requirements. It’s not a free template for others to grab and put up elsewhere.
Blog design work I do takes time and costs money.
Having the work I did stolen by someone else means I’m being (and feeling) ripped off.
If my work is stolen, don’t expect me to sit back and do nothing.
Vince, you suck. Code “similarities? wtf? it’s the exact same code, modified a smidgen. Then you come back and say that people should come up with a way to protect their .css files? wtf? yes, you’re 100% wrong. We don’t need DRM or anything. How do we protect our .css files? we drag the theives through the mud and make sure you either apologize or you’ll continued to make enemies.
The internet, and especially in the realm of blogging, is ruled by vigilantee justice. If you get the wrong people against you, you and your reputation will be destroyed.
in fact, your reputation is dirt. you suck, you’re a complete doche, and you just need to give up. You’re acting like Jack Thompson.
Dude, do the right thing and take it down.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is simply a ploy to give an example to amateur bloggers as to what can happen when you steal someone elses paid for code and design. The only problem with that theory is that permission was never asked so all credibility is completely gone.
All this nonsense about “And I should do right by then, very shortly… (why not now?? you’ll see)” is complete BS. You obviously have an agenda in all of this which is extremely disturbing.
With all the ads on this site, I think it is safe to assume that this more problog than amblog.
Let me educate you on the issues involved here.
1) Copyright violation can result in severe civil penalties, even if the infringement is non-commercial in nature.
2) Copyright violation in the US can result in criminal charges, under certain circumstances, though those appear not to be involved in this case.
3) Copyright violations are cause for a takedown of your site and content through the DMCA takedown provisions - all that has to be done is for the copyright holder to contact your ISP.
4) Copyright violations can result in the forfeit of your earnings and termination of your account at affiliate programs such as Google, etc.
5) Most importantly, you lose any sense of credibility.
Take it down.
Matt
Not one person here is agreeing with you Vince.
Its time to disappear.
Take it down Vince. Be a bigger man, admit you’re wrong, show you’ve learned a lesson and move on. It’s a big community, and you’re obviously a smart guy. As a former amateur blogger, and someone who knows what it feels like to be on the wrong end of a blog lynching, I’m asking you to take it down before this turns into one for you. It’s just no fun.
If it looks like design theft, smells like one and feels like one then it is … and this is clearly design theft.
Vince, I think you are missing all the arguments and going off into misguided tangents. The fact is you clearly stole ProBloggers’ paid-for design and you readily admit it - so where’s the problem. In any other business you’d be hit with a ‘”cease and desist” so fast.
Change designs beacuse you are losing any credibity you may have had and you will always be remebered as the one who unashasmedly stole that design - I know that there are lots of designs and ideas out there, so there really is no excuse except if you are trying to ride the coattails of ProBlogger.
This really smells of a cheap controversy tactic to gain some eyeballs more so seeing that you will be eventually changing designs.
You are a thief. If it were my site you would have already heard from my lawyer. You have killed any chances of having any credibility in any and all your future endevours.
Vince, I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that you’ve ripped off someone else code and design, or the fact that you think people are stupid enough to fall for your innocent act.
Vince,
there are publicly available WordPress templates you can use and customise to your hearts content, stealing the code from a site and using it is theft. You know enough about templates to be able to tweak the heading and change the offset color to blue so I don’t for one minute believe this whole “I didn’t know” rubbish. Real amateurs cant tweak CSS, you knew exactly what you were doing.
Ok, I won’t even add a link here cause I don’t want any of my sites linked to from this farce… but I feel like commenting:
Dude, you ain’t doing yourself any favors here. In fact, the damage is already done to any glimmer of a reputation you may have had.
It will take you about 20 minutes to fix this problem by plugging in one of the hundreds of freely available WP themes out there. Be smart and do that, like now…
I’ve just read your update and your still deluding yourself. This is out and out theft, this isn’t fair use or failr dealing, lets look at your quotes of law:
This isn’t a similar work, its identical except for a few VERY small changes.
Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
You’ve actually got it in this quote, because stealing the CSS design for a site isn’t allowed if its a copywrite work, which this is!!!
Oh, you know what the really stupid thing is with all this everyone?
It’s that Vince ain’t got the smarts to take the advice of some of the most prolific people in the blogging community.
Most of the comments here are offering solid advice. If he choses to not follow it, well, he’ll get what he deserves.
Anyone want to wager what happens first?
Dreamhost cuts the cord, or he takes the template down?
My bet is on Dreamhost. I just put a call in. And this guy is so dumb that he hasn’t taken this shit down already. I wonder if he is just that much of an idiot. If that’s the case. Dreamhost will win. I got a quarter. Do you?
Smart move Vince. Very smart.
Finally, thankyou for changing it. Lets hope you learnt your lesson about copyright materials.
That was fast. Nearly lost a quarter.
