When is Inspiration, Stealing?

J

joyriiide1113

New member
I have seen a few templates, design schemes, ideas, ect and have in a way almost fell in love with detailing more than I thought I could, simply by the techniquie being used to market it.



I am getting a website made and want to know one thing.



How far can you take an already exhisting idea as inspiration unitl its considered stealing. Many websites recently, GTAinDetail (picus') is one for example. The color scheme, template, and pictures linking to gallerys is really nice. I like his ideas but do not want to copy it.



Opinions please.





Joy
 
I think when it starts to look like the site that inspired you more then something new and different.
 
joyriiide1113 said:
How far can you take an already exhisting idea as inspiration unitl its considered stealing.
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The contents of most websites are protected under the copyright laws of the United States. The company that owns the site, also owns the all copyrights to the original contents of the site and they reserve the legal right to protect the copyrighted contents of the site.



Of course, you can gather inspiration and gain ideas from anything that is out there. It is only considered a vioation of copyright when you copy, reproduce, exploit and in any way derive income from the contents of a website.



You would be smart to come up with your own ideas and designs. Something that is unique and totally you. Hey, there is a lot of fun and satisfaction in creating your own design schemes. It is not that difficult. You can do it, if you think you can.
 
I know copyright laws very well, thank you. Its not the legal standpoint, as not much is protected (You can copy everythign except literature, pictures, and name), its the morality issue. If you see a website that link in a certain way, and you look at it million others way and still like the original one, which is being used by another website, would you call that stealing (morally).



I'm actually not doing much when it comes to the website except providing literature and pictures. Everything else is being designed by my web designer. I was just giving him some ideas, but wanted to know what you guys would consider stealing... Main thing I love from www.GTAinDetail.com website is the gallery... I think Ill let my designer decide how he wants to display it though.
 
heh, I liked GTAinDetails Services catagories and asked if I could use them which he said was ok. I definatly changed it a bit but if you were read them side by side you'd see the similarities. Also I asked Mosca if I could use is QEW pics to illustrate that a wash sould still be done in the winter and gave me the ok and thanked me for asking first. So most of us are really friendly and just ask if you like someones particular layout.



I actually have my gallery link to a page here so people looking at my site can read my process and read fead back from you guys.
 
Hi guys. I am a computer engineer by night, so that sort of thing comes pretty naturally to me.



I did design the site, however no idea is 100% original any more. I did use some other sites (not detailing really, but other sites in general) as inspiration. I think the bottom line is ask yourself "if the guy who owns this site saw my site, would he say "that guy stole my stuff"?" If so, it's probably best to ask.



Deadlock32 asked me many months ago if he could use some of the lingo on my site, I said no problem. I appreciated him asking and it wasn't a direct copy, so it's cool. Incidentally his site is fantastic now, and looks nothing like mine. I've had other guys ask if they could use the "scheme" (header with buttons on top, etc.), I've said yes to everyone so far. I just appreciate being asked.



So ya, joyriiide1113; if you like the gallery idea go for it. I make the little "buttons" that link to the galleries in photoshop, it's actually very easy. Shoot me a PM when you're done I'd love to see how it works out. :)





Oh, Jordan - that book online thing is actually very easy too. There are "form" templates all over the internet that just let you plug in the fields you want; when someone fills it out it's sent to your server, and your server e-mails you the form. I actually got that idea from someone on Autopia (see, nothings original! :)), and it's been very successful.
 
Picus said:
Oh, Jordan - that book online thing is actually very easy too. There are "form" templates all over the Internet that just let you plug in the fields you want; when someone fills it out it's sent to your server, and your server e-mails you the form. I actually got that idea from someone on Autopia (see, nothings original! :)), and it's been very successful.
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Well rather than having people ask you, "when are you available" it would be nice to just direct them to the website. Because I'm really only available 2-3 days a week, it makes me sounds unprofessional, so this would really help.



I was searching for an availability calendar program similar to the ones vacation rental websites use, but couldn't find any for other applications.



Should I just google "forum templates" and see what comes up. Does it matter than I'm using wordpress blog?



Thanks,



Jordan
 
Wordpress is ok, actually it's good - the form will integrate right into it. When I say form I mean script. It's just a pre-loaded booking script. I wrote my own script, but here is a site that lets you download one that will do the same thing:



http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html



Just follow the instructions (put formmail.pl into your cgi bin directory after editing the proper fields), then load your form.html with the fields you want.
 
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