My website was cloned?

Question

A few months ago I was creating a project in php, a kind of virtual store, nothing very complex.

One day I came across a site relatively similar to mine, then came the question: It may be a clone of my site?

After a few days of research, I couldn’t find a way to find out the truth. I wanted your help, because I am a beginner in programming, I bought an online course and based on the knowledge learned I created the store.

It was a course of Neri... wanted to know how I can find out or confirm that my site has been cloned. I can legally sue the Admin of the site?

I appreciate the sincerity of you, I do not intend to take action in this case, because I did something just for knowledge, but in the future when making a decent site I need to have an idea of how to act in these hours.

I appreciate the help in advance.

Answer 1

The question is a bit subjective, but by my knowledge, you can "clone" at least the look of the site changing some things, because you have access to css, at the javascript and to the html from the page, then just do the php or whatever it is for the page to work. As for the legality of this, I don’t know how to answer it. It would be better to talk to a lawyer who is an expert on the subject, not least because there is still a lot to be done with regard to the IT laws, at least in Portugal.

Answer 2

Although the question is not about development, and difficult to answer in the absence of more details, I will try to give an answer. First of all, if you created the store "based on the knowledge coming from an online course", I ask: how different is your website from what is described in the course? Is it possible that the author of the supposed clone was not simply following the same course?

Depending on the technologies involved, it is very likely that two sites with the same purpose end up looking alike. For example, two blogs that use wordpress and use a common theme will come out similar. Two sites that use the same CMS system will come out similar. etc. To say that your site has been cloned based solely on similarity is foolhardy, you need more concrete evidence.

Finally, it is worth remembering that everything exposed to the client (HTML, CSS, Javascript, images, etc.) can be copied - legally or illegally. If it is worth or not to sue legally who copied, there is a decision from you. Consult a lawyer for more details. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it - unless it was a blatant copy involving an immense amount of code that was my own (not inherited code, whether from open source projects or reference materials). Related answer.