The internet is truly a wonderful thing. The easy access to information and sharing of ideas with others provides a venue that has never been equaled. Unfortunately along with it, you also have a bad element of persons that want to essentially mug you, steal your products and information, and sell them as their own to others for profit.
Which brings us to the case of The Pros Advantage and David Bigham
. The Pros Advantage has apparently attempted to steal a website design/architecture from Real Estate Webmasters, and then sold that design to David Bigham (a real estate agent in Minnesota) for his use at a steep discount. In this particular case, The Pros Advantage forgot to “file off the serial numbers” in the code that they stole. So when the website went live, they left a Real Estate Webmasters copyright in the code. [I'm sure they are aware of that mistake by now, and have probably removed the copyright for Real Estate Webmasters - but, its already been documented & screenshotted so that even with its removal, it will only provide further evidence that they are attempting to cover up the fact that they stole the design.]
At this point, it is unclear as to the level of involvement David Bigham has in this transaction. One would think that he was probably an innocent victim and would want to do the right thing by joining forces with Morgan Carey & Real Estate Webmasters to get The Pros Advantage to remove the offending site, and provide a full refund. A quick change to the DNS (a Domain Name Server is what tells the internet which website to display) would have shown good faith on David’s part to want to resolve the situation. David own’s the URL / Domain, and a quick log in to his registrar would have allowed him to quickly remove the stolen property from being displayed.
Instead, it appears that either he is truly clueless as to how the whole internet thing works – or he has been conspiring in some fashion with The Pros Advantage from the start. In various commentary with Morgan, David has taken numerous positions ranging from threats of involving a Trademark and Web Attorney, to how he as the owner of the URL/domain is unable to change the DNS, to demanding Morgan & Real Estate Webmasters take legal action by sending a letter from their attorney. (That last one is particulary ridiculous. This is like asking someone to start firing a gun at you.)
So for all persons considering using The Pros Advantage – Warning! Beware! You too could be the recipient of stolen property by being a client of theirs.
Doh! Sucks to get caught. I’ve borrowed ideas from other designers but never lifted an entire site or copied an ounce of code.
What idiots these programmers were thinking they could get away with it, especially when REW sites are so well known and there are so many REW clients out there watching for this type of thing.
It goes to show how important it is to be careful who you purchase a website from. Their arrogance (both The Pros Advantage & David Bingham) to me show a real lack of ethics, integrity and illegal intent. IMO when Bingham was contacted over this he should have been all over his website developer rather than contributing to their lame attempt at a cover up.
If he acts with so little integrity where his website is concerned, would you trust him to be your REALTOR®?
thePROSadvantage owes my company for IDX / Broker Reciprocity services supplied to their clients. If you do business with this company, get your money upfront.
I had the misfortune to BE a designer for thePROSadvantage back in 2003. Suffice it to say that after six weeks of work and no payment on the horizon, I threatened to stop working until I was paid (my contract stipulated payment every two weeks). The owner/operator wrote a check for $2000 that BOUNCED five days later. And then, after coming to an agreement about payment after that debacle which involved his lawyer threatening me with so-called damages, he reneged on THAT agreement too. I had to sue in small claims court for payment–and I won.
As far as whether Bingham knew about the code problem, this is all purely speculation on my part, but I doubt he did. Realtors are not designers, they provide copy about their business and a photo and their contact information, and the point of the company is to whip up a quick, effective site in a short amount of time. They’re not viewing the source code to check for copyrights. Again, purely speculation based on my own experience at the company, but I’m willing to bet that once Bingham found out his site was ripped off, he suddenly could never get the owner on the phone, either to fix it OR take it down OR refund his money, because that certainly was my experience until I took action of my own.