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Comment by timdorr | Hacker News Reader

It's actually quite easy: Find their host and, if they're in the US, issue a DMCA notification:

   $ dig resinternationalgroup.com

   ;; ANSWER SECTION:
   resinternationalgroup.com. 18788 IN	A 66.206.15.100

   $ dig -x 66.206.15.100

   ;; ANSWER SECTION:
   100.15.206.66.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN PTR cpanel.siteplot.com.

Send the email over to support@siteplot.com. If that doesn't work, go up to their datacenter:

   $ whois 66.206.15.100

   ...
   OrgAbuseHandle: NETWO5887-ARIN
   OrgAbuseName:   Network Admin
   OrgAbusePhone:  +1-509-209-8000
   OrgAbuseEmail:  network@cyber-world.com
   OrgAbuseRef:    http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NETWO5887-ARIN
   ...

Email it over to network@cyber-world.com or support@cyber-world.com.

Here's a good template from Scribd: http://support.scribd.com/entries/22980-DMCA-copyright-infri...

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They seems to be in Europe though... what happens in that case?

It's still a copyright violation; the DMCA, as mentioned above, is (iirc) more related to sharing of copyrighted materials on websites that host user-generated content (such as copyrighted videos on youtube or copyrighted visuals or code on github). The DMCA doesn't apply or need to be mentioned here, as the pre-DMCA copyright laws already cover this.

The copyright violation is coming from a server hosted in the US, so it's subject to US laws.

It would be the same if I took a DVD from the US that doesn't have a copyright in another country, went to that country to copy it, and then tried to sell it back in the US. It doesn't matter where I'm making the copy, it matters where I'm distributing it.

Hopefully they will just honour DMCA regardless.

They probably rip off designs in the hope that they won't get found out. As soon as it looks like a hassle they will hopefully just move to ripping off someone else.

Even if they aren't in the US, the majority of hosts will still accept DMCAs.

That would be an abuse of the DMCA since its just a design (see Flat-Ui).

No.

This is directly using (even hotlinking some assets) the OPs copyrighted materials.

FlatUI had 3 icons that were "similar"[1] to icons in LayerVault. There wasn't any clear copying of assets.

[1] for some values of similar, including "not similar".

Oh, the hotlinking of assets is murder waiting to happen. Show him whatfor!

The hotlinking is caused by a straight-up copy of OP's JS files. This is a pretty clear cut case of copyright infringement - a DMCA takedown is not abusive here.

Yes, hotlinking assets is exploitable! Someone could really have fun with that for a few weeks.

Is hotlinking copyrighted materials illegal?

That doesn't really matter in this case - the fact that the HTML references assets that are on the OP's site is pretty conclusive proof that this is a direct copy, rather than an "inspired design" or convergent evolution.

FlatUI was inspired by another website. In this case, both websites seem to have copied all the assets up to the javascript from gocardless since they received sentry notifications.

If they do the same design, but using different bits, they're not copy. But yes, they copied the design, files and everything, this changes the rules of the game. Now you can sue them for that, but you cannot stop people of using the typography, colors and layout of any design, that's called style.

It's silly the ripp-off, made me laugh.

Not sure if you read the description provided. They ripped the source code as well, not just the design. That goes under copyright, as would copying someones graphic assets. If it were using similar graphics or design, then yes, it isn't a copyright issue.

Why? They are stealing OP's copyrighted works and posting them on their website.

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