Topdownloads.net has YOUR walls

Sunday, July 8, 2007 by Jafo | Discussion: WinCustomize News

http://www.topdownloads.net/services/search.php 

Click the link.....enter your nick....or your name....and search.

I found 4 of mine....[under Jafo and Paul+Martin - since removed by request]

BoXXi has 167.....

Anyone I can think of is there....Nuvem...Treetog...Alexandrie...Pixtudio.......list is endless

Yes, this person at 'least' has our names on them....but that's only a small part of the issue of Copyright and distribution.

YOU as the property owner have the inalienable right to determine how, when and where your property is displayed and/or distributed.

This site [Topdownloads.net] is violating your rights.

However, fortunately the site admin appears to be aware he has no right to be doing as he does and promptly complies with requests for content removal.

It is up to each individual artist/owner to determine whether there is a case for proceeding to sue for material loss/compensation.

Domain Name: TOPDOWNLOADS.NET

Administrative Contact :
van Opstal, Leo
[email protected]  

Technical Contact :
van Opstal, Leo
[email protected]

Anyone wanting to retain/maintain legal ownership of their property and control its dissemination would do well to contact Leo for content removal....

82 Reply 22 Referrals
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mschleisner
Reply #41 Monday, July 9, 2007 9:21 AM
Jafo,Directly or indirectly, I have been using the internet for about 30 years now, I do understand the difference between someone taking your work and without permission and using it, again if you offer it for free it's your own fault if someone takes it. If you stand on the corner and give out dollar bills and they give it to someone else, if you give money to a charity and they pay to have their grass cut, if you give it to the church and they have the floors waxed, whatever, you can ask them not to do it, do they have to listen? The amount of non-members does increase the chance that your work or the work of anyone here will be taken and used for whatever they want. We can ask that they remove the work, will it not show up in some other country,you bet it will. Topdownloads.net took it and will return what they took but it will not stop them from taking. We all know the internet is full of people who take. I know of hackers who will take whatever program they want whenever they want for free. There is little we can do until the internet becomes a purchase only place where nothing is free. I doubt that will happen with the people out there who have the knowledge to take what they want and do what they want with it. Sorry but the fact is lately we have seen much of this site taken and reposted other places. They know where the good stuff is and they want it. Police it if you want but don't be shocked if you spend hours everyday trying to get what you post back, it will just get posted someplace else. Good Luck with that. If you create something great, someone will take it and use it and trust me, hackers have the power to take anything they want, not pay for it and use it. We are all at risk of our stuff being taken here in this land known as the internet.  

Jafo
Reply #42 Monday, July 9, 2007 9:35 AM

mschleisner ...the last site within our crosshairs re stolen content has had its account suspended.

Yes, it takes a shitload of time and effort to protect OUR property, but no degree of comparative futility argument is going to sway GOOD INTENTIONS.

It is actually not the 'taking' that is an issue here.....since we are freely GIVING.

The issue is with that site's REDISTRIBUTION, something it has no legal right to be doing.

 


Jafo
Reply #43 Monday, July 9, 2007 9:41 AM

I mean if my apartment was robbed tonight it would be like me having to take the responsibility to track down and arrest the burglars.Clearly this is not the case and I find it a strange state of affairs that you guys have to do all this leg work to protect your intellectual ownership.As well as being time consuming for you it also puts you in contact with some really dodgy barstewards.

Welcome to the world of the online Artist ....


bobbyhundreds
Reply #44 Monday, July 9, 2007 10:00 AM
Welcome to the world of the online Artist ....


Never a dull moment eh?   

Viney212
Reply #45 Monday, July 9, 2007 10:45 AM
If you stand on the corner and give out dollar bills and they give it to someone else, if you give money to a charity and they pay to have their grass cut, if you give it to the church and they have the floors waxed, whatever, you can ask them not to do it, do they have to listen?


You're comparing apples to oranges here. Handing out free currency is not at all the same thing. What if I wanted to take that dollar and make copies of it and distribute those copies for free for whomever would like a copy? Is that not illegal? Sure a person can do whatever they want with that dollar but there's still laws and terms of use that a person must abide by when using that dollar.

