>>> HONORING COPYRIGHTS - Not Just Stardock Works, But What's Used IN Them...
>>> ATTN: Moderators, Ethical Designers Here, and Stardock, Inc.
Sunday, April 16, 2006 by SonicLight | Discussion: WinCustomize Site Issues
Hello,
--- First, this is a suggested and legitimate point of view which is TIOLI (take it or leave it) open to anyone, yet geared at moderators and Stardock/Wincustomize staff.
--- Second, if you don't like what I'm saying (perhaps many members will feel like I'm being too "the way it really is" about this issue), please respect the view and stick to civil converstation/feedback.
--- Third, I'm posting this more as an editorial for I don't have the time to come back and get into dialogues for it's really a no-brainer and very self-explanatory stuff.
OK, so here goes...
______________________________
I'm not new to Stardock, but new to being a member and someone with a professional design background. So I know what is and is not REALLY legal and ethical in terms of copyrights. I also don't suscribe to the anything-goes-if-I-can-get-away-with-it or screw-the-big-corporations philosphies.
That said, I'm no saint and have downloaded a few most likely not 100% "free" pix here and there, but am very mindful about it. I also don't object to people using and taking what I design and post at my site (one design in particular is image-Googled alot and have no idea how that happens
So I also keep what I put up to a minimum.
What I'm most concerned about in regards to Stardock and WinCustomize -- particularly but not limited to BootSkin, wallpaper and other galleries is:
--- The blatent use of product names, logos, trademarks, film and game characters, photos that look very pro, etc. etc. -- yet hardly anyone gives credit to any company or artist for using their stuff (from Microsoft to Star Wars, whatever (aside from original, inter-Stardock stuff, i.e. Window Blinds, etc. )
So my Q is:
--- Is anyone at Stardock/WinCustomize watching this -- and/or have permission from say, Microsoft, etc. to let their users use the above mentioned variety of copyrighted material ?
Now, I know the irony of this concern:
--- Companies and such actually get free advertising from such illegal use of their work. Example: I ride a Honda CBR motorcycle and bought a nice, affordable made-in-Thailand Honda jacket last year of off eBay that I found out later was not "official Honda." I'm not tossing it because of that, but I'm also not going to make that mistake again.
So maybe Stardock/WinCustomize just turn a blind eye on this issue, or not.
Maybe Microsoft and others dig the free publicity and have given Stardock permission.
I dunno.
Closing Point 1:
--- One one hand the powers that be here condone pages after pages of obvious copyright infringements by my fellow members, and yet on the other hand they publish a post with link to an article on copyrights (link provided below) -- which completely supports the suggested "let's keep it ethical" view.
If Stardock/WinCustomize actually applied what they link to, well, you know what would happen: Half of the galleries would be exiled to cyberia
Closing Point 2:
--- A more personal angle: This issue has in a way put a real dampner on what I feel I can download from WinCustomize with a clear conscience. Hell, I even feel a bit weird having a cool bootskin with "Windows XP" on it that I got here a couple of years agoe and still like -- but it's obviously an original design, not the XP logo, so I'm letting myself slide on it.
Life isn't black and white, but messing with too much gray isn't good for the soul, either.
----------------------
Alright, enough said. I've put it out there, you do with it what you will. Hopefully some brave moderators and/or Stardock staff frisbee in some feedback
Thanks for reading.
~ Soniclight (a.k.a. Philip)
--- The "ironic" reality of copyrights facts link page, right here at WinCustomize: "What To Do When Someone Steals Your Work" https://www.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?AID=112883
--- First, this is a suggested and legitimate point of view which is TIOLI (take it or leave it) open to anyone, yet geared at moderators and Stardock/Wincustomize staff.
--- Second, if you don't like what I'm saying (perhaps many members will feel like I'm being too "the way it really is" about this issue), please respect the view and stick to civil converstation/feedback.
--- Third, I'm posting this more as an editorial for I don't have the time to come back and get into dialogues for it's really a no-brainer and very self-explanatory stuff.
OK, so here goes...
______________________________
I'm not new to Stardock, but new to being a member and someone with a professional design background. So I know what is and is not REALLY legal and ethical in terms of copyrights. I also don't suscribe to the anything-goes-if-I-can-get-away-with-it or screw-the-big-corporations philosphies.
That said, I'm no saint and have downloaded a few most likely not 100% "free" pix here and there, but am very mindful about it. I also don't object to people using and taking what I design and post at my site (one design in particular is image-Googled alot and have no idea how that happens
So I also keep what I put up to a minimum.What I'm most concerned about in regards to Stardock and WinCustomize -- particularly but not limited to BootSkin, wallpaper and other galleries is:
--- The blatent use of product names, logos, trademarks, film and game characters, photos that look very pro, etc. etc. -- yet hardly anyone gives credit to any company or artist for using their stuff (from Microsoft to Star Wars, whatever (aside from original, inter-Stardock stuff, i.e. Window Blinds, etc. )
So my Q is:
--- Is anyone at Stardock/WinCustomize watching this -- and/or have permission from say, Microsoft, etc. to let their users use the above mentioned variety of copyrighted material ?
