Conecpt Design theft.

Good Afternoon.

Recently I have been freelancing my design skills at www.sitepoint.com. After a recent competition > http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/contest/403? from which every contestant copied my design to one degree or another. When I realized that my design was being copied I reported it to a moderator and little if anything was done about it. It happens from time to at sitepoint and I was willing to let it slide.

Please see the above the link and my entry was under the username Mafisto.
Please notice the portholes, banner, font and use of sketch in design and now scroll up and you will see a variety of similar if almost identical designs.

As I said I was willing to let this slide until last night when I saw a post in a competition thread for which I entered http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/contest/453? that a user by the name of P1guy was accusing me of stealing his X that was used in his design. Due to time constraints I cannot and will not view all individual entrees and go strictly by what I see in the thumbnail views. For which IMO looked nothing like what I submitted. Now you will notice if you skip back to the Pilotboat design that there is an entry from P1guy that borrows almost all elements of my concept including font style bar a few minor subtle changes. Last night out of shear good will I modified my x and resubmitted it.

I reported this all again to a Moderator to which I received a reply informing me this morning that I have received a ban from the forum for 1 month.

Here is the e-mail i got this morning:
After reviewing all the logos in the GPX2Zone logo contest, I have
determined that your entry did borrow too much from an earlier entry
by P1Guy (specifically in the 'X'). I also reviewed the Pilot Boat
contest and did not find significant copying to warrant a ban in that
case. If you do suspect anyone of copying a design, either from
another SitePoint member or an outside source, please report it ASAP
to an Advisor (green names) or Team Leader (blue).

Our policy in this matter is an automatic one-month ban for first
time offenders. Your ban will be lifted automatically on January 21
at which time your SitePoint membership privileges will be fully
reinstated.

Like I said i was more than willing to let the pilotboat episode pass., but! I am trying to start a design company and this doesn't look good for me when I am being accused of plagiarism. I have sent the same above facts to a SP representative and am awaiting there response.

In the mean time.. could someone please tell me what legal grounds I have. And if any who do I contact about this issue.

Thank you,
M.Simmiss

If you disagree you could certainly take the issue to court and a judge could decide if somebody copied you or vice versa. You could seek damages or an order that your account be opened--you have relied on the account rules, and paid in time and money, and do have rights to the account.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you disagree you could certainly take the issue to court and a judge could decide if somebody copied you or vice versa. You could seek damages or an order that your account be opened--you have relied on the account rules, and paid in time and money, and do have rights to the account.

Thanks I have spoken with my lawyer and will more than likley be forced to take it further.

LOL I was looking this up because I needed to find "Pilot Boat" and it's too obvious that you, Mafisto, ripped off P1Guy's X in that other contest. It's the exact same X! Loser. I sure hope you never formed a design company and started giving people ripped off designs.