Unless the website is 100% client side, then no you cannot just copy the HTML source and rip off the website.
There is an entire tech stack / ecosystem behind the scenes that reacts to what data your sending back over the wire and in turn you get a response containing the HTML. Your "abstracted" away from everything that isn't in the presentation layer (source code wise).
samuarichucknorris t1_j6jkjii wrote
Reply to ELi5 : If you can access a website, why cant you steal the source code and make a 1:1 copy of it? by 13lettersinhere
What your browser barfs back is just HTML / CSS.
Unless the website is 100% client side, then no you cannot just copy the HTML source and rip off the website.
There is an entire tech stack / ecosystem behind the scenes that reacts to what data your sending back over the wire and in turn you get a response containing the HTML. Your "abstracted" away from everything that isn't in the presentation layer (source code wise).