Ted, be prepared!

[Bodo]

silicon.com said:

Web 'copycats' ripping off small businesses ... silicon.com was contacted by Shane O'Donoghue, who has been running a website called Car Enthusiast - dedicated to all things automotive - since 1999. It gets about four million impressions per month and O'Donoghue sells advertising on the site in order to pay the bills. However, he recently noticed another site, called 'Car or Car', that had cropped up in the previous month or so and was ripping off his site design, content and even his copyright notice. It was then using his hard work to sell advertising of its own. The complete 'cut and paste' nature of the theft meant that O'Donoghue was even listed as Car or Car's editor - next to a picture of himself. ...

more here

[PetrolTed]

Blimey. What's the point of that?

[PetrolTed]

It's hard work getting advertisers for a well known site. I can't see many people signing up for something they've not heard of...

[Bodo]

I don't really get the point too. However, funny that it's automotive end user sites only. Probably something the scammer is keen in, or believes to get most benefit out of. Confusing.

[pdV6]

My brother-in-law's wife is a lawyer and one of the senior guys at her firm specialises in intellectual property, with a particular emphasis on things electronic. So much so that he has his own website promoting himself in this capacity.

Imagine his mirth when it was pointed out to him that some chap in South America had set himself up in the same line of work... and ripped off his website lock, stock & barrel - including his photo!

[rpguk]

Sadly this is very common and often (though obviously not in these cases) it is not the fault of the designers rather the company. I suppose if you are a webdesigner then its a lot easier to just rip off another nice site design and just make a couple of changes rather then go to the long effort of actually doing the work, and anyway with so many millions of websites out there if you pick on a small company whats the chances of getting caught?

I understand its very common in the world of web hosting.