Umm, hello everyone….. My name is Patrick and i am responsible for the EE rip off that is being discussed in this thread.
This is going to be a fairly lengthy reply, as i NEED to explain why/how this has happended - so you might want to grab a cuppa tea about now.
I have been learning web design since 2004, starting with a youtube themed site called magic showcase. Magic is my hobby and magicians could upload videos of themselves performing tricks and have other members rate and comment on them - leading to a league table of results for highly scored vids.
Anyway, that site fizzeled out and I still wanted a site that had a magic theme. So i came up with the one being discussed here.
It has taken me 3 years to find the time to develop it and has had many different styles in that time applied to it. Recently, i had more time to work on it and decided to completely revamp the look of it.
I wanted the new look to be “web 2” kinda thing - next gen design and very eye catching. And i came accross EE in my travels.
EE as you know was re-dev by Jesse BC, it totally caught my eye. I emailed Jesse and told him i thought it was a work of art and that i was disecting his code to learn more about how sites like that are designed. We corresponded one more time with general pleasantries and it was left at that.
I still had EE in my mind when it came to sitting down to re-dev the new site look. It’s curvey, well structured and pleasing to the eye.
And, as is obvious to you all, i copied the design in its entirety. I did not go wham bam splash - copy the code ad hoc and thats it, i disseminated it and used tables, slightly different CSS and created an exact version of it using a different method to acheieve the same results. That part alone took me 2 weeks.
I’m never as stupid as to copy a site design and simply leave it color for color, layout for layout, function for function and style for style. My goal was (and still is as i will explain later) to adapt and evolve it into something other than the replica that has been stumbled upon - into something more fitting to the site genre and theme, but at the same time being totally inspired by the original creation.
Whilst i cannot subscribe to Picasso’s quote that “Good artists copy, great artists steal” or that imitation (or mimicry) is the height of flattery, I do however firmly believe that is it perfectly fine to be inspired by something or someone.
When I buy a tutorial DVD on a magic trick, the buyer of the DVD is, by definition of the purpose for the release of the DVD, is perfectly allowed to copy that trick, use it for himself and perform it to others with the moves and patter that the tutorial has imparted. But doing so is the most basic thing that a performer could do.
A more accomplised performer, a more learned one, would take that trick, the slights, the moves, the patter and performance model - and disseminate it, break it down, change the plot and the patter, adapt them and evolve them all until he can safely say “I own that trick”.
That process takes a lot of time, alot of time. It took me 3 years once to create a 9 phased routine where a signed playing card fairly placed in the middle of a deck, becomes the top playing card with the click of a finger. This was after buying a tutorial showing 65 different methods to accomplish this. I took the very best methods, changed things, and made it my own.
And this was to be the case with the EE rip that has been stumbled upon before that very same process was complete on the website being disscussed in this thread. If whoever stumbled upon my site yesterday, seen it in around 2 or 3 weeks time, absolutly none of you could have turned around to me and said i have created a replica of EE. I’m just not that stupid enough to do that.
But, unfortunately for me, someone did stumble upon it - and it has caused an unending massive amount of abuse into my inboxes. I have received threats of violence - along with the lesser insults that are more tolerable. And not one of the senders had the decency to leave a genuine reply address - only stuff like and similar. Had they left a proper reply addy, i would have taken the time to apologise to them and explain my actions in greater detail.
But apologies to them are not worth much when you consider who it REALLY is that i should be apologising to.
Yesterday morning i contacted Jesse BC the EE site designer and explained in detail what i had done. I offered genuine, sincere and heartfelt apologies to him - and i would like to imprint on you all that these are indeed genuine feelings of remorse.
Jesse was very kind enough to accept my apologies and whilst it is great to see he has loyal supporters defending him, it is to Jesse that my peace has to be directed to.
Rick Ellis also contacted me concerning the issue. And to him i offered the same details and apologies with the same genuine feelings of remorse. Publicly - I am very sorry Rick, Jesse for what has happened. I have learnt ALOT from this.
I pointed out to both Rick and to Jesse, that no-one has a monopoly on curved designs, colors, layouts, features, functions and styles - or generally available underlying code that achieves such design results. Sure, Rick is perfectly correct in saying that i cant just grab a copy of the site, graphics, CSS and bung it up as a replica - but i sure can be inspired by what i see, by what i study, and make it my own in *different* way.
Well, this reply is approaching nearly 6000 characters, so i guess i will be going. But before i go, i would just like to thank Jesse for being so forgiving and the only two people - Jim and Andy - that emailed me, *politely* asking me to explain my actions. The others that emailed me with abuse, I hope you read this and this issue can put it its box and sealed up.
Thank you to anyone who reads this and understands.
Patrick 
