Let me put it this way, for you to RECOVER anything under the law you are going to have to prove what you LOST as a consequence of the violation.
You might think of a web site in the same way you would think of music or poetry. One is written out in HTML, one is written out in notes on a chart, one is written in words. Taken as a whole, an original work of music or poetry is not plagiarized if it is copied for personal use. However the copyright is violated if, for example, a thief used a photocopier to make thousands of copies of sheet music charts and then sold the illicit copies without the permission of the copyright owner. Software piracy comes to mind. People don't steal books by making illegal copies any more than they counterfeit pennies - it's not worth stealing some things.
Now let's consider two poets. Both write poems in the same language about the beauty of the morning dew on red roses. Undoubtedly they will use many of the same words, perhaps even the same phrases. No copyright violation occurs.
Two composers write military fanfares for brass ensembles. They chart the same notes (after all, a Trumpet has a range) but in slightly different order and rhythm. No violation occurs, not even if composer #2 starts his fanfare by copying some parts of the first fanfare. The violation will be held to have occurred if it becomes obvious to a court that the violator did not make an original work, and profited from the illegally copied work, and his profit denied the original artist an income.
If you show a courtroom two web sites that have different images and colors and home pages, it will be a cold day in hell before they will hold that a copyright violation occurred.
So before you spend your time and money on a lawsuit that you almost certainly will lose, be prepared to prove the following things:
1. You lost millions of dollars (if it is not in the millions, don't even bother - the courts won't hear your case)
2. The infringer gained millions of dollars, and gained this money only by stealing intellectual property from you.
3. You registered the copyright and proved that it was an original work prior to the time that the infringer first used the stolen intellectual property.
The cost to mount an infringement lawsuit will be at least $100,000.00 and my suggestion would be to take that money and use if for college, instead of wasting it on undeserving lawyers.
