19

A Chinese ripoff of 500px

over 9 years ago from

Hi DN,

I came across this site today: http://eput.com/

It's in Chinese - but try clicking the bottom link in the middle, and scroll down. If you're familiar with 500px, they've actually copied the actual JS and CSS of our Flow, right down to the assets and animation keyframes. If you manage to sign up, their photo page, all their buttons, is copied from ours.

Here's some comparison images: Eput: http://cl.ly/image/0F413i0h1F3f 500px: http://cl.ly/image/1I1j2m2X0712

Eput: http://cl.ly/image/181G250h3C3u 500px: http://cl.ly/image/3b0l0K2p0x12

I'm actually not even mad. It's cool to see that someone wanted to copy us. But nonetheless - screw these guys. I thought you guys would find this interesting.

27 comments

  • Suganth SSuganth S, over 9 years ago

    People copy from things that they got really inspired from. What they did is bad, but its one of the best way of complimenting your work. Good job.

    10 points
  • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, over 9 years ago

    I'm not sure why exactly, but the concept of intellectual property is much weaker in China. So culturally, copying things is not viewed in such a bad light.

    Maybe part of the reason is also the extreme competitiveness of Chinese society. People will often take any advantage they can get, even if it means resorting to this kind of plagiarism.

    In any case, I would at least try to contact the site. It's possible they hired an agency to design their UI, and they have no idea it's not original.

    5 points
    • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

      It's called communism. Their populist philosophy centers around the idea that "everything belongs to the people". Even if it was not made by their people.

      And yes... they don't see anything wrong with it. I've known cases where EU engineers we're hired in China and when they got there instead of research they we're given (to their outrage) the task of perfectly copying another company's product (a big one).

      1 point
    • Martin Knoll HaakanssonMartin Knoll Haakansson, over 9 years ago

      TopGear had a whole episode where they adress the issue with the Chinese Car Industry, and their "view" on copyright. The problem is that it's up to each country to withhold the copyright, but the Chinese Government has quiet a strange way of looking at what copyright means ..

      0 points
  • Ray YipRay Yip, over 9 years ago

    Hi Jeff,

    I just contact them and got respond,

    but i'm not sure i can translate it to English as well.

    They don't admit they copied the actual JS and CSS from 500px.

    They admitted they taken the Heart/Like icon from 500px.

    I was posted the link of this post and screenshots to Chinese social network and mentioned their's Official account and team members, they are asking me to delete it right now.

    They promise me they will cleanup the copies step by step. I'm thinking about it,

    3 points
  • Ray YipRay Yip, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    Hi Jeff.

    I will try to get in touch with them and looking for a respond.

    2 points
  • Josh OlsenJosh Olsen, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    This happened recently to the company I work for as well (or at least we only discovered it recently).

    Us: https://relayrides.com/

    Them: http://www.baojia.com/

    2 points
  • John LeschinskiJohn Leschinski, over 9 years ago

    Does 500px have support for Chinese users?

    2 points
    • Jeff ShinJeff Shin, over 9 years ago

      We do, since we have a pretty good user base there. The support isn't as great as we'd like it to be, but most of the site has been localized for Mandarin.

      2 points
      • Jérémy BarbetJérémy Barbet, over 9 years ago

        You could contact the guy behind this copy, and try to see if he would like to work for 500px and the Chinese support :D

        0 points
        • Hmphry xHmphry x, over 9 years ago

          Steam did this with a hacker. Offered him a job, then had him arrested once he touchdowned from abroad. That Gaben is a smart cookie.

          Anyway, you can't arrest him, but I don't think rewarding their thievery is setting a good precedent for our industry.

          1 point
    • Frad Lee, over 9 years ago

      I'm one of those.

      0 points
  • Nathan NNathan N, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    People in China have copied iPhones and there is nothing Apple can do about it; even though Chinese people do in fact buy real iPhones. Y'all probably could've avoided this buy paying to translate your website into simplified Chinese. Localization in the grand scheme of things isn't that expensive.

    1 point
  • Ragnar VorelRagnar Vorel, over 9 years ago

    Please do get in touch with them, I am extremely interested in how they respond. I can ask my girlfriend to help out with communicating, she's Chinese, as most likely they can not properly communicate in English. I'm that interested to see how they would respond.

    0 points
    • Ray YipRay Yip, over 9 years ago

      I'm a Chinese and living in the same city with Eput, and I will try to get in touch with them and looking for a respond. I write message in Chinese.

      2 points
      • Jaskni WongJaskni Wong, over 9 years ago

        Hey Ray,

        你的微博账号是什么? 我在想我们是否可以通过一些手段让更多的人知道 Eput 这垃圾的行径, 比如「知乎」, 还有「微博」, 我发现就我一个人 Po 了一些内容根本没什么用。

        0 points
        • Ray YipRay Yip, over 9 years ago

          Hi Jackni, 之前我曾经以此帖链接和相关截图发了一条微博，后来 Eput 主动私信联系我，经过一番沟通之后他们承诺会逐步改进他们的设计，并且要求我删除那条微博，他们也坦白承认直接使用了 500px 的 icon ，但他们坚持否认抄袭 JS/CSS 的说法。后来我考虑到创业不容易也隐藏了那条微博，只是不知道他们将来会否更改自己的设计和图标。

          0 points
          • Jaskni WongJaskni Wong, over 9 years ago

            抱歉这么晚才回复。

            唉, 看到你这么讲, 我的心也没有软下来, 「创业不容易」?

            其实是他们创得太容易了, 直接 Copy 人家的 Idea, 甚至直言不讳「从500px等国外网站上吸取了很多灵感」...

            虽然我有注意到挺多设计师都注意到了这件事情, 但是不知道为什么, 都已经这么几天了, 不论是微博还是知乎都没有引起大范围的讨论, 知乎甚至一条关于 Eput 抄袭的问题都没有, 实在不想就这么算了。

            所以我想问一下 Ray 君, 您是否依旧会保留隐藏那条微博?

            0 points
  • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 9 years ago

    Is there something that hasn't been copied in China by now?

    0 points
  • Johnny LamJohnny Lam, over 9 years ago

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. At least they switched the position of the heart/like buttons :P

    0 points