Templates: free or not?

[Shemp McGurk]

I recently purchased Frontpage 2003 as well as a learn-it-by-yourself
book called "Microsoft Office Frontpage 2003 Fast and Easy" which I
went through page-by-page from beginning to end.

And now I am feeling pretty ready to start designing my own website.

But I don't particularly like the templates that are in the Frontpage
2003 program itself...they seem kind of hokey and not as
professional-looking as some that I have seen on other websites. And
I'd very much like to copy the template of a website I've seen lock,
stock and barrel.

In the Fast and Easy book on page 88 it says under the heading
"Importing an Existing Web Site":

"There is an unwritten credo for authoring Web Sites that has been
around since the beginning of the Web: 'if a site has something you
like use that site's code!'. The very open nature of HTML makes such
things pretty easy to do."

But I've also found websites that SELL templates.

So I"m confused: if the code for the templates are all public domain,
as the Fast and Easy book suggests, why should I waste my money BUYING
a template? Why not just copy the code of a site I like and use it
for my own site?

So, am I allowed to do that?

Your thoughts on this would be appreciated as I am a newbie to all
this...

 

[Bob Evans]

Many websites that have the professional-looking appearance also bear
copyrights. Those materials are entitled to the same protection that a book,
song, program, or other published piece of original work enjoys under
copyright law. The copyright notice can appear either visibly on the page
itself or within the HTML code as a comment. Either covers it against your
reuse without the authors permission. So if you find one you like, you could
start potentially by asking the sites webmaster or other contact for
permission to use. Additionally, the import feature doesn't necessarily
import all features. For example, if there is any server side processing
(such as for an ASP file) you would only receive the resulting HTML. You
wouldn't receive (or have access to) the ASP code that generated the HTML.

You can however use FrontPage or even the View Source feature of your
browser to see the source for the site and determine how it accomplished
what it did. In other words, you can view the others sites source to learn
techniques and see how it was done and implement your self without copying.
This differs from the lock-stock-and-barrel approach because you are
developing an original work.

The purchased templates are a good approach for someone new to web
development. It will come as a complete unit ready to use and reuse in
developing your sites (images, styles, scripts, etc). The prices are
typically reasonable as well considering the work it saves if you find one
you are satisfied with.