Yet the fourth time that MWI’s website has been ripped off. Thanks to Daniel Mall who caught it and Brian Sweeting who alerted me to Daniel’s post. For the other ripoffs check out ripoff #1, ripoff #2, and ripoff #3. This time the culprit is a British company called Freebird.
Now do I care whether people are ripping off our design? On principle, no. I don’t really care about the right or wrong of it, that’s for them to worry about. What does bother me is the potential impact to our business, which I have to admit is probably slight as long as someone who is a known competitor doesn’t rip off our site. That is, if a UK web design company rips off our site, what are the chances that one of our potential clients will see both of our sites and think “Hmm, maybe I don’t want to hire MWI because it looks like they may have ripped off this other company’s website.” I think that likelihood is pretty slim, yet, the possibility does exist. If a local web design company ripped off our site (which has happened before) then it would be an entirely different matter.
Rather than be angry, I’m flattered and entertained. Evidently people really like that design. And I find it amusing when designers rip off other designers and then try to sell themselves as being unique and creative. I think this image copied from Freebird’s website captures the irony of it all.
But alas, all good things must come to an end, and we are retiring the current MWI design that has grown so popular. And so that nobody can ever claim that we ripped them off, here is a screenshot of the new design that may be live by the end of this week (the images are just placeholders, FYI).