Now, I know the irony of this concern:
--- Companies and such actually get free advertising from such illegal use of their work. Example: I ride a Honda CBR motorcycle and bought a nice, affordable made-in-Thailand Honda jacket last year of off eBay that I found out later was not "official Honda." I'm not tossing it because of that, but I'm also not going to make that mistake again.
So maybe Stardock/WinCustomize just turn a blind eye on this issue, or not.
Maybe Microsoft and others dig the free publicity and have given Stardock permission.
I dunno.
Closing Point 1:
--- One one hand the powers that be here condone pages after pages of obvious copyright infringements by my fellow members, and yet on the other hand they publish a post with link to an article on copyrights (link provided below) -- which completely supports the suggested "let's keep it ethical" view.
If Stardock/WinCustomize actually applied what they link to, well, you know what would happen: Half of the galleries would be exiled to cyberia
Closing Point 2:
--- A more personal angle: This issue has in a way put a real dampner on what I feel I can download from WinCustomize with a clear conscience. Hell, I even feel a bit weird having a cool bootskin with "Windows XP" on it that I got here a couple of years agoe and still like -- but it's obviously an original design, not the XP logo, so I'm letting myself slide on it.
Life isn't black and white, but messing with too much gray isn't good for the soul, either.
----------------------
Alright, enough said. I've put it out there, you do with it what you will. Hopefully some brave moderators and/or Stardock staff frisbee in some feedback
Thanks for reading.
~ Soniclight (a.k.a. Philip)
--- The "ironic" reality of copyrights facts link page, right here at WinCustomize: "What To Do When Someone Steals Your Work" https://www.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?AID=112883
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Kevin_C
Reply #22 Tuesday, April 18, 2006 6:15 PM
Wow, that must be some kind of a first.. A company the size of Microsoft having a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing. Sounds like S.O.P. to me!
Reply #22 Tuesday, April 18, 2006 6:15 PM
| Funny when i asked them they knew nothing about it. |
Wow, that must be some kind of a first.. A company the size of Microsoft having a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing. Sounds like S.O.P. to me!
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Reply #21 Tuesday, April 18, 2006 3:48 PM
A couple of comments here:
#1 Stardock has Microsoft's permission for the Xbox 360 skin. I have personally demoed this skin to Microsoft and they are well aware of it. What we weren't allowed to do is call it the official Microsoft Xbox 360 skin. But we have their okay to have an Xbox 360 skin. We talked to Microsoft BEFORE we posted it btw. Of course, Jeff, if you think so lowly of us, feel free to take your stuff off the site and go away. You of all people know how seriously we take people's IP rights. It would have been a lot cheaper for us to not develop BootSkin and LogonStudio (both freeware) and instead just distribute the actual system files of Windows. The only reason WindowBlinds doesn't natively support msstyles is because Microsoft requested we not -- before programs like Style XP existed. We've sacrificed a great deal in honor people's intellectual property wishes.
#2 WinCustomize allows fan art. So do most sites on the net. To single WinCustomize out on the net seems a bit unreasonable. I go to Google, Type Han Solo. Hundreds of pages of images. You don't like it. That's your right. But that doesn't make it illegal. Fan art on the Internet is a fact of life. The legality of it, at best is unknown. No one here is trying to sell copyrighted content.
#3 The moderation is done by unpaid volunteers. Sometimes things slip through but we do make a good effort to try to protect people's intellectual property.
#4 We have always removed any works at the request of others if they could make a reasonable case that it violates their intellectual property rights. We have even done this unilaterally. For a long while, we forbid any Mac-like skins on the site even as commercial programs like Style XP bundled a Mac skin (and continue to do so to this day) which even have the Apple logo in them. We don't pretend to be lawyers here. What we do know is that every skin site and fan site on the net has much the same content.
#5 WinCustomize doesn't exist in a vacuum. While there is certainly room to complain about boot screens that you feel have some trademark or other issue involved, other skin sites have boot screens that are not only the same in terms of content but are distributed as XP kernel files or in the case of logons are the actual logonui.exe's. Complaining about WinCustomize while every other site is literally distributing patches .msstyles files, XP kernals, and logoinuis's seems very unreasonable too.
#6 Similar to item #5, communities, websites, etc. cannot be compared to some imaginary, utopian ideal. They are relative to other similar entities in reality. Simpy put, there are no other major skin sites that are remotely as considerate of the intellectual property of others.