Hey everyone,

A customer brought this to my attention this morning, and I got quite the kick out of it. I've contacted the domain owner and submitted a support ticket through the site in question.

Take a look at: http://www.webhostmelbourne.com/

Then look in my signature

While our design is not 100% unique (rather a purchased template) I have made several changes to the original design and "WebHost Melbourne" went as far as stealing our hosting plans and information within the slider!

While their site shows items below the slider, ours did as well up until a couple weeks ago. This lets me know they ripped it before then.

I can't believe people will actually rip a design like this, and not only that, use it for a website that is in the same industry as theirs!

I figure the member is probably from here, or one of the other forums I post at. I am posting this at all of them so hopefully the owner will be shamed into removing it.

So they bought the same template!

And they offer similar "plans" (so does just about every other "hosting company" BTW)

Is there anything UNIQUE that identifies it as being copied?

I have the same problem Curtis, I bought v bulletin and it seems webmaster talk has copied me by buying it aswell, but they just don't seem to care and ignore all my complaints

Get another template, that way they will not be the same.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

So they bought the same template!

And they offer similar "plans" (so does just about every other "hosting company" BTW)

Is there anything UNIQUE that identifies it as being copied?

Yes, it was in fact a purchased template.

HOWEVER

I had made changes to it. I added the slider images, hosting plans icons, added the text, etc. Nothing too major.

If he had simply purchased the template as well, then his would have a slightly different layout without the exact same words and images as mine.

By looking at his site, I can tell this was done about two weeks ago. Since then, I have removed the information under the slider and changed the wording within them slightly. He has my 'outdated' version of things.

I just can't believe someone would desire the exact same design as someone else in the same field. If he stole it, and had some blog about puppy mills or a website for his grandma's *****in' pasta sauce I'd care less. But he stole not only the design (which I do not "own", I understand that) but he stole my words and novice image work.

Whatever, I have his phone number and contact information. I found out he is a WHT member which really upsets me, as I am much more active there than here or similar forums. I've contacted him via his domain WhoIS email address, submitted a support ticket via his site, and sent me a PM on WHT (he was ONLINE for a couple hours, even checked his profile where it said he was "Viewing Private Messages") and no response from him.

Blah.

You know what they say about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery

Are any of the images "hotlinked"? Because revenge has no boundaries when that happens. A few choice "ladyboy" images or some "interesting" pr0n images are always handy for such occasions.
They don't usually re-offend after that!!

Haha, that is the first thing I looked for was some hot linked images.

I have a image uploading site, so every week I make a backup of all the files and delete all the porn off the server. I've collected an 'interesting' selection of bizzare and wild things that would of looked lovely on his site

Anyhow, he's changed his template. So thats good.