Dot Net Nuke (DNN) Copyright Comment

DNN will write a copyright comment in the head of all your documents. If you like to remove these comments, here's what you do:

log in as host, go to host->host settings and uncheck the 'show copyright credits', this will remove those and other comments, including the version number in the title bar.

Copyright or Copywrong?

Copyright Chris Pearson 2005






Copywrong

In an attempt to create design of a better quality, I somehow ended up on a quest to create trendsetting design. I thought that was what would eventually happen if I did what I wanted and ignored the rest of the world but a little reasearch helped me realize I was "outdated". The next thing I thought was "Can I come up with something new that people will actually like?" People liking your design is strongly dependent on following trends. Coming up with something new has nothing to do with following trends. The only compromise is to set a new trend.
I looked at probably 5000 sites before I surrendered. They all started to look the same to me, my taste had changed, and I read enough self-proclaimed style pioneer comments to never want to design again. The further my studies brought me back in history the more ignorant everyone appeared and the more impossible my quest seemed.
I needed a baby step if I wanted to break my designer's block. I needed to create trendy designs and at least update my work. Since I was looking at websites to make websites (usually I looked at old print magazines and album covers), I had to be extra careful that what I created didn't look too much like any of those 5000 sites I've seen. As a whole if your site looks more than half like another site you will probablly be accused of ripping some one off even if they ripped someone off. I don't know why it's ok for a website to look like a Glaser rip off and get to be some kind of pioneer of the Glaser rip off style but there's hell to pay if you add the slightest Glaser influenced element into your design. So there's an unspoken blackout list of where you can draw influence from too. This baby step I'm taking is made for giants.
The next step for me was to understand what copyright really is and to be ready to defend my right to be influenced by the same things as other people.
I ran into a situation today that was an example of someone's work being ripped off and wasn't sure what to do. The design concept was so basic it was hard to entitle someone to the rights of it but it was an 80% dead on copy.
I thought to myself that it wasn't wrong to use the same minimalist style, colors, and have some similar placement of content. Maybe the new guy is trying to interpret it as their own but they are not sure how to get it down to a 40% influence. If I tell them how then it will keep him from doing it again. If I just call him out then he might just personally attack me and go on selling other people's designs to people who don't know better. I went to ask the original designer what they would say if they wanted to help the guy but I could not locate any contact information on the "Best Damn Blog on the Planet" and didn't want to call out the new guy in a public place like a comment string. So I say nothing. Maybe I'll send a link to an article explaining how to make something your own when I find one. Instead I'm just gonna read a couple of articles on the "Best Damn Blog on the Planet" and remember who copied them first.
An excellent example appears in the first article I read on The Best damn blog on the Planet, where he defends himself against an accusation of design plagarism and is point on in explaining design influence in the appropriate context.

A Very Formal Read on the subject
The Ecstacy of Influence talks about plagerism, intellectual property, unailienable rights, copyrights, and gifts

Read more on this subject:

Trade dress

Web Design - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery [sitepoint forum discussion]

Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal

Theft of Wordpress Database [sitepoint forum discussion]

Copyright Tools:

CopyScape: Search for copies of your page on the Web

Art is for artists to talk about - nevermind you, you commercially employed worker cranking out disposible art as fast as you can

Critics and Their Purpose talks about the impotance of an artist's intention. Therefore, it should be safe to assume that pieces without intention are a waste of criticism.



Designing Under the Influence included some interesting and non-so-interesting comments:



"Similarly, at this stage of design and art history, I wonder if knowing all the precedents might actually inhibit a designer's ability to get any work done."

--- It's discouraging. I'm suppose to brace a contraint that no matter how much information I memorize I will always stand the possiblity of being accused of copying someone.



"If you don't know who Barbara Kruger (or anyone else for that matter) is, are you not in the slightest way driven to find out? I would question your motives in becoming a Graphic Designer if you really haven't got the slightest interest in Graphic Design (Harsh, but it certainly seems that way)."

--- I don't know who Barbara Kruger is. I probably don't know half of the "anyone else" on her list for that matter. College Education is not standardized. Not everyone will have exposure to the same artists. I'm not slightly driven to find out who "futura bold italic in white on solid color" is. My artistic interests are not the same as hers (Harsh, I know).

Ok! Ok, ok, ok, ok, I'm off topic and so is the person who wrote that comment.

Here are the serious questions that this comment posses. Why would anyone need to study every artist presented to them? Why is it not ok to know every artist? Can artists be allowed to learn about art in their own way AND not be accused of being "not driven" or "uninterested"? Should anyone who doesn't know who Barbara Kruger is just fucking die? What's more cool - asking questings to understand OR making presumptive remarks followed by self declarations of what a "harsh" observer you are?

Why History? Why Bother? poses the question: what merits of your work as a graphic designer could replace the importance of your client list?

The Ecstacy of Influence talks about plagerism, intellectual property, unailienable rights, copyrights, and gifts

Clarifying design from art:
"...I don’t think any design succeeds on visual merit alone. That’s called art. Whereas design is only one part of a larger process that creates something (web app, store, propaganda campaign, etc.) where success is determined as a whole." - Greg Storey in a comment on Pretty Ugly