Help! Phone call about my casino site

[tshirtsuntan]

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I've just had a phone call about my new casino site from the owner of another casino site.

I know we don't usually post URLs here but hopefully an exception can be made.

The guy called me and told me his name and explained he was one of the biggest UK affiliates and that I should take a look at his site (edited to respect privacy)

So I did and there was a website very similar to mines.

(edited ) (only free website i could find at short notice)

Admittedly I can see the similarities but I'm still speechless and don't have a clue what to do.

I paid for my site to be designed by a designer in India through elance.com, I paid a fair bit for it and I don't have the money to start again.

The guy got my number from a well known casino site who he has close contacts with. (I just applied for their affiliate program)

I think I'm screwed.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Is the site that close that I should start again? or can it be saved?

[PitBoss]

How did he get your number?

Their not that similar yet - has he threatened to sue you or anything?

[NaturalInstinct]

I would say they look pretty much identical and that you've been pretty unlucky.

However, unless you can recoup the money from the designer (who has clearly ripped you off) then i think you're going to have to swallow the cost of a site redesign.

I wouldn't use elance this time though

[tshirtsuntan]

He got my number from whoever processes the affiliate application forms at one of the BIG online casinos. They must have checked out my site, know him and thought they'd give out my number.

He just said that he'd like to bring it up before it causes "problems" later on.

He thinks it could damage his or my reputation even though the sites domain names are nothing like each other.

I'm not sure where I stand with this....

[Frostie]

Wow, honest opinion is that they do look VERY similar.
Do you have the name of the elance person?
Have you contacted them yet?
Do they have a portfolio?

I would seriously start getting hold of the indian who 'designed' your website. When you requested a design, did you ask for it to be mirrored on any other, or did you just leave the design up to him/her?

I agree with Jon, and you may just have to bite the bullet on this occasion.

I wouldn't give the original owner grief just yet, wait until you are 100% about what happened, and how it came about. No need to annoy someone when its not their fault.

Agree with drooper, if you can, design the site yourself - but I also fully understand that not everyone here is technical and getting a designer in, is sometimes the only/best option. Remember, it all depends on individual circumstances - I have USA people designing site for me, not because I dont know how to, but because;
1 - I am too busy
2 - Cant be bothered doing it myself.

[Luke]

so what if they look similiar - make the site success and then when you have enough money use a reliable designer.

[tshirtsuntan]

I really can't believe it. I just keep flicking back and forward and looking at them over and over.

What if I changed the Images used and used a different font?

I'm pretty sure they are the only similarities except from the three column design?

[judehk]

The important thing to check is whether the complainant used a template website which your 'webdesigner' did.

If its the case that both designs have come from a downloadable template then I would say as long as you dont infringe on his rights to his own brand name you are on safe ground.

If your designer just ripped off the design, I think you are as you say - screwed.

Best bet is to try squeeze out of your designer if they ripped the design off or downloaded a template.

[Luke]

What if I changed the Images used and used a different font?

RELAX AND FOCUS!

Forget the other site - you need to focus on monetising what you have, that is all you should be thinking about.

If you get into the top 3 for "online casinos" as you are trying to you will be able to buy your web design company fairly quickly..

[999gi]

Did the other guy desgin his own site or could he have also bought it from the same designer either through an elance or templatemonster type route?

[Mogga]

Go on, a minor point - data protection of personal information - should phone numbers be given out?

[tshirtsuntan]

The guy said he designed his own site by hand so I guess that's why he is so pissed off.

He wasn't ranting or raving on the phone, I think he was just happy that I was so understanding.

I still think that the only reason they look so similar is because of the images used for "print this page" etc.. and also the "play now" buttons.

I really can't afford to start again. I've got a Logo company doing a design for me and I've already shelled out for that, my hosting company is terrible so I need to change over from them also.

[PitBoss]

I didn't think that was legal

[lowndsy]

You're not in too much trouble - fair enough the programmer chap took all his design cues from someone else ( and not necessarily that top 20 site - it too looks quite template based), but the source code is pretty different. Its been proved plenty of times that just looking the same isn't grounds for complaint if the code was written from scratch so if you can take a bit of abuse from people like the top 20 chap then just carry on.
Just change all the images that you share with him, fix that ugly set of three links by the top logo because they're horrible (the image is stretching them too much) and then sit back and dare him to complain again. You've got the menu bar with links and partners in twice - on both sides, so you could remove the one that's the same as his and while you're at it take out the unused panel between the logo and william hill banner - it looks ok on his site but for yours it's doing nothing and on a small monitor would take up a fair bit of space.
That should be enough to rescue that template in the eyes of the law, but I agree with the others - a blind eskimo with no arms and a love of the colour pink could have done a better job at stealing that template.

I'm curious - how many pages did this chap make for you? From a coding point of view it's naf, and has some stupid things like one colour images instead of coloured tables etc. If he made(stole?) a few hundred then fair enough, but if you shelled out loads for just two or three templates then he must be a very clever chimp indeed.

[watcher]

Relax,

You have two side navigation bars, a banner across the top and content in the middle - the most standard generic format around. Ignore this guy. Take a look at the Google cache.

Added:
If you want to pay for templates without it costing the earth then take a look at Template Monster. You can see what you're getting - if it's still on sale then you will be OK to use it - and you can buy the design outright if you want. Better value than paying someone from elance.