From...

November 10, 1998
Web posted at: 9:45 AM EST

by Phil Lemmons

(IDG) -- We all feel duly outraged at the theft of a Rembrandt. But when someone makes a million counterfeit Beanie Babies, we shrug or wonder whether we'll be able to get one cheap. Perhaps mundane things like Beanie Babies seem unworthy of a grand name like "intellectual property." And if they're not worthy of that name, how can they be protected by intellectual property rights?

Software programmers like to think of themselves as intellectual giants. All the evidence, however, suggests that the general public ranks their product nearer the Beanie Baby than the Rembrandt. Few of us are outraged by illegal copying of software, and fewer still by illicit selling of software on the gray market. Christina Wood's article "Is Your Software Stolen?" (link below) on pirated and counterfeit programs may heighten sensitivity to this issue, especially by examining the link between the gray market and organized crime. One expert even claims that terrorists are funding their activities through the sale of counterfeit software.

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But in the age of the Web, the intellectual property that should worry you the most is your own. Sooner or later, you'll probably launch your own business-related Web site. Perhaps you've already done so. The danger? Some unscrupulous counterfeiter could copy your site's design or even use a "site-ripping" program to download all the content and launch a low-cost clone.

And if you think no one would be so brazen as to make a copy of the business that is your creation and the source of your income and pride, think again. Consider an example.

Design pirates

Suppose your business is a Web publication. Prior to launching your online magazine, you come up with a distinctive design for the home page. For the sake of simplicity, let's suppose your design has the same elements as the cover of the print version of PC World. You decide to make the name of your Web publication stand out by rendering it in white letters within a solid red bar, like the logo of this magazine. You choose to highlight some of the stories with a horizontal series of pictures and accompanying text, extending all the way across the page -- again like the ones that appear just beneath the logo on PC World. You settle on the specific arrangement of the pictures and text in the horizontal series. You determine that each picture should be placed to the left of its text. You conclude that the text should consist of a headline in larger type and a description of the story in smaller type. You call each picture-text combination a "skybox."

Suppose you also decide to use, along with the white logo reversed out of a red bar and the row of skyboxes, a corner banner at the upper right of the home-page screen -- a diagonal stripe across the corner of the page containing additional type. You consider these three elements together -- the white logo reversed out of a red background, the row of skyboxes under the logo, and the corner banner at the upper right -- your distinctive creation. And though by no means a Rembrandt, this combination sets the identity of your Web publication apart from all its competitors. What's more, your new home-page treatment is a great success for the next 20 months, helping make you the most popular Web site in your category.

Shocked, appalled, ripped off

Then one fine day, a competing publication with a name similar to yours, covering a topic like yours, suddenly shows up on the Web with a look that resembles yours to a remarkable degree. Suppose the competitor goes so far as to use a white logo reversed out of a red bar, like yours, and a row of skyboxes underneath the logo, like yours, and a corner banner at the upper right, like yours. Imagine how you would feel. Shocked -- because no self-respecting editor, designer, or publisher would stoop to copying the distinctive look of a competing publication. Appalled -- because it's hard to imagine any purpose for the imitation other than to dupe people into mistaking the imitation for the original. Ripped off -- because your home-page design is being used not only without your permission, but against your interests!

Theft of this sort is precisely the type of crime that intellectual property rights are designed to prevent. Infringement is particularly easy in the online world, where anyone with a few simple tools and an ISP account can be a publisher -- or a thief. Keep that in mind if you ever feel tempted to take advantage of too-good-to-be-true bargains on software or Beanie Babies. Whether what's at stake is fine art, a fortune, or credit for your own creations, intellectual property rights are worth fighting for.

Phil Lemmons is editorial director of PC World.