Problogger Design Stolen…
A blogger posting at the domain name “amblogger.net” has apparantly stolen the design of Darren Rowse’s Problogger. A quick look of the CSS amblogger.net shows an almost exact match with only some colors changed. This is what website design theft……
Wow, talk about peer pressure! No, I did not mean that I have any other agenda by delaying except that I realize I needed to do a lot of work in changing the template, and I really wanted more comments. Not for links, not for advertising.
The questions was raised about this being advertising, I have to say that it was only done to better mirror ProBlogger rather than as an attempt to get revenue. Nobody clicks on those stuff anyways.
As for DreamHost, they can contact me still and I would deserve anything that they decided to levy on this domain.
As for listening to everyone, I certainly heard a lot! There are many things I were listening to, not that you’d believe I was accepting or rejecting you. I was not arguing for the sake of arguing. Let me stop writing for a sec and see what comments are there.
It was a blatant copy. You should be ashamed.
You can’t mirror Darren’s success by mirroring his site design or content. He’s worked hard for where he is today. There are no shortcuts.
Develop a following of your own and grow and nurture relationships with those people for the long term. That’s how you become successful blogging.
You didn’t get off to a very good start, so good luck!
Paul,
Good start, he starts out lower the hell. He’s got to digg his way up just to get into hell. Just imagine if Darren had linked this. He would have been completely justified doing so. But with his pvs and loyal community. The lynching that happened here today would have been nothing compared to that.
Cowboy, agreed. This was pretty mild compared to what could have happened.
Looks like Darren has weighed in. Everyone remember to delete your history and never come back to this place ever again.
Maybe we should all click on his google ads repeatedly. I mean, again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again :)
You still don’t accept it do you. It would have taken two seconds for you to change back to one of the default/ standard WordPress templates and you didn’t, you could have put back your ads and what not later but no….you waited, and waited, and procrastinated all for the sake of a couple of dollars at best.
steve now that’s funny.
Well, here after post 41 .. the design is changed, so I missed the ’show’… yet, somehow I am still here reading after following somebody else’s reference.
The fact is many people out there are looking at everyone else’s stylesheets codes and incorporating bits and pieces during their design process, even if they are professional graphics designers
I applaud the greater community for suggesting that it’s not cool to outright copy the entire design, and I do agree with the above quoted statement - bits and pieces are okay, but you cross the line on outright copy.
But - only because it’s not cool - not because of the “apparent” reasons some of the “corporate” and “professional” .. like making up apparent laws and rules and copying stuff from the internet thinking .. “if I saw it on the internet, it must be true”..
Shame on most of you in the above responses!
Although, Chris P. had the most SANE and RESPONSIBLE post of the lot, that is worth repeating (i.m.o.) and heading to - for you vince and for others..
people typically take great pride in the design of their websites, especially if they were the ones who designed them! If I came across a site that was utilizing something that I had created, I would be BRUTALLY offended. ..
THAT’s the moral reason not to do something like this. As you can tell (42 comments) it’s a small small world out here in BloggieLand.
Take care. / Vote Tomorrow!
Yes everyone is inspired by and borrows from other people. However if you borrow from (c) material you are in breach. If you borrow from Creative Commons or free templates…it’s ok.
Enjoy your 15 minutes… I think you just dug yourself a biiiig hole.
hehe, I think your intentions are great. I’m glad you changed the design, now get started posting!
Geeez…everyone makes mistakes, forgive and forget
The worst part is you don’t even realize what a tool you are. Go back to your marketing textbooks and find another gimmick buddeeee.
Stupid move but not the end of the world that some bloggers make it out to be. Vince, glad you finally changed the css. Now, cut the justifications and create something original! :) Luck good!
WOW - I had no idea there were so many angry people running around looking for a place to post their hostile comments.
Great Job Vince, you gave them all an outlet for their anger. if you had not coppied his template they might have attacked an innocent person.
With all the traffic you have created in a short time, I am thinking I will copy his template and put it on my site too. please come and have a look and let me know what you think about my idea. http://www.grifted.com
I also think if your going to change your site layout then you should atleast put up an example page, I didn’t get to see your site before so I have no idea what it looked like or how much of his site you copied.
By the way, you are welcome to copy my site, although I am not so famous so I doubt anyone would care, and it probably won’t help your traffic any but please feel free, I could maybe pay a few of my relatives to complain if it would help.
that’s where google cache comes in handy.
brent Says:
January 23rd, 2006 at 12:21 am
WOW - I had no idea there were so many angry people running around looking for a place to post their hostile comments.
Great Job Vince, you gave them all an outlet for their anger. if you had not coppied his template they might have attacked an innocent person.
