When you develop a site using html/css/javascript (mostly client side). you would expect some people to browse through the code, maybe re-use some parts or maybe learn how a module was created.

Some people (who know nothing about coding) however, have established work as a small company by just stealing complete websites and reconfiguring them to their liking then selling to clients (who are as stupid as them).
There is actually a girl and her boyfriend who made a career and money in Lebanon by doing so.
And now, they started hijacking flash sites.

Some of the sites are really advanced like for example having a flash site with several libraries or a CMS driven html site. with full jQuery client site These people actually spend hours trying to understand how a structure was written, it would take them less tiem to implement the structure themselves.

This came to my attention when I was contacted by a colleague working at another company about the couple working on decrypting a full flash site I did.
I am confident that even when they decrypt it they wont be able to do anything (the code is too complex and contains a lot of advanced algorithms). I usually do not protect my SWFs or source but just wanted to discuss code theft as many people are getting undeserved fame (and $$).
When I don't know how to do something, I often go out looking for code. I did "steal" javascript from a site that would have what I wanted a couple of times. But it doesn't go far, most of the times I want to modify the code, and since it's not my code I end up redoing it from scratch. So for me it ended up more like learning then stealing.
In the end, I always end up with my own code.
its easy to figure out a code using firebug, its not much of a stealing unless your cloning the site, which imo is pretty weak.
For your javascript, you could use a packer or minifier. They can still "Unpack it" but won't be able to retrieve the variable names. This makes it much harder for them to modify the functionality.
i do not care abt code theft everytime i do a project i do it to learn and achieve something better. so if someone actually reused it he is far behind technically. but i was just wondering how people would actually take hard work and sell it for their own profit.
in lebanon i do not think we actually have copyrights or a way to report infrigements. for example i know many lebanese commercial cmses developed by reknown companies and they use stolen libraries they did not pay licenses or anything.
not to forget selling flash sites for example where they were developed on cracked IDEs and they were sold at a very high price...
in lebanon i do not think we actually have copyrights or a way to report infrigements.
We do have copyright, it is automatic whenever you create something and you don't need to apply for it (unlike patents and trademarks).