Above; the Bam Creative website, circa 2006 until now…

Back in May 2006, we had our first serious copy of the Bam Creative website. My approach at that time was to collect evidence, hire a lawyer and go after the offender. It worked - they took the site down, and ended up settling with us for our claims out of court. My two posts about this incident can be seen here and here.

Then, in September last year, we had another thieving designer pick up the Bam Creative website, code and all and use it on a client website. This time, I only posted about it once, and I called them ‘lazy designers’. I didn’t ‘name and shame’, I didn’t even link to the offending website, as I felt sorry for the client involved. In this instance, we had our lawyers contact them directly, and the site was removed, and our case was quickly sorted out.

A few weeks ago, once again, a fellow web company owner points me in the direction of two copies of our site. Now, is this flattery, when not only do they swipe our XHTML and CSS, but also the photo of the window at the front of our office, and most of the text? (Exhibit A, above)

Then again, this one (Exhibit B) using most of our words, XHTML and CSS. The thing that disappoints most of the team at Bam Creative though, is the lack of quality improvements, as opposed to the dodgy additions that get added.

Anyway, both the above examples have now been sorted out - websites gone, apologies accepted, etc.

Now, what should we do, next time around? What do you feel is a fair punishment for this behaviour?

Images: The ‘Stolen from Bam Creative’ 2008 Collection.

I’ve been quiet here on Miles’ Blog for some six months now, partly because we’ve moved house, changed kids schools and had a third child join us, and partly because business has been booming, but also because I have been spending those hours I’d normally be posting to this blog, quietly authoring a book.

Yes, a book; one of those fancy printed things with paper and a cover and sit inside book stores (as well as online stores…).

The Principles of Successful Freelancing, published by the good folk at SitePoint, will be hitting the shelves in early December.

Without saying too much at this stage, the book is ‘Full of anecdotes and practical advice, this short, hands on guide is written for people who want to become freelancers in the technology sector.‘

I’ll post more about the book closer to the release date. If you’d like to be emailed when The Principles of Successful Freelancing is released, feel free to add a comment below…

Image: Manuscript for The Principles of Successful Freelancing.