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kurtuesi.lv — Kur tu esi? What's that mean? I'm sure it means "I stole Mixx's theme and design scheme" in some language or another. Too close to be a coincidence.

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Comments (35)

- MarkCarras
Wow is all I can say.
- (0 Kudos received)
- cGt2099
Yeah these guys are fucked
C&D them guys
This is nutbag thievery at its lowest level
"I can't think of anything original so I'll just rip off another site"
Fucktarded Turdprodders
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- Honest_Ape
These idiots. I was just looking at their css sheet and noticed something:
/*
* Mixx Stylesheet
* Copyright (c) 2007 Recommended Reading, Inc. (http://www.mixx.com)
*/

They couldn't even change that???

Morons.
- (0 Kudos received)
- cGt2099
Whois Record

domain: kurtuesi.lv
admin-c: 69356-LUMII
tech-c: 69356-LUMII
changed: 20071120
source: LUMII

person: <hidden>
address: none
phone: +371 29171777
e-mail:
nic-hdl: 69356-LUMII
source: LUMII
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- cGt2099
@cGt2099

Let me emphasize this portion:

phone: +371 29171777
phone: +371 29171777
phone: +371 29171777
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- doublehead
Yeah and they can't spell for shit either!!

Sorry, I'm just in a weird mood tonight
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- gbarberi
@cGt2099 @Honest_Ape
It's Russian and here is a press release for the site. It's not *exactly* a Mixx clone, but they did steal the CSS.
http://tinyurl.com/35fz6g
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- gbarberi
Oh oh... My bad for the superwide browser window
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- gbarberi
.lv is the TLD for Latvia

They also have a little Digg clone:

http://www.digg.lv/
- (0 Kudos received)
- cGt2099
@gbarberi
Here's a tinyurl link for it
http://tinyurl.com/35fz6g

I'm gonna click on report on your comment and see if the Mixx crew can change it to the TinyURL link for ya
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- gbarberi
@cGt2099

They probably can; they're pretty quick when I give them a request

Good thinking.

I'll have to remember that this isn't @#$%. I need to use tinyurl here.
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- jnbammer
Not cool.
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- robdiana
@Honest_Ape
I reviewed the css, and I don't think they changed anything. I can't believe they used everything. The link bar at the top, the "mixx message" box on the right, the entire menu structure...
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- kpfingaz
Now that was dumb.
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- exMixxer
Well let me add my .02.

@gbarberi Doesn't matter if they only took the CSS. Two Things: 1.) The CSS won't work unless you have very similar or compliment HTML to go with it. And since the CSS and HTML are copyrighted they violated that. 2.) Doesn't matter if the service is different, they still stole copyrighted material. 37signals was close to suing someone who did the same thing.

@cgt2099 Unfortunately its a little tricky since this is now international domain. For Mixx to really and truly shut them down with a C&D, they'd need some serious flow and a good law firm, and right now since Mixx is small their money would be best spent somewhere else. I did suggest to them to contact the hosting provider b/c I believe they're required to uphold international copyrights.

@robdiana you are correct, they changed nothing. First thing I did was review the CSS, exact same. Then on several pages I reviewed the HTML with its Mixx compliment, again no change.

Long comment short. Yea, if this was a US company, they'd be screwed. Since its in Latvia and Mixx doesn't exactly have the guns (they may have an ace up their sleeve) its probably not in their best interest to persue this until they get some serious flow going. I did make an off-the-cuff comment to them basically saying the problem could be solved with a DNS attack, but no one at Mixx would so such a thing ;).
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- paulmcintosh
How blatant can you get. They obviously don't give a s**t and feel they can get away with it. It will be interesting to see if anything does happen in the next while. I'll be watching to see.
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- Honest_Ape
@cGt2099
Oh man, it just gets worse. Check out this site, a clone of friendfeed!!! What won't these people do???
http://tinyurl.com/37nbvk
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- Prepressology
You would think they would at least change the colors...oh wait that would take effort. Nevermind!
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- SebKom
I am really curious about Mixx's reaction.

Not that we should feel offended, it's because Mixx's design ROCKS!
- (0 Kudos received)
- jansie
OH MY WORD!!! that is incredible. hmmm, does this mean i can start a mixx in my language?
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- hdar3415
Mixx at least needs to try to do something about this, if they just let it go then other people will probably try to do the same thing.
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- pleeker
@Bdog2g2 -- agreed 100% on all counts. If legal pursuit isn't an option due to costs, etc., then try the web hosts and see what happens. Then again, they could be self-hosting for all we know.
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- MarkCarras
It shocks me that it would have taken them five minutes to change just enough to not get caught. Take the Mixx name out of the CSS, change a few colors, and I don't think anyone would have noticed. At least it wouldn't get near as much notice. Sad and pathetic.
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- SilentJay74
What's up /b/ anyone wanna launch a Dos.....crap I am at the wrong place.
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- MikeonTV
Wait. Are we sure that Mixx didn't copy them?
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- exMixxer
@MikeonTV .

