It mostly depends on the copyright of the code/software. Much of what is out there is licensed under GPL in which case you can use it. Probably with attribution.

Based on what limited information you provided, all he probably did was extract the basic html and css files of the website you referenced. Anyone can do that quite easily, and I would suppose he handed it to you intact with the same naming conventions.

While this is not illegal, it's not good practice either. At the very least, if you want to emulate a certain look or functionality of another site, do it in your own style. Don't copy/paste exactly.

Regardless, it's not something the third party website is going to sue you over if that's what you're really wondering.

sounds like you got exactly what you paid for. when you ask a coder to "clone" something there isn't a lot of room for interpretation in that statement, and it'd be a complete waste of his/hers time to go through it and rename variables or css classes/ids. what was it? the site may have been built on a common framework like bootstrap or kickstarter so the base of all those projects is the same anyway...

dont be too concerned, the original site probably lifted it from someone else anyway

You requested a clone of someone else's work and now you're worried that it's not original? Go figure.

Mr. gregdavidson,
I do not understand what you really mean here. The programmer may not have stollen the script. If you use any special software to rip down a website, what you get is the HTML and CSS equivalent translation of the website.
If you see PHP codes, then know that the programmer must have written the code himself or may have got the script from whoever that must have developed the script from scratch.
So, I think you owe this developer an appology if you have told him any bad word and you can consult him if you need any changes in the application you desire.

You can only identify public information from a website I.e. The html, css, javascript. Not any back end code. Try using the view-> source option in your browser to see some the html etc.

Now if any of the html/css/javascript point to files hosted by that other website you would want to get that changed since they could be changed by the other website and your site would be broken. Public files like those hosted by Google for jquery (e.g.node.js ) are fine.

The only thing you can "steal" from a website (apart from the content and pictures) is the html output that you see in your browser, javascript and the css files. Everything else such as php files can not be stolen (unless you hack into the server and download the source code, which is highly unlikely).
I assume you are simply referring to some html code, javascript or css.
In my opinion, that is not a big deal

Not illegal, just potential breach of copyright.

Why not to hire a new freelancer?

I think everybody else had already clarified your doubts.

Can css files (like styles.css) be stolen from a website?

Thanks - is there any way to keep this from happenning? Perhaps embed files with some kind of virus so that if the person downloads it, they will "catch it"?

Hi, I am not an attorney but 99% of all code written can NOT be copyrighted because it is part of the "Existing Art." For example, you can't copyright code to popup a message box because that is just a part of the programming language. When companies have programmers sign contracts saying it is a "work for hire" what the companies don't understand is that they do NOT own 99% of the code because the code is part of the existing art. However, what is protected by copyright is the "look and feel" of a website and your site must look different enough so that a person would not think it is the same.

Bill SerGio, The Infiomercial King