I’ve Been Pirated
01 Oct 2004 05:37 AM
Well, well… Looks like some newbie over at Angelfire has decided to pirate Phono Phunk. I love the fact that he’s still linking directly to my images, css, posts and music! What a talented guy. He’s even managed to steal one of my mp3s, converted it to a wma, and offering it as one of his own along with other music he’s ripped off. What an honour. To top it off, he’s even displaying my google ads! This guy really wants to help me make money.
I always thought this site’s design was unique enough to prevent anyone from trying to pass it off as their own. I guess I was a tad optimistic. ;)
UPDATE: Since this guy is linking directly to my CSS I thought I’d have a bit of fun. He’s using an embed tag inside h2’s which is something I would never do. Hmmmm… this looks a little more interesting now doesn’t it!! :)
UPDATE 2: I reported this to Lycos and they have removed the offending page.
UPDATE 3: Here are some screenshots of the pirated site.
- Posted by John Serris in Web
1. 01 Oct 2004, 09:57 AM | Sam said…
Haha, that’s fantastic. You have to rename this stylesheet and edit the old to something completely hideous!
That’ll teach him.
2. 02 Oct 2004, 12:30 AM | Dion said…
I love this joke, can’t believe this guy is stupid enough to link directly to your css LOL.
3. 02 Oct 2004, 12:40 AM | Carcarlo said…
I think that’s just a spammer who uses copied websites to sent robots to his sites to increase their ranking. It’s not the first time I see that kind of “content stealing".
4. 02 Oct 2004, 01:34 AM | nick said…
freakin awesome!!
that’s the coolest thing I’ve seen all week. Just proves that ‘theifs’ are morons.
good weekend all.
5. 03 Oct 2004, 01:39 AM | Anonymous said…
Tell me you have a screenshot!
6. 03 Oct 2004, 07:13 AM | John Serris said…
I just added some screenshots :)
7. 03 Oct 2004, 05:19 PM | Jeff said…
Fantastic! Thanks for the laugh…
Now if only a big, important site would to hotlink your CSS. ;)
8. 04 Oct 2004, 07:19 PM | Nader said…
HEHEHEHE VIRTUA GAY. that CSS-change is excellent. so funny . this guy must have been shocked when he checked out his own site ;)))))
9. 06 Oct 2004, 07:50 AM | Ozh said…
Rofl, this is funny as hell :)
Nice one :))
10. 06 Oct 2004, 01:17 PM | Joachim Guanzon said…
Now thats a funny way to teach a thief a lesson, using design tricks for payback! I’m no pro when it comes to design, but I’d feel the same if someone else did that to me.
11. 06 Oct 2004, 01:35 PM | Trevor said…
Hilarious.
12. 06 Oct 2004, 04:26 PM | Richard@Home said…
I’m not suprised he copied your site - its very slick. And kudos to you for getting him shut down.
13. 06 Oct 2004, 09:24 PM | Andrew Hume said…
Thats superb john.
Enjoyed that very much indeed.
14. 06 Oct 2004, 10:36 PM | MaThIbUs said…
VirtuaGay™, haha! Ah… Pirates are everywhere, aren’t they?
15. 07 Oct 2004, 06:01 AM | Hanni said…
Fantastic! I’d never have thought of something so hilarious! Serves the guy right!
Mind you… it ’s a wonderful design. I especially like the icons.
16. 07 Oct 2004, 07:54 AM | Dario said…
Only this: Great & Fantastico!
17. 07 Oct 2004, 02:02 PM | John Serris said…
One thing you wouldn’t know from the screenshot is that the background was actually an animated gif. So when you viewed the page you had a hundred naked guys dancing.
I know what I did was pretty immature, but I was going to change it. Luckily Lycos took the page off line pretty quick!
18. 08 Oct 2004, 07:22 PM | Robert Kraig said…
hehe, i liked what you did, thought it was rather hilerious.. Anyways.. the css2/xhtml on this site is quite amazing.. well maybe not the css, but the design is extremely appealing to the eyes.. (eye candy) anyway.. nice..
19. 08 Oct 2004, 11:42 PM | Jacques said…
I like the trick which you did using CSS :)
20. 09 Oct 2004, 07:23 AM | Rob Mientjes said…
Haha! Great reaction to a shameless rip! The VirtuaGay is a real novelty. *start on a redesign* ;)
21. 11 Oct 2004, 05:40 PM | Anonymous said…
Test shake it…
22. 15 Oct 2004, 06:15 PM | KLS said…
hahaha this is another good example of why seperating content and presentation is important; to smite rippers! love what you did. anyways, in the future, you could report rippings to www.ripperhunting.com as well. We bring down rippers almost everyday!
23. 17 Oct 2004, 10:25 AM | Ash Haque said…
Lol nicely done dude, you do have a nice design though :) It was bound to happen
24. 19 Oct 2004, 07:39 AM | Ari said…
Wow, I’m so impressed with this site. Very well done!
25. 19 Oct 2004, 07:52 AM | Ari said…
Wow this is This is so damn cool man, I’m highly impressed
I just wanted to say neato again and play around with your comment-code. That’s all ;)
26. 23 Dec 2004, 12:02 PM | Brad said…
I’ve had a few designs ripped before, it’s incredible how much anger it stirred up in me. It’s a flattering experience no doubt, but it still invokes a certain emotion in you that isn’t pretty. I’ve never been lucky enough to have someone actually hotlink my css file… you handled it perfectly. I’m glad the ripper got what he deserved.
27. 24 Dec 2004, 05:36 PM | Alexandar Tzanov said…
That is awesome. I would have done the same.
BTW, the design of your site is AMZING.
28. 05 Jan 2005, 02:39 AM | B said…
lol damn funny
29. 16 Jan 2005, 05:08 AM | rob said…
I acctualy find the gay-background better than the one you are using right now … :)
30. 20 Jan 2005, 10:10 PM | matthew said…
haha, funny trick that
31. 08 Feb 2005, 11:40 AM | Youkie said…
You suck
32. 08 Feb 2005, 11:51 AM | John Serris said…
Youkie… you suck MORE!
33. 09 Feb 2005, 11:57 AM | Brendan said…
.. *chuckle* ahh, brilliant!
The layout here is amazing, John, awesome work..
If people are stupid enough to rip *cough* borrow a site’s CSS, then they should understand the repercussions of doing so.
Some of the comments suggest it may have been a harsh response, but, seriously? It’s a fair move. It’s John’s content, he can do with it whatever he wants.. if that means a virtua-gay dancing man, then it’s a dancing gay man. :)
I imagine the dude that was kinda stupid enough to do this is pretty much regretting the decision right now.
The little shmuck will no doubt have learnt a very harsh lesson, and is unlikely to try it again. I use a layout based on a template on my website, which I’ve changed a fair bit, but I have kept the original author’s link in as a mark of respect.
34. 04 Mar 2005, 12:30 PM | themountie said…
hah! that is too awesome… i came here off of shauninman.com’s site, and saw what the dork was doing with his site… LoL… ah, i wish i was cool enough to have people even want to steal my design.
your design is rockish, VERY well done… i’m pretty much new at this… only been doing it for a year or a year and half (design that is) so yeah… he he….
-themountie