Kim Collens : Imitation is the best form of flattery ... not always!

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Imitation is the best form of flattery ... not always!

By: Kim Collens
Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:37 PM

I had to chuckle about an email from our super duper graphics design artist (Suzanne Stephens) today.

Last November I became the proud new owner of my broker, an established Royal LePage franchise, and the first thing that we did was engage Suzanne to create a new website for our company, Rockies West Realty. She did such a fantastic job it was made Point2 Site of the Month - http://www.rockieswest.com.

Today Suzanne related a little story about a phone call she received that went something like this;

Her: "How much would it cost to do a site exactly like that for me?"
Suzanne: "Well, I can't do that because I license each client the exclusive right to use the design I create."
Her: "OK, I'll just call somebody else."
Suzanne: "Why would you want to call somebody else?"
Her: "So I can get them to copy it for me."
Suzanne: "You can't do that. It would be illegal because I own the design and licensed it only to Rockies West for their use."

And from there, the conversation went downhill.

Interesting dialogue from a broker whose franchise philosophy includes
"Integrity: Do the right thing"

Member Since '07	Candice A Donofrio said: Scary stuff, Kim. Anyone lifting any of my copyrighted designs WILL be proceeded against to the max possible. And there's plenty of precedent to lean on any more. Kudos to Suzanne for doing a nice job on your site, BTW. :) April 11, 2008 7:19 AM
Member Since '05	Kim Collens said: Thanks Candice! Now I need to get my personal website to look like the brokerage site. Suzanne IS great! April 11, 2008 9:43 AM
Member Since '06	Suzanne Stephens said: Thank you, Candice and Kim. It takes a great client to make a great web site, and it was my pleasure to work with Kim's husband Wayne on their brokerage site and agent template. Wayne worked his rear end off on these projects and I really enjoyed working with him. April 11, 2008 6:05 PM
Member Since '06	Suzanne Stephens said: Just a quick followup: I called the agent's KW broker the other day and asked him to let her know that she might not want to have someone rip off the Collens' RockiesWest design because of the potential $250,000 penalty for willful violation of copyright. (She had told me that if I wouldn't copy it for her, she would find someone who would.) He just burst out laughing like it was the funniest stunt one of his agents had pulled recently and assured me that he would take great pleasure in calling her. April 18, 2008 6:25 PM