Hold on now....you have to be careful with crowd mentality. Everyone then will go after mixx and we don't want that.

@SilentJay74

Sure, but only as long as you take full blame.
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- yoda
BFD.

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....

i guess it *has* been a slow news week..
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- Syxle
Ahhh that is so annoying >:/
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- exMixxer
@yoda

There's a huge difference between imitation and complete copyright infringement. Imitation would be a similiar color scheme and perhaps some structural similarities, this dip$hit copied everything. I'll put it to you this way, someone takes my hours and hours or work and money and copy it, they're getting sued I don't give a shit if they liked my stuff so much that they saw fit to immolate my site. Its about protecting your name and a brand.

http://securityincite.com/blog/mike-rothman/37signals-jumps-the-shark
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- yoda
@Bdog2g2 ok ok it's the end of the world. nothing will come of such a lawsuit, and Mixx has enough things to spend cash on, like making this site better.

the only winners in lawsuits usually are the lawyers.
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- exMixxer
@yoda

"ok ok it's the end of the world."

You obviously didn't read my prior posts on the issue as I stated what you did. My last comment was what I would do in the situation if I had the resources or if the company was US-based.

What I was pointing out to you was this case wasn't a case of flattery due to imitation, it was stealing,all legalities aside. Which may not be a problem if you dont' have issues with stealing, I mean "its only a candy bar, no one got hurt"
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- yoda
@Bdog2g2 you are correct, i didn't. and i was in a bad mood.

this kind of borrowing (Mixx still has "it", don't they?) has been happening online since day one of the Web, and it happens across the board. often the company doesn't know about it, it's just something Developers do, it's Standard Procedure in the WebDev profession, trust me.

no, for instance, let's have a look at your icon...you stole something from Google, didn't you?

well, didn't you??????????

and did I too, steal from George Lucas?

no, we "borrowed" dude. lol

i'd bet you that some developer for Mixx, somewhere, borrowed a bit of AJAX, JS, or HTML code too, although hopefully s/he was smart enough to not leave copywrites in it.

i know this industry...it's no big deal. it really isn't.
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- yoda
@Bdog2g2 and of course you got that woman's permission to use her on your icon? and of course Mixx has permission from Google and that hottie? and of course Mixx has permission from Lucas for mine? and of course gbarberi has permission from Charles Schultz for his? and of course Mixx has permission to allow him to use it?

see where the problem is? it's all just bits, zinging around, unowned by anyone. they are copied, not stolen. otherwise, we could all be in trouble.

imagine if Mixx got sued for gbarberi's imitation of Snoopy? they probably, legally, could be, for not stopping copywrite infringement, knowingly allowing it (and clearly it's knowingly, since several Mixx employees use the site, and i think the founder does too...they HAD TO see it..they had to.)

where do you draw the line?

and how about that old Judas Priest album with the cover that almost looks like a Coca-Cola ad? and it goes on forever.....

well?
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- exMixxer
@yoda

You're confusing trademarks and copyrights. Had the company or any other company used a similar color scheme, somewhat similar layout, this is a non-issue. But they didn't, they copied HTML source, and CSS source, both copyrightable material and used it for their own distribution, hence illegal.

As for gbarberi's icon.

"Independent creation is permitted. A second work, identical to an earlier copyrighted work, does not infringe, if it is, in fact, independently created. "

Now a trademark issue may come into play, but probably wouldn't hold water.

My icon, again its a trademark issue you've brought up, not a copyright one.

Your icon, that's slightly hard to defend as it was created from a screen shot of a movie (perhaps) in which case that's not permissible (not saying it isn't done, just saying it doesn't hold water)

The Judas Priest album is a trademark issue, not a copyright one.

"and it goes on forever....."

You're always going to find similarities between products, websites, companies, etc. The question is does it hold up to the scrutiny of the law, in the case of this company, it will not because the dumbasses even copied mixx's copyright notice, so case closed, no more arguments in this case need to be heard.

Since neither of us are lawyers and either of us may or may not have an agenda or preconceived notion on how law should or should not be enforced, perhaps it best we just drop the issue.
- (0 Kudos received)
- yoda
@Bdog2g2 you KNOW i'm just playing Devil's Advocate here...

dropped. we kew!
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