Customize.Ru - time to complain/act
Hosting 'our' skins without consent is a Copyright issue
Thursday, June 21, 2007 by Jafo | Discussion: Community
Skinners.....pop on over to....
http://www.best-skins.net/themes_windowblinds.html
There you will find all manner of Windowblinds skins [just for starters - other skinnables are there, too].
It's not a 100% guarantee that ALL are there without consent...but highly likely at least MOST are.
The authors whose works are ripped [distributed without author's consent] include....[in no particular order, just going through the list] ->
Adni18
treetog
Mike Bryant
Tom and Dee
Martinsh
Daniel
Apocalypse_67
Cliff
'Unknown' <--- [yeah, good one]
Danillook [sp] 
Mike Bryant [again]
Velvet_skin
JJ.Ying
Ian Black
Shawn Taylor
Martnish
Javier
The Skins Factory
Michael Branot [typo]
JJ.Ying [again]
.....and that's the first 4 pages....[there are 12]
To 'convince' Customize.Ru to remove any/all that have no consent to be there....or to convince the site's ISP to 'have something done about them and/or the site itself a wee bit of action/effort is needed.
Any author/skinner who has an issue with any of his/her works being on that site unlawfully needs to post here a link to each work that needs removal....
And...
To email the site ISP with a request and include the link needing to be removed.
The Email addy is.... [email protected] [It's an US ISP]
If you post the links-of-issue here I'll also be emailing requests.
Each link will require an individual email. I expect the resulting 'flood' will prompt some form of action....
Koop [Larry Kuperman] is Stardock's man-on-the-job in matters such as Warez/Property issues pertaining to Stardock.com, however this problem with the skins impacts directly on the skin authors themselves and hence is best handled by their direct IP owner. [Copyright holder].
Now, as with any issue pertaining to property rights management, by far the BEST course of action is to specifically be POLITE and cool-headed with any communications/requests.
So,
We ask only two things of you all here.....
1. Please don't flood this thread with comments of 'those bastards', etc., just leave it clear for the matter at hand, namely the reclaimation of OUR ownership/control of OUR property.....by the listing of names and links of people affected.
and
2. Keep all communications civil. {I have dealt professionally with various 'Authorities' for over 30 years.... Councils, Planners, Administrative Appeals Tribunals, all sorts of 'fun' Archie things.....and know for a fact that IRATE gets you nowhere....real fast. [my fave letter closure is "I await your favourable reply"]....
This is all something the 'older' skinners will have already experienced from time to time.
Of course, if ANY of these skins are actually there WITH author's consent.....PLEASE, make note of that here too....
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Reply #22 Thursday, June 21, 2007 6:27 PM
Reply #23 Thursday, June 21, 2007 7:50 PM
Astyanax0 ...yes, it's an US ISP so they ain't 'Niko - Above the Law'.
Actually, being in Russia hasn't stopped me in the past....but Babelfish made me laugh till I cried....
Reply #24 Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:04 PM
Reply #25 Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:23 PM
Reply #26 Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:34 PM
As Koop stated [on IRC, earlier] ...it's of little import as the warez site is already accessible. What THIS particular thread is about is to notify SKINNERS of their property rights abuse and through reaction/response have the situation effectively stopped, not for critical commentary as to whether it is 'ridiculous'.
As ALSO stated this site has an US ISP so is quite accessible to censure. Unco-ordinated singular complaint may go unnoticed/unheeded...however notifying ALL whose works are pirated means a concerted response will see results...
Reply #29 Friday, June 22, 2007 6:29 PM
It would appear that something good happened, how is that!!!!
Oh, wait a minute good things always happen on a Friday.
Good work, to whom ever wants to stand up and take credit.
Reply #30 Friday, June 22, 2007 7:05 PM
Reply #31 Friday, June 22, 2007 7:57 PM
Yep, looks like it's down.
Everyone who posted here about stolen works can take credit for its 'demise'.
I think Larry [Koop] most likely can take the lion's share....
Reply #35 Friday, June 22, 2007 10:57 PM
Nope, it was the power of the community. Thank you all.
This is a victory and one that was accomplished with the help of many people. But be aware...it never ends. If I tell you Island_Dog, Zoomba, Yarlen and I take down between 5 to 10 links a day...5 days a week...and we still don't get them all.
RapidShare, Metafiles, even the larger torrent sites will take links down upon appropriate request. Some of them will even block content from being re-upped. But it takes time. Thats where the community comes in.
I will tell you that if just ignore it, if you shrug and say "nothing to be done" it will only worsen.
Thanks again.
Reply #36 Friday, June 22, 2007 11:41 PM
Reply #39 Saturday, June 23, 2007 9:19 AM
Reply #40 Saturday, June 23, 2007 9:51 AM
It would appear that the next level of persuasion to stop this practice needs to happen, whatever that maybe.
Good luck in getting this stopped.
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Reply #21 Thursday, June 21, 2007 6:05 PM
They're just gonna look at you, spit in your face and laugh no doubt.