Exactly. It's a really nice layout, but honestly -- should the essence here (full page photo, small menu at top right, logo at top left, Title/quote in middle with "more info" button) really be "protectable" IP? I just don't see it, sorry.

That doesn't make those designers (or probably just one) honorable or talented or honest. But they have the right to clone layouts too.

It's definitely IP theft, down to the minute details like the red underline on links. The way the images uncover the footer on the bottom is really unique too.

Took me a second cup of coffee to detect the sarcasm. I like you.

Sorry, I wasn't being sarcastic. The links on the top right aren't standard. The footer also has a funky styling. Check out the page to see. Just from reading my comment and not examining the styling I see how it could sound sarcastic.

I thought you were being sarcastic too; these are all very common trends. The problem here isn't the fact that the layout is original (it's not), it's that the code is being ripped straight from the site.

There is nothing anyone is designing that is original.

The direct rip is still bad form.

He mentions that he found the sites due to getting odd values from google analytics, which makes me suspect that they copied the (copyrightable) page markup. That said, I agree with the comment that just selling a WordPress layout is probably going to provide him with the best outcome.

This, they copied markup. Some files even have names from our team members who coded them.

I don't think you looked hard enough, there was plenty of code taken vertabim if you look at the source.

Indeed, I didn't. Note that the linked blog post didn't reference code theft specifically, and it's important to distinguish the two. Copyright violations are cut and dry, and should be condemned. Merely cloning a site design is not, and we shouldn't be lumping them together.

Go deeper into both the original site and the competitors; they didn't just steal the front page.

Obviousness isn't always enough of an excuse to ignore copycats. And let's not forget, this was made obvious after the initial design was created.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_of_Columbus

+1 for having some fun.