Good artists copy, great artists steal
February 28, 2007
I was a bit surprised today when I saw a comment on my earlier post about using 37Signals as a template for the redesign of the website for the ebook Forget The Parachute, Let Me Fly the Plane. The copy was from Jason Friel, over at 37Signals:
“Thanks for the kind words about our book, but you can’t steal the design of our site for your own purposes.
Our designs, like the words in our book (or the words in your book) are protected by copyright. Stealing someone’s design is like stealing someone’s words: It’s plagiarism and it’s illegal.
Please change the design of the site within 72 hours to your own original design.”
I’m actually a little surprised – “plagiarist” is a word that isn’t thrown around lightly, and I’m more than a little disturbed by it. As long as I’ve been in technology, the ethic has been to look at what other designers do and learn from it, copy the good ideas, and move toward something even better.
I intentionally gave 37Signals credit for the inspiration here because I respect their work, their ethic, and their thoughts on design. And I believe in giving credit where credit is due. One of my readers accused me of being “a little too honest” in my previous post. But, at the same time as I’m trying to sell the book, I’m also using the experience of doing something completely online as a learning experience.
Using their work as a basis for my own future improvements wasn’t meant to be construed as “plagiarism”. Never did I consider that a site that doesn’t walk on their trade-dress or their trademarks would be something that they’d jump on. Call it a learning experience.
In an email discussion, Jason said: “Our designs aren’t templates for the public domain.” I can understand that, of course, and my goal wasn’t to take their templates directly – only to move from where I was to the beginning of something new.
To that end, I have replaced the site with the old version until I can make further edits and improvements that can’t be construed as copyright infringement.
Comments
6 Responses to “Good artists copy, great artists steal”
Why did you delete my comment? Because I pointed out that you also lifted our CSS file? If you don’t think it’s wrong then why did you delete my response?
Jason,
I deleted your comment last night in a moment of frustration after a very long day. My apologies for letting my frustration get the better of me.
My frustration wasn’t, however, because you “pointed out” anything. (Of course I copied the CSS file when I was using your design as my basis: that’s where most of the design is… although after 8 hours of editing, there’s not much left of the originals)
My real frustrated thought was: “I gave this guy what he wanted, posted a mea culpa publicly, and he’s still trying to get in the last word?”
I completely understood your point yesterday in our private email discussion that my site was too close to yours in “look and feel” that you felt that it infringed on your design. “Design” is a nebulous concept involving (as you pointed out) layout, look and feel, concept and other things. As I have stated, my goal was to copy the concepts of your design and bring my own style to it after I confirmed that it didn’t look stupid. Which it didn’t – you guys are, as I pointed out originally, great designers. I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
I have no issue with you enforcing your copyright, especially since my design strayed too close to yours. It was never my intent to let it be that close, and I *immediately* took it down when you pointed that out.
I trust that we can put this behind us at this point.
-Mike
Two people speaking different languages? Go figure…
How do you own a design? How can there be ownership of anything that isn’t scarce or tangible? Basically, 37Signals is telling Mike that he can’t do what he wants with his own computer. And who doesn’t lift CSS files or color schemes and use them as a basis for a new design? Nothing is created in a vacuum.
The whole thing is extremely silly, in my opinion. It’s not like 37signals has some great, ground breaking Web design. I’ve seen better pages designed by 12 year olds. Which, frankly, is kind of what 37signals is acting like here.
Why is 37S being so selfish? Their design seems so familiar, so recognizable. But I’ve never seen their site before–never heard of them before 30 minutes ago.