______________________________________________________
I’ll copy your design and first post dude. Wait, who cares we’re just “Amateurs”, lol
brent, you want me to get in more trouble? lol
but you just gave me a thought! You’re right, next time somebody with such a thought can search on google and hopefully see this post. It will eliminate a lot of anxiety for them!
I’m not trying to justify this… just that this thought came in and I want to share with you brent. A chinese proverb indicates that Buddha said “if I don’t go to hell, who will go to hell”
I’m surprised noboyd used the analogy of a chinese imitation ipod to this circumstance!
[...] A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a site that was a complete duplicate of problogger. At the time I thought nothing of it. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Well, apparently not everyone thinks so. [...]
Rubbish. Sure, people are looking at standard installs such as Kubrick and LiewCF’s 3 column Kubrick (you’ll see a lot of that code around the place, but its free to use) and a lot of blogs are launched off that, but don’t give me this people are stealing crap. Sure, we get inspired (I did with 3 columns) but we don’t steal code, we make our own interpretation of it, not out and out stealing like you have.
Wince ;-)
You deserve a free CONMAN T-Shirt, take your pick … this is a robbery !
But there is no publicity like bad publicity but until this story goes offline, you’re just as bad as me !
Yours $uspiciously,
CONMAN
Vince brought up the point of whether the design can be copyrighted or only the content itself. Nobody disputes that stealing/plagirizing content is wrong.
Several defenders have chimed in with an argument along the lines of “Many wordpress sites use similar design…” which is a different point (as the standard Wordpress themes are released with Wordpress under GPL). Darren pointed out that he has paid for a company to create a unique design for his website.
This gets into look-and-feel and branding- in the physical world if you took a can of soda, put red and white swooshes along it and a logo that resembled a coca-cola can and released it…. then the Coke lawyers would be paying you a visit. The general argument in cases like this is that it dillutes the brand.
Even in software the look-and-feel of an application can be copyrighted (just ask Apple).
I am not a lawyer, and I don’t know of any specific cases where a judge has ruled that a website design (or look-and-feel) has been illegally copied, but I’m sure somebody could be legally liable for doing this.
Darren has put in alot of effort creating the ProBlogger brand and paid money for a unique look-and-feel and site design. This is his property and should be respected as such.
I’m not a “pro” blogger but apparently I’m also not an “am” blogger as I understand the purpose and importance of capitalization and apply them diligently to everything I write.
Under different circumstances, I wouldn’t have read more than a few sentences before departing for a blog written by someone capable of legitimate writing. Anyone who can’t or won’t write properly is an adolescent or a no talent hack and I will not waste one minute on their juvenile thought process.
You should also change the name of your blog to “AM Human” as you fall disturbingly short of understanding the basic human principles of ethics, morality, and common courtesy.
If you’re going to plagiarize another writer or site, steal some capital letters and use them generously at the beginning of each sentence.
Let me be the first *lawyer* to say that what Vince did DOES consititute a violation of Darren’s copyright, at least in the US. Code is definitely protected.
Sorry Darren… don’t know OZ copyright law, but I’d bet on this point things are pretty much the same.
Vince, it was smart to heed the blogospere’s version of the “cease and desist” letter.
I’ll second that.
When Blog Theft Gets Plain Old…Old…
‘m still not over people that just steal others content without permission. I’m not talking blockquotes eigther folks. I was reminded yet again of how people just blindly copy content today from ProBlogger. A blog pop-upped using the same design of P…
mel, don’t get my hopes up like that. *ha ha*
If you do copy my design, please put it on a page rank 9 site and include a link back to me.
and WorldNomad Says:
Even in software the look-and-feel of an application can be copyrighted (just ask Apple).
Exactly… everyone knows apple ran Microsoft out of business for stealing their look and feel and calling it windows. And before that Zerox ran apple out of business for stealing the look and feel from them. Oh, wait… hmmm… last time I looked Microsoft really didn’t get in that much trouble for stealing windows from apple - who stole it from zerox with no trouble.
What was your point again???
there is no point, that’s why this is soooo stupid!
Posting to an archived blog post….now that is pointless and stupid - guilty as charged.
I do have to say that some of the chaps that blog remind me of the BBSes and the flame wars that would erupt. Once again, pointless and stupid. :)
I do have to agree with the caps on the first letter of every sentence - to not do it is annoying, but at least vince isn’t posting in all caps. It can always be worse!
damunzy,
ever since the .css switch, I did not look at it. I’ve just commented out the text transforms and everything is now normal. Don’t read into it, it was not deliberate, it was just laziness.
[...] This obscure person stole a template from this widely read blog, with minor changes made. Of course, designer of blog finds out and is annoyed. There follows a stream of publicity for the obscure person. Note that all the comments on his blog are on these two posts relating to the incident. Another success. And again, not easy to repeat. [...]
Very interesting,these fools continued to whine,while amblogger remains cool,watching traffic increase,clever. Sorry I missed all the action.