Is it okay just to take someone's website idea?

Hi

I stumbled on a website idea I would like to implement. It is a service where users can rate and comment different neighborhoods and build collaborately a community portals for their living place. The problem is that this isn't my idea: I just took it from a blog I happened to read. So the question is, could I still use the idea or does the original "inventor" have some rights over it? There doesn't seem to be any mention about copyrights on the blog (http://badass-website-ideas.blogspot.com). On the other hand, as the blog is all about website ideas, they are probably meant for readers to use.... or what do you think?


Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

Ethically I hate it when people steal others ideas for web sites. For example the guy that is doing www.letstruck.com had his cousin and me sit down with him as "potential partners" and we had a brain storm session. Needless to say, we aren't in on it, but a few of my ideas are on the site.

However, that being said, I wasn't smart enough to sign anything so it's my loss. If someone is publishing ideas on a web site, I'd say they either don't want to implement the site themselves and are doing it for you to use, or they are just flat out dumb.

 

It is perfectly legal to do it unless stated otherwise on the site

 

Sorry, but that is business for you. Emulate on an existing idea and improve upon it. Point and case, Xerox developed the first GUI OS, Jobs took the idea and improved upon it, and Gates did the same. Now Gates is synonymous with operating systems, not Xerox nor Jobs. Same applies to google and eBay.

 

its the way things go, people will give you crap about it if it ever makes it big but if you ever make it big obviously you're the one who got it to work.

 

Unless he/she has clearly stated that you may not use it then that is fine!

But i really do not like it when people take other people's ideas

 

this is exactly what i was talking about...time to grow up buddy.

 

If they want their readers to implement the ideas then sure you can use it up !

 

Its called competition. Not only is it completely ethical its the backbone of capitalism. Every "idea" is based on a previous idea. Think about it, everyone copies the iPod now. Even the iPhone has made all the phone companies make touch screen phones. So make your website, promote it and stomp your competition out of the market.

 

Ideas will always be copied, you can't do nothing against it.

 

Thats not exactly true about the ipod, the first portable mp3 player was the RiO, i know because I bought one when they first came out, all 32mb of storage! This was back in like 1998 or 99.

Apple did corner the market on pay-per-download with their devices proprietary music though, I'll give them that.

 

Everyone here has an excellent point, ideas and inventions pretty much always build upon another idea/invention. Also, its not just enough to copy someone's idea, you really need to add to it and make it better and more useful. If you are adding value to the original idea, then you should definitely do it!

 

I believe it is OK and reasonable .
Idea is something useless if you don't put into practices.