That said, I do think that the CCC board or any of the other executive members really had no idea. As someone has said before, this was probably contracted work and they just hadn’t realized. Given that this was brought to their attention as soon as the similarity was noticed, I would say that they have been prompt and humble in their response. If you need to bash someone, find their original designer :)

I went to the site that’s currently up and the sidebar navigation links are pure javascript right now, in a table based layout. Me thinks that whatever designer/design group made the current site got paid way too much if it wasn’t done for free. I hope that whatever final redesign they have actually turns out good and uses web standards because it’ll be pretty sad for a technology group that’s supposed to push the envelope to wind up with a site made for the early 90′s.

Embarrassing sure, but they took the high road even after they surely received plenty of “f-ck you” emails.

In the last few hours we’ve learned that the main CCC web site design, which was modeled on an issue of A List Apart, was used without appropriate permission. It was certainly never the intention of the CCC to violate copyright and we have taken immediate steps to discontinue use of the design. We’ve conveyed our apologies to Jeffery Zeldman, the original designer, and apologize for any disruption the site redesign may cause.

Coincidence? I think not. I wonder how long it took to wash the egg off their faces.