A significant site in 2004 was caught lifting entire web pages from other sites and placing their logos and information on those pages.

In essence the company found a site they liked and wanted one built that looked just like it. This falls under the rule of intellectual property. You see, unless it is a template design that allows you to develop a page that looks very similar to another then the lifting of elements from another website is using the creative talent of others to achieve a personal and financial goal. If you have not reached an agreement with the web designer or company who created the work then you should not use the element.

You can develop something with a similar feel to it perhaps, but in some cases companies have simply mirrored existing work and claimed it as their own.

If you do this you will likely receive a cease and desist order and perhaps find yourself in court over the matter.

The use of templates in web design can help you avoid this problem simply because the work was designed to be used by the masses. Perhaps the most compelling feature of template web development is that even within a template there is significant room for customization.

You can alter pictures, colors and general layout. You will be given ample opportunity to create the page to meet your own expectations. Perhaps the best part is you will not be placing yourself in jeopardy of litigation.

Web development should be about personal creativity and expression. It can be easy to look at another website and conclude that it is so well done it makes sense to use it, but chances are if it's really good the owner of the site spent significant sums of money on the development of the idea. They will not view your use of their material as flattery. Imitating their work constitutes stealing.

With template rich web builder technology you will have an extremely large number of templates to choose from and adapt to suite your needs. Perhaps the best part of using this is both the freedom to use the template in any way that seems fit and the incredible cost savings available to those who use this technology.

I know of a man who spent thousands of dollars developing a site that used flash technology and had daily updated information and features. Someone liked the site so much they created an exact mirror site with their own domain name. Visitors were led to believe the site owner provided a wealth of information when all that was accomplished was the complete theft of thousands of dollars worth of work. The mirror site was forced to close shop. My friend did not press charges, but has become careful about making sure visitors understand the work is copyrighted material and cannot be used for purposes other than the singular enjoyment of visiting his site.

By all means find elements you think would be useful to your design, but make sure those elements are not duplicates of something that already exists. You want your web site to be around for a long time. Make it all yours from the beginning.