Intellectual Property, Copyright & Theft
May 22, 2010 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Well I was going through my Google Analytics early this morning as I do weekly and I noticed I was getting a bit of traffic from a certain address. Now it wasn’t really the amount of traffic more like how many different pages (this very website) Digital Deceptions was getting from a particular domain name which does happen from time to time but this was different.
I clicked on the link suspecting some spam site has picked up my RSS feed and when the web page loaded I sat there for a moment stunned and very confused because the home page that I just downloaded looked very much like my own but it had a few things missing.
It Was a Complete Duplicate
My company logo and header graphic were gone and in their place was Raj Creatives, Multimedia Designer, the title tags no longer said “Graphic Design and Web Design from Durham Region” but “Graphic Design and Web Design from Rajasekaran”.
WTF?
Because I was still waking up the first thing I thought was that my WordPress site got hacked, but a quick glance at the address bar soon put those fears to rest for another day and as I began to look at the site much closer I immediately saw that it was an exact copy of my hard work that some bush league graphic and web designer, sorry “Multimedia Designer” ripped off and is using it to showcase his shoddy portfolio and other works he is trying to take credit for.
This isn’t the first time I have been a victim of plagiarism, it is the third and funny enough they all have been this year but this Mr. S. Rajasekaran is by far the worst offender that I have caught. They say that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery but this guy has still got my content on his front page, my copyright, legal notice, and link to my old website and XHTML strict compliance.
Internet Web Pirate, Design Thief and Multimedia Designer
I have been freelancing in the design business now for almost ten years and most of the last decade has been really tough, the internet bubble burst just before I finished college, there was absolutely no industry employers when I was coming out of school and studio jobs were nonexistent because most of the advertising and online marketing companies folded or cut back and all the experienced designers started taking all the freelance work.
I Know How Hard it is
I am pretty understanding and I know where this guy is coming from but the more I looked at what he did to my work the more angry I got. What if for whatever reasons his pilfered version of my website takes months or even years to be deleted from the Free Web Hosting Area servers (where it rests at the moment) and a potential client looking for me finds the stolen page, it does contain a lot of my content and what if they think that I do lousy work?
Bread and Butter
This isn’t just my blood, sweat and tears, it’s my livelihood and something I take very seriously. I don’t mind in the least that you copied my website to your hard drive, I do it quite often myself as it is the best way to learn. But when I get down to creating I come at it from a different angle, build it from scratch and try to do it better, I don’t steal.
The difference between you and I is that I always want to improve my skills by knowing how things work so I can offer a better product while you just take and then put your name on it hoping to make a quick buck, its people like you that devalue this profession, have no respect for intellectual property and make many clients so distrustful of us.
Two Great Quotes to Think About Mr. Rajasekaran
“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”
Pablo Picasso.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources”
Albert Einstein.
The website in question (I don’t know how long it will be available so I have some screen caps and would you believe that this guy has actually watermarked some of his own work with his name and phone number …lol )
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- Internet Web Pirate, Design Thief and Multimedia Designer
Now Since I got all the business out of the way I would like to thank you for providing me with the unexpected opportunity to once again utilize my blog to practice search engine optimization techniques to better position my keywords by allowing me to talk about my graphic and web design company Digital Deceptions.
On the front page of my website I have a link to SlideShare where you can download the presentation I did at WordCamp Toronto 2010 on how to use WordPress and Social Media to Win an Election, on your version of my site you have your resume …lol.
Once a Thief, Was That a TV Show or a Movie?
I read your resume and even all your experience is a lie, judging by the bang up graphics butcher job you did with my work there is no possible way on earth you could have designed the web pages you say you did, plus all those sites you supposedly designed have got the design companies names on the bottom of them. Who do you think you are?
The Best is Yet to Come
At the bottom of Mr. S. Rajasekaran’s resume he has a declaration which reads:
I, hereby declare that the information furnished above is true to the best of my knowledge. If given an opportunity to work in your esteemed organization, I can perform to the best of my capabilities in a way that is satisfies the organization’s need and my career thirst.
Isn’t That Just Priceless?
Well if anyone is interested in Mr. Rajasekaran’s Multimedia Design services you can give him a call on his mobile at (988) 425-1897 day or night, mail or stop by his flat if you happen to be in India, he can be found at No.18, Seevaram 2nd Street, Perungudi, Chennai – 600 096 or you could just email him rajasekaran.gpcp@gmail.com. And yes ladies he is single as mentioned in his resume and if anyone does happen to contact my friend Mr. Rajasekaran don’t forget to wish that asshole a happy birthday, he turns 23 on May 27 which is next week and please do tell him that Duncan sent you.
Borderline obsessed today with all this? Yes maybe a little but it just happens to be Canada Day May 24 long weekend and I’m going to chalk it up to timing because I usually don’t have this much time on my hands 8p
Analytics, Keywords, Social Media and the Power of the Blog
October 30, 2008 by Duncan · 1 Comment
Website analytics or statistics are basically just a bunch of numbers and information. By studying the analytics and making changes and tweaks you can fine tune your web projects to meet your goals. Over the past few months I have been heavily experimenting with this information on my website and it has amazed me just how much power you truly have about the people visiting your site.
So Our Story Begins
A few weeks ago I went to a friend’s wedding and at the wedding there were other friends who I see maybe once or twice a year, we all laughed and joked and had a really goodtime. One of the friends who we will call “X” happens to be a designer as well and works for a marketing company so naturally after a few drinks we ended up talking about the biz, me about freelancing and “X” about the marketing company.
