RIPOFF!

I finally feel like a real designer.
HCS Crafts Stole Our LogoDUDE! I was just googling for a particular knitting book online, and I found a UK shop called HCS Crafts. Um, notice anything familiar about that site? They completely ripped us off. (I saved a screenshot for posterity.) As you might imagine, I immediately fired off a rather terse e-mail.

As I see it, there are three main problems here. The first is website design theft. They’ve copied the way part of our site looks in a really obvious way. (Also, RANDOM. They’re in the UK but there’s an embroidery of the Sydney Opera House? Did they even look at what they were doing?) This isn’t really a “crime” that you can do anything about, other than naming and shaming. (Hence this post.) The second and third issues are a bit more serious. That header with the embroidery and the wool and the red rick-rack? That actually comes from a printed advertisement that we’ve been running in Sydney hotels for a number of years. A printed advertisement that is copyrighted and which we never gave any permission for anyone else to use. Lastly we have the fact that they’ve taken our shop logo, the actual trademarked image that we have on a sign in front of the shop, and simply replaced the words “Tapestry Craft” with their own. Yeah. You’re really not allowed to do that.

So of course this is all very flattering, especially since I’m the crappiest website designer ever. But hey! Now that I’ve been ripped off, I’ve got industry cred!

Update: They seem to have taken it down now. Evidently naming-and-shaming works!

5 Comments

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  1. Bastards! And they didn’t even have the class to make it look as good as yours does. Theirs looks overcrowded and tacky. And the spacing on that banner is just wrong. Lazy and stupid both.

    A website design is a published artifact (published electronically), and it is copyright, the same as a printed advert is. And it’s illegal to back-engineer code. Have a look at http://www.britishcopyright.org/ – there are information sheets there. Better still, suggest that they have a look at it. Can you get a nasty solicitor’s letter sent to them?

  2. I’m off to the UK in a couple of weeks, and will be about 2 miles from their shop. Just let me know if you need any direct action!

  3. I think it’s time to let a few dozen angry ferrets loose in the store!

    Imagine the fun they will have with all that wool! Plus you don’t want to know what they might do with those knitting needles.

    I have trained them well. *evil cackles*

  4. Wow congrats, the victim of a design pirate!

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