i’ve been using the internet and posting designs within its ever expanding web for quite some time. palesky.com alone has been around since before the turn of the new millennia (i can’t be sure if it actually launched in ’97 or ’98) so i’ll be the first to admit that i’ve been really lucky when it comes to web thievery. granted, most of my designs on palesky have been really unconventional and probably couldn’t be ripped template style, so over the years all i’ve really had to deal with is a stolen image or two, and during my later years of hebetude i didn’t even really care.
for the past couple of weeks i’ve been motivated more than usual, and some of that motivation spilled its way into the web which produced the latest interface you see here. like anyone, i was proud of what i had created, proudly showing its sleek lines and ideas of randomness, and although it didn’t receive the fanfare or praise of my previous designs (probably because of my inactivity and/or the changing face of web design accessibility) i was and still am proud of it nonetheless.
with pride comes a greater sense of loss.
i was going through my weekly stats when i happened to stumble upon this site. mild shock set through my system. was this for real? after years of escaping the experience of having my IP taken from, had it finally reared its ugly head? my brain immediately zoomed here and there – i thought of how i had only read jeff‘s “ripped” post a couple of days ago and thought of how i was glad i didn’t have to deal with being ripped off like some of the mentioned subjects posted in his entry.
over several days i watched as the code was gutted, its insides forcibly changed to be something different, yet undeniably the same. for awhile some of my banners and random graphics were still within the code but has since disappeared. still, within its code there can still be found major references to my site – hell, even the images are within a “palesky” directory.
my shock switched to flattery, and now to confusion. my friends ask if i’m angry, and to be honest i really am not because i’m hoping i can find a way to take back what is mine – but am unsure as how to proceed. so i’m looking to you, my friends, the design community, the web community, my family – what would you suggest? will a simple email explaining my thoughts to the perps suffice? or will an aggressive calling to arms be the only way to communicate?
fuck – i can’t even read czechoslovakian – for all i know they could be crediting me all over their site.
not czechoslovakian :).. just czech and slovak – very common languages… but two languages :)
Wow, that has got to suck. I mean, not only is your site ripped off, but you can’t even communicate with the thief and vent your frustrations about it! >:[
I’ve had people do the same to my websites in the past. They start out with a carbon copy of one of my layouts, only to slowly gut out most of the images and use it as a template.
I remember when I first began making websites, I learned HTML by viewing other peoples’ source codes, but I never went so far as to copy and paste an entire website and use it as a template. Sometimes I wonder if people are genuinely trying to learn or if they’re simply lazy and without respect for other peoples’ work.
Hopefully you can get into contact with the website owner somehow. Good luck!
I know this is old and you might have seen this already, but apparently he’s crediting you now… as Mark Palesky!