I was talking about how the change in the economy has affected me and “X” was basically saying the same thing and also mentioned the fact that it felt like it was time to leave the marketing company and find something different and closer to home. As the night went on and I mentioned some of the work I do “X” mentioned that “I can get you work like that because I speak to all sorts of people all the time” blah, blah, blah.
Now I don’t put any faith behind that kind of stuff because first off the wedding was an open bar and secondly most people in those positions who never thought of you in the first place are usually just talking out of their bottom lip, we have all done it. Towards the end of the night I gave “X” some of my business cards, said goodbye and never thought about it again.
Checking Google Analytics Daily
The next week as I was going through my web statistics looking for the name of a company’s server I had sent my portfolio link to I noticed that somebody from the marketing company that “X” worked for had visited my homepage for all of three seconds…lol, could this have been “X”? Lately I have mainly been using my analytics to see how long companies I have sent my portfolio to are looking at my work, the longer they stay the more interested they are which is an awesome tool to have.
The Hate mail
Two weeks later I get this email from my website The Free Lance saying that somebody posted a comment. Before I read the comment I thought to myself that it was probably going to be spam as usual but to my surprise it was legit, not only was it legit it was badmouthing me telling me how much I sucked and what my work looked like. It was hate mail……Dun…dun..Dunnnnn!
This was not the first and probably won’t be the last time I get hate mail but as I read it I felt that it was from someone I knew, it was real personal and there was a real genuine hate to it like I really got under someone’s skin. So later on in the afternoon when I finally stopped crying and was able to face the nasty note again…lol I decided I wanted to see where this comment came from and if I could possibly find out who wrote it.
Logging Into the Web Statistics Yet Again
Google Analytics
When I received the email notification about the comment it came with a timestamp and an IP address. The timestamp alone makes it very simple to narrow down the amount of info you have to wade through and it didn’t take me very long to pull up the culprit’s location which was quite local, I knew it sounded too personal to be a stranger. When I looked to see the name of the server I was shocked to find out that it was “X’s” marketing company yet again, if I can watch users like a hawk think what your government can do.
Could it be?
I now knew deep down that it was “X” who sent me that devastating message but I still needed more proof so I checked the site that referred “X” to my blog and it happened to be Google. So what I am a 100% sure of is that somebody using “X’s” marketing company’s network found my site Digital Deceptions had to of typed something into the search engine to find me. What could it have been?
The Keywords
Next I clicked on the keywords button and watched with anticipation as the page changed and sitting right in front of my monitor were the keywords typed into Google by the mysterious hater “graphic design jobs durham region”. It had to be “X” at work looking for something different and closer to home just like what was stated in our conversation at the wedding a couple of weeks earlier.
I’m positive that “X” is the malefactor but I still had to investigate a little further so I went to Facebook where I knew “X” had a page and wouldn’t you know it, both the mystery message and “X’s” Facebook page both excessively use the period key…………The smoking gun!
So What Am I Supposed To Do?
My Reply to the Hate mail
How can you be drinking, laughing and having a goodtime with somebody one moment and then do a complete flip? It must have taken a lot for “X” to have even been at the same function let alone speak to me that night because from what I got from that vile message was true hate. For whatever reason “X” dislikes me so much I may never know but at least I now know the truth.
I really wanted “X” to know that I wasn’t guessing and knew the true creator of the note so I sent a short email to “X” revealing just a couple of the intimate details that only myself and the author would know and so far no reply.
Facebook Wall Post
Funny enough last night after finishing the first draft of this post “X” had written on my Facebook wall (lots of periods of course…..) nonchalantly asking me to take down some drunken photos that I had in my gallery (which I did) and mentioned that “business was down” and that there were no openings at the marketing company but would keep me posted. Ironically this is the first time “X” has ever contacted me and it was just like nothing had ever happened. What a phony all I want is for “X” to admit what they did but I guess that is not going to happen so let the song and dance begin.
What the Stats Have Really Told Me
Besides the fact that the analytics pointed me to whom, where and when they never told me why but they did paint a picture and as malicious as the comments were I know they weren’t premeditated. “X” genuinely found my site looking for something else, a graphic design job in Durham Region and maybe “X” was just having a rough day at work, the 1920 X 1200 pixel monitor they use wasn’t working properly or whatever and just took the eighteen minutes and thirteen seconds they stayed on my site to vent and just got caught. That is the story that I like to believe.
I don’t know if it is karma or dumb luck that “X” chose to be so dastardly when they did or if it was my impressive search engine optimization skills that lead them to my website but what I do know is that years ago I would have revealed names and places on my blog but luckily for “X” I have matured. Although “X” is apparently looking for a new job (that much was true) I’m sure “X” wouldn’t want their marketing company to know that let alone about the verbal venom that gets spewed from their servers.
Either way from a SEO and marketing stand point it would be a huge missed opportunity on my part to let something like this go and not blog about it plus it is absolutely hilarious. So to take a quote from the message that “X” sent me “keep it consistent, practice what you preach” I will, and just like in an earlier post I made called Public Relations and Moral Lessons for Designers I will be a professional and not mention your true name or company online because I wouldn’t want to get you fired, but I will tell all of our friends because unlike me it is you that truly sucks, good luck finding a job and if you ever need a web site give me a call. :p