You did not create that dollar yourself. Unless contractually, you have no right to tell anyone what to do with a dollar you give them. It's currency. This is art. Intellectual property that an individual created. Individuals that have a right to control how their property is distributed, and whether it's free or not has nothing to do with it. When you register here you agree to the terms of those distribution methods and what you may do with the content you download. No one is handing out free dollars here and saying do whatever you wish with them.

For a better example than your free dollar from the street corner, look at music. You can download free promotional singles from stores like iTunes. However if you were to download those same songs illegally over an unauthorized download service it's just as illegal as downloading any other song from the unauthorized service. Download a bunch of iTunes free promotional singles then see what Apple has to say when you want to start up a site of your own offering all those singles for free from you as an alternative to iTunes. They're not going to look the other way and let you do whatever you want (violating the terms of use that you agreed to) with that content just because it was offered for free.

There are plenty of very good reasons control is established over intellectual property. If you ignore one site stealing work, what's to stop another site from stealing your work from that one? And so on and so on until the internet is so saturated with yours and others unauthorized copies, credited or not, that your work is no longer yours and nothing you created is as it was intended.

XX
Reply #46 Monday, July 9, 2007 11:03 AM
mschleisner, its like saying those:

"It's not my fault I stole from house - the door was open and I saw cool stuff there."

"It's her fault for being *, because she dressed like she wanted it!"

You shouldn't do it just because it's easy to do. It's still a violation of copyright laws.

mrs_starkers
Reply #47 Monday, July 9, 2007 11:25 AM
Perhaps this thread should be passed on to all the skinning sites


I have Just posted it over at skinnalicious

Jafo
Reply #48 Monday, July 9, 2007 11:32 AM

I have Just posted it over at skinnalicious

Thanks, Ma'am....


Richard Mohler
Reply #49 Monday, July 9, 2007 11:59 AM
Good advertising...  

ZubaZ
Reply #50 Monday, July 9, 2007 12:13 PM
I still can't find anything I've ever submitted hosted elsewhere without permission




mrs_starkers
Reply #51 Monday, July 9, 2007 12:27 PM
Perhaps this thread should be passed on to all the skinning sites


I also posted it at clwoods Gallery

mschleisner
Reply #52 Monday, July 9, 2007 12:58 PM
I understand all of this, my point is that we allow "guests" to download free, do we not? Then they pass them to someone else or another site. We have no control over those who do this. I agree the dollar bill stuff didn't work but what I am trying to say is that over and over people steal from the internet, this will not stop. That was my point, and Hackers do it more than you know. They steal programs, have code generators to get software free. We can not police the whole internet throughout the world, we can try but this is futile. Everything we do on the internet can and will be taken by those who steal. Limewire, download all the music you want if you pay the price, I paid, I met a hacker recently that said " are you kidding, you paid for that?" I was talking to him in a club, and no I don't know his name but he said he can steal anything and access almost anything with a code generator. I was horrified. I paid for winzip, he got that too for free. I just think this whole thing is getting rather scary. I left the club, didn't get his info. I should have and maybe turned him in, to who I don't know but hell he is only one of so many. All I am trying to get everyone to understand is the internet is one big place, and everything can be stolen, no matter how safe you think you are, you are not. I am not trying to get banned or kicked in the guts for stuff I say, but if you think I am wrong I am willing to hear you all out. I just wanted you to know what I just found out this weekend, sitting in a club and talking about computers. I didn't like what I heard, but it opened my eyes to more than I wanted to know.

ZubaZ
Reply #53 Monday, July 9, 2007 1:05 PM
what I am trying to say is that over and over people steal from the internet, this will not stop.

So we should not try to stop them?

Quitter.

