>From: "Murrell, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Suzanne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Cc: "Langberg, Mike" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: RE: ABCs FOR BUILDING YOUR FIRST WEB SITE >Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 21:09:08 -0700 >X-Priority: 3 >Mime-Version: 1.0 > >Hi Suzanne, > >Thanks for the note, which I've forwarded to the editor of the Computing >section. For what it's worth, here's what I'm running in my Minister of >Information column in the morning: > > It looked innocent enough -- a story by a USA Today writer, picked >from the wire to run in last Sunday's Computing section, offering tips >to raw beginners on how to quickly throw a Web page together. >Unfortunately, one of those tips was explosive, and it wasn't defused >before the story appeared in print. Boom! > > What the writer suggested was that Web neophytes find a site with an >attractive design, lift the site's HTML coding, delete the original >content and plug in their own -- in other words, steal someone else's >hard work and pass it off as your own. Bad idea for a lot of reasons, >and once word of the story started making its way around the Web >development community, many site designers made their disgust clear in >feedback mail. > > From the beginning, one of the best things about the Web (and one of >the reasons it is the most democratic of media) has been its >transparency. See a nifty trick on someone's page? Pop open the source >code to see how it was done. This approach has its origins in the Hacker >Ethic of pre-PC days: Good ideas shouldn't be locked up. They should be >left out so others can learn, adapt, extend and create more good ideas. >But part of this ethic is an honor code -- you don't just flat-out steal >someone's creation. > > And that, as the angry designers made clear, is how it should work on >the Web too. Study other sites for inspiration and education, but when >it comes to building, do your own creative work. > >John > >----------------------- >John Murrell >Senior Online Editor / >Minister of Information >Mercury Center >http://www.mercurycenter.com/columnists/murrell/ > >-----Original Message----- >From: Suzanne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 1998 3:12 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: ABCs FOR BUILDING YOUR FIRST WEB SITE > > >I was very offended by this article. Perhaps the title should have been, >"ABSs OF BREAKING COPYRIGHT LAW." > >It's hard enough earning a living as a Web site designer without having >some ill-informed writer encouraging newbie "designers" (and I use that >word with some hesitation) to steal our work. > > >Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon >541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/ >CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/ >Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources: >http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm >Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/stephens/ > Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon 541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/ CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/ Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources: http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/stephens/ ____________________________________________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done directly from our website for all our lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
