I read the topic at the top of the page, but I am still wondering about my situation. I am having a custom website built for real estate and I looked at other agents websites across the nation to build mine. I recently noticed that many of those that I am mirroring have "copyright all rights reserved" My webdesigner says that what we are doing is not illegal, but my advanced search is set up almost exactly like someone elses that I found that has a copyright. Below is what my webdesigner wrote. What do you think? What are the laws for making your website like someone elses that has a copyright? Is what my web designer says below correct? "The copywright law, is basically what I explained to you. Like I said, you won't be violating any laws because: 1) the design of the site is original 2) the code that runs the site is original 3) the display of the results is original The fact that you have a lot of the same features as other sites has nothing to do with the copywright law." And also wrote The copyright notice protects copying the site outright and reusing/distributing it. People do "clone sites" all the time. You can use the format/features/ect, but you can't use their graphics or their articles without permission.
As long as it's just similar to other sites, but not copied from other sites you are probably fine. Lots of sites use similar templates and the same stock photos, so I wouldn't worry too much of it's just similar.