As soon as one stops defending their rights they lose them.  This is true in intellectual property, real property,  government, whatever.  You quit and they win.  Not me sister.  Thanks but no thanks.

mschleisner
Reply #54 Monday, July 9, 2007 1:31 PM
Not a quitter, just know there are powers out there bigger and badder than little old me. I hope you all keep going, Like I said, Good Luck With That. I don't have all day to chase down these people. I have a life. If you have all the time in the world, more power to you. I don't have the time and I am powerless to stop them. Thanks to all you internet police for finding and stopping all this, but as I said, it will continue thanks to all those who are willing to take and not give back and line their pockets. I remain "horrified".

HG_Eliminator
Reply #55 Monday, July 9, 2007 2:12 PM
The only power folks have over you .. is what you allow them to have....throw in the towel, and they have it all..


yes crime on the internet will be around as long as there are immoral folks out there on it .. but we must fight them when called to arms...


My stuff may not be the greatest stuff on the net .. but it's mine, when i allow someone to forceably take control over it.. I give up my right's...Ive had too many family members make the ultimate sacrifice for mine and others right's, to give them up so easily....


Tombala
Reply #56 Monday, July 9, 2007 3:20 PM
I'll be short and sweet.

1) The site is not linking to the content. Instead, it is simply letting you download from their servers that harvested it from WinCustomize (I know it's WC because I don't upload my stuff anywhere else). So the person downloading has no idea from where the art-work or whatever you want to call it originated.
2) The site is not really giving you credit. Your user name appears but it is not linked to your WC account, so it could be any "yourusernamehere" at any site in the vast internet. So, whoever downloads it has no way of commenting on your work or reaching you in case they were interested in giving you real paying work, which some authors here do provide. People here give countless hours to their work only to give it away for free. The least they deserve is feedback from all the people that appreciate their work.
3) They did not ask for it.
4) They are trying to make money by providing your work on an ad supported site.

All of the above added up is enough for me to not like them for what they are doing. Thanks for the alert.

T.

Elsius Saint
Reply #57 Monday, July 9, 2007 4:33 PM
Knock, Knock, Knock!

Who’s there?

Elsius Saint

Enter Sir!

A member kept it short and sweet. I’ll keep it soft as a pillow.


This is not being addressed directly to that member.

Would not it be best to attach your information with your files in case they are being redistributed elsewhere by nonpartisans or unknown invidious? At least your credit would find its way back to you. In my book, only a handful should act on my advice because if your works aren’t that good, why bothered?

If you like my advice and plan to use it please be nice to make a donation of at least $50 in US currency through my PayPal Account within 24 hours right after or else.

Warning: copying my comment above to other sites without my written consent is strictly prohibited and will be punished beyond human can possibly endure.

Elsius Saint

Signing out

Ronan H
Reply #58 Monday, July 9, 2007 5:15 PM
Wow i made 4 crap wallpapers under the guise of Sir Headly about 4 years ago and they are on the website... I dunno if i should be chuffed or annoyed

They love my work, i feel loved

Ronan

HG_Eliminator
Reply #59 Monday, July 9, 2007 5:45 PM
ugly skin's or not everybody had the right to be treated equally and defend their property...crap or not makes no difference.... to smugly tell folks their skins are crap and they should thank the rippers is about as repugnant of a statement as ive ever heard....

Philly0381
Reply #60 Monday, July 9, 2007 5:55 PM
Well, I'm sitting here with nothing to do so I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents also.

First off I'm sure we all know what someone means when they say something about their 2 cents. It's their opinion, nothing more than that. Unless the person speaking has direct involement in the matter at hand an opinion really isn't worth 2 cents, sorry.

Folks responding to this post have expressed strong feelings on both sides.

The only important thing to consider is was a law broken. If a law has been broken than as they say, all bets are off. It really doesn't matter if you don't like the particular law that's being enforced or when the law in use was established.

Now back to my 2 cents worth. I've seen WC go after sites like these mentioned here and I've seen them stop people from downloading skins that where not theirs and where they did not have the permission of the owner of the skin. Stardock and or WC needs to be applauded for their integrity.

That my friends is how real life is. Oh and by the way the Internet is not real life. It's a bunch of people running amouck until they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar.   

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