Any websites that check source code.

Hey DP members,

I am trying to figure out if there are any websites out there like copyscape and siteliner to check the source files instead of just copy content. I was interested in buying this website, that was labled as custome and built from scratch, just wanted to see if they aren't any duplicates out there. Didnt want any legal issues down the road, if someone says i stole there coding.


Thanks!

 

There is no copyright on HTML-code, so that shouldn't be a problem. Specifics, like how the HTML is put together MIGHT, and I emphasize MIGHT lead to issues, but in general, the chance of anyone suing you for copying code is almost negligble.

 

Ideas, like a social network or a mapping app, are not protected by any intellectual property.

 

Yeah I wasnt to sure, it is made with PHP, Javascript and jQuery with a MySQL database. But thank you for the info.

 

you can't see the PHP code on someone elses site, only the resulting HTML... i guess you could compare that...

and im sure you can copyright specific features of a website if it is unique and original idea, but not the concept of the generic parts of a social network site

 

Its not a social network site, just a saas website.

 

The concept of copyright when it comes to websites have been discussed often, and I think the concensus is mostly that the content is of course copyrighted, but the code used to display said content is not possible to copyright, since it's all part of a specification, and there is no intellectual property involved in the actual HTML. However, a design concept can (in theory) be copyrighted, but as long as you change the logo, colors etc, the difference would be large enough to not be deemed breach of copyright. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but I think that is what has been the end result most times these things have been up.