How do you feel when someone blatantly rips off your website (or other work)?

[starbreaker]

All of the original material on my website is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. That means I don't give a damn what you do with it as long as you give me credit, don't make money off my work, and release your own work under the same terms. It's most likely unenforceable, but I think it makes my feelings on the matter reasonably clear.

[Melooon]

I found this extremely bizarre "parody"? of my site (mixed with other sites) today! Its super weird! It reads like it was written by an AI that was trained only on sites Iv linked too and then attempted to remake my site but ended up just creating a confusing mess. Im not sure how I feel about it; although parody is, I suppose, a form of flattery and it doesn't seem nasty 

Anyway it seemed relevant to this thread 

Here is an archived link in case it goes poof! https://web.archive.org/web/20230827144613/https://cherries.cool/?z=/manifesto.html

[wygolvillage]

Wow, that parody(???) website is very strange  It's like a bunch of other people's work mashed together into one haphazardly... Like a Frankensite.

[Bede]

On my site, I've linked to the copyheart manifesto, and said on the homepage, "Copying is an act of love. Please copy." Which I feel makes my stance pretty clear. I find 'layout theft' discourse to be a little bit... How to say, overblown?

It's not like traditional art theft, where they're just reposting what you did with no change. When someone uses your layout, they usually use it as just that; a layout. They make everything else about the site their own. There's still effort put into that. It's still webmastery.

Not to say that it's "morally correct" to yoink someone's code if they explicitly tell people not to... Just that I suppose I don't get the big deal about it. ESPECIALLY on Neocities, which is very blatantly marketed towards beginners. (The essays that I've seen saying that people who use tools for beginners don't deserve to call themselves webmasters is insane. Sir, this is the "tools for beginners" web host.)

I've given my blessings to use my layout's code as a base to my partner, as well as my friend, and they're both using it. I'm happy for that!

I do this, of course, with the hope that those viewing my site understand that I would prefer that my code not be used for AI training, or for other's profit. I do plan to add this information to the site eventually, though.

[Nickolox]

i haven't had it happen, or at the least, noticed it happen to me yet, though I really wouldn't mind if people take inspiration from my site/steal code ect.
Credit for programming related/javascript things would be nice because for the most part I make them myself, but I dunno, most people don't care, and I've gotten used to that fact since I've had it happen a lot to me in the past.
I just chuckle and laugh it off with the fact a lot of code is probably just taken from somewhere else anyways lmao

The only thing I have issue is, is with any artwork I've created, I already use custom made art, and plan on making a lot more original assets for my site, and I very much do mind in that regard!!

Sites and code are something where you Need to modify them even if you do rip it off, you're still making it your own in a way since obviously you can't just put in someone else's information in there, that's dumb, assets though are a different story, since I've seen that a lot of people don't even bother to modify stolen assets and just use them anyways regardless of how well they fit their site

Like i've even seen people's personal 88x31 buttons and other assets stolen/reposted on social media and that's so weird to me cause that's someone's personal work?? why steal it for aesthetic reasons?? 

The lack of care is annoying to me, don't use people's personal assets and artworks for your own, it's reeeeally not a good look.
Code is art too in a way, but I think personally it's a lot harder to make code truly distinct comparatively, it's a purely functional thing in my eyes.

[technomage]

While my gut reaction to stuff like this is "burn down the thief and everything they love", the more I think about it, the more I realize that I'm of two minds on this topic.

I've had my layouts straight up copy/pasted before. Like they just viewed source, grabbed every bit of code they could find, and dumped it onto their own site as-is. That absolutely grinds my gears. Like other people have said, your site is an extension of you, and I think this also extends to the code. Its a display of your skills and knowledge (perhaps with a dash of your ability to follow tutorials, but that's a skill in and of itself imo), regardless of anything else. I see it as someone trying to misrepresent a part of themselves, and using you and your work to do it without putting in any effort on their part beyond a right click and a few keyboard shortcuts.

Now, with that said... I have absolutely no issues with people forking code, taking inspiration, or even duplicating parts of someone's design. That still takes a little bit of effort and knowledge on the part of the person doing the copying. If you were to look at my CodePen, you'd find tons of code fragments that I didn't write mixed in with my own work. I'll see a really cool design element on some other site, dig around until I find the code for it, and throw it up in a CodePen so I can pick it apart to see how it works and what I can learn from it. Is that theft? Technically, sure, but its theft in the same way that stealing paint and brushes is. You're stealing the elements to make your own work, not breaking into a museum to steal a whole Rembrandt and claiming you painted it.

[Tiffany]

I've had it happen a few times in the past to my website, to my art, even to the way I dressed. I've always felt pissed off, especially because how I am has always been unique to me, and never the popular way. So, it felt disrespectful, and like they were feeling a piece of my soul. So, I always too it very personal, when it probably wasn't to them. I would like to get to a place where I say that it's a form of flattery tbh though.

[bby]

i don't think it's ever happened to me unless it was in the myspace or tumblr era. but i wouldn't care unless they were claiming that they were me or hotlinking. which i also don't see happening lol. it's not like my site is 100% original anyways, i definitely get inspired by others' code but i do try to tweak things to somewhat make it my own and have a credits page.

if we're talking about stuff outside of coding, like if someone claimed they owned an oc i worked for years on, then yeah i probably would be upset especially if they were using my character to make money or something like that. but like before, i don't really see that happening since i don't really draw attention to my sites that much.

[creaturefeature]

Idk, I have mentioned in my site that people are feel to take some of my site´s code and do with it as they will.

However if we´re talking in terms of art or pictures i´ve made that is an enitre different matter. I think its well rude to pick my stuff without premission, specially when I offered some free to use images they could take instead. Talk about rude.

But thankfully I haven´t had to deal with it.

[krish]

I haven't had to deal with this, but to be honest I don't think I'd care. This is a hobby of mine, and my code is far from perfect. In my eyes, you'll never outdo the doer (me)!

[larvapuppy]

Like others have said, it would probably bother me if someone ripped my website's layout verbatim with all the same colours and graphics in the same places, etc. However the basic layout structure isn't very original so if someone were to take that and make it their own I wouldn't care. To be honest, as long as you aren't stealing my drawings or pixel art I'm not going to be that angry.

[KittyTheKat]

I suppose I'm a bit biased as my site is almost completely pieced together from other pages, but I think it's a compliment if anything. They may have a hard time working on their own things for one reason or another, and it means whatever they took was worth taking. Of course, in some cases you may wish they would give you credit but I don't think there's much reason to get upset about it.

[Mo/Otto]

My sites are built off the backs of free layouts, w3schools, duct tape, and prayers. It's not that I'd be mad at someone "stealing" my code, but why would they? On the other hand, my sites use a lot of art/graphics I made myself. I'd get way angrier at someone stealing those. I plan on making graphics specifically for other people to use on their sites in the future, so hopefully that won't be too big of an issue.
So unless someone's actively trying to steal my online identity or whatever, I don't think I'd care.

[Numberedpaws]

I don't know shit about coding from the ground up. If someone wants to copy my site I can't do anything about that since I started with a template in the first place. I'd probably be flattered. I have however had my OCs stolen for no good reason other than spite, particularly ones related to my plurality. So that's no fun.

[Swiftpaw]

For my system's website, we don't really care too much. The original framework of our website was inspired by other sites until it became its own thing and I want to say that's how a lot of people start. We still lift things and modify things off of codepen or HTML/CSS wesbites.

Personally I'm happy if someone's making a personal website at all