On the freewheeling Net, it's irrelevant that information wants to be free - it's there for the taking.
"People on the Net have a weak sense of property," says Jim Heard, CEO of Buoyant, a New York design company ready to do battle with Singapore based Thru Eyes Web Design Studio. "There're a lot of cattle rustlers out there."
After finding Thru Eyes's copycat site, Buoyant accused the firm of lifting its code and text.
When alerted to the apparent ripoff, Thru Eyes's director removed the material, attributing it to a "freelance student." Heard, however, is considering legal action despite the difficulty of suing a firm in Singapore.
Web theft is worsening, Heard claims. "Smaller companies can be swallowed up by copying," he says. "Intellectual property law is supposed to protect garage geniuses, but what garage genius can afford the legal bill?"
ELECTRIC WORD
Spectrum Wants to Be (Almost) Free
DVD's World (And Welcome to It)
Web Rustling
