Hi all, One of the programmers that I hired from dp last time (I see that he's already banned here though @prince11 https://www.facebook.com/sandeep.singh270184?fref=ts) went ahead and help someone else copy my "facemash-inspired" website idea as well as the naming. I've since made a number of changes to differentiate, Here's my website: www.prettiest500.com (facemash inspired because facemash dont have ranking board, mine is also a social network) The guy went ahead and copy both my versus and ranking board idea (I don't claim full originality to the facemash part, but at least I made a lot of distinction from the original facemash by having the ranking board etc as well as my social networking features) as well as my website's naming convention. Best of all the person that his programmer help is also from my same country. Their copycat website is www.hottest500.com (even the name is copying my way of naming with the 500) (I've since changed the index page of my website Prettiest500.com to showcase more of our social networking features) At this stage, what would you guys suggest that I could do to this programmer and the copycat founder? Any legal means etc? Thanks P.s. If you're hiring this sandeep guy I would advise you not to, just in case he also steal your next idea. (For this case I'm a developer myself, Prettiest500.com is fully developed by me, nothing to do with Sandeep. I only outsource to sandeep my normal web development client's work)
I am afraid there is probably nothing you can do, except suck it up and move on... They are a scumbag for what they did, but the two sites are different enough to not be a DMCA or copyright issue. The "500" is not trademarked by you, so there is nothing actionable there either.
It's only very different because I changed it a few days ago to avoid totally the same as the copycat. Previously it's very similar. Here's my original version:
I think those sites are sexist and degrading to women in general. For your next idea, you might be better to hire local, with contracts that they wont sell your exact site to others. So many people you hire online, will do this.
Hmm no, I created the website 100% by myself. I'm a web developer myself but I only create my own work, for customer work I outsource. This outsourcee just copied my idea
Forget about legal action but don't suck anything up. Either get your revenge, or just ignore the brainless monkey and make your site ten times better then his.