k10w3, hope you didn't bump your head Rolling on the Floor     either way Glad I got you too ROF (A.K.A.  Roll on the floor)

So Jafo, the Master Skins etc. are not uploaded to the site (Like WC) they are coming straight from the Artiest?

that is something I wouldnt mind doing at all, it would be worth the effort.

This is just an idea....I only thunk it up today.

The system would be....people would buy the Master skin as usual....with Wincustomize.com handling the process...but the only skins accessible would be locked [not able to be 'tweaked' as regular skinners like to do].

That isn't going to affect MOST users - as most wouldn't be 'tweaking' as the process is beyond most people's ability/interest/need.

If a buyer is also a skinner...eg wishing to 'port' a skin to an alternate proggy...or fiddle with the original [beyond the scope of the WB options] he/she would request a 'watermarked' but non-encrypted copy from the Master direct [providing evidence of purchase so as not to get it for nix].

That way...the public use skin is encrypted and 'safe' and the non-encrypted [and less common] copies can be traced if/when someone wants to be a mug.

If it's do-able it will certainly put a dent in the current 'trade'...

I was thinking about this. One way to solve this problem would be to have a master skin compiler which would encrypt the configuration files (without them the theme is useless, just a bunch of graphics) when making a master skin.

WB would decrypt the config files in memory only. If a user makes changes to a master skin (and WB knows it's a master skin because the configuration file was encrypted to begin with), the resulting configuration file would be encrypted with the same key used for the original master theme before being saved to disk. Only a user with a valid key installed on his computer would thus be able to use the modified theme(s).

An obvious problem is what happens if the key is leaked together with the master skin (and it will), but that is the same problem faced by all copy protection mechanisms. At least you would be able to indentify users who leaked particular master themes to warez sites, and later versions of WB could blacklist that particular key.

Another problem is that including the encryption algorithm in WB to allow for modified skins (even when using public/private keys) would make it a lot easier for hackers to create keygens simply by reverse engineering WB. On the other hand, are users in that site sophisticated enough for this?

After all, no protection is unbreakable - you can only hope you made it so difficult, convoluted and boring that the vast majority of wanna-be hackers will give up before they succeed in cracking it.

Ah, ah, Jafo, we posted nearly at the same time!

Good idea too.

Jafo,

Don't get me wrong it's sound like I good ideal.. But  yes you know me by now I have too put that BUT in it...

so how would the artist know who is Pirating their art without becoming a Pirate them selfs cause they would have to

download it to see the Watermark... and their skin WB, etc.  might be in with a Download of lets say 10 other Artistes and lets say he/she don't know.

the other Artists.

the artist downloads it don't they uplaod it at the same time?  if so they just helped lets say 100 to a 1,000 more people still

someone eleses art.

   I'm just tring to look at you Ideal from every angle  because I do think it sounds good... but if you don't have anyone other then YES men, saying it's

good and not pionting the other angles, out then it's dead... 

regular skinners tweak other skinner skins, for what purpose? I can see looking under the hood to see how something was made but... it's just hard to imagine say Kitty tweaking one of John's blinds, or visa versa, for any reason.

I assume that most "regular" skinners are using their own skins, maybe I'm incorrect and I'm only speaking from my own experience.

Some people like moving or changing the start buttons....taskbar all sorts of things. It's a matter of personal preference. Just another part of customizing.

I always have to tweak the coding of the window frames for my blinds to work properly because my laptop is stupid. Also, I've updated several different (older) skins to be windows 7 compatible.

Skinners do their own thing....even if it's someone else's  to start with.

I don't mean skin users...I mean skinners.

Lots of people will buy a Model T Ford [or did]...but only 'some' will put a small-block V8 in it and chop and channel, etc.

DC...now you are simply over-analyzing it.  The intent of all this is to prevent the piracy from the outset - not to create new and wonderful reasons to dl the warez in the wild.

But 'when' it's found out there...[by whom-ever] it can be traced.

The act of 'catching it' isn't an issue.

Last year or so I pretended to be an idiot-child wanting a cracked ver of Windowblinds from a genuine idiot-child.... because a certain person called Neil was curious as to whether it was a new 'release' or one he already had record of.

Doing so doesn't make me a warez junkie/pirate.... just the same as [today's news] that arrest of 3 guys in Melbourne who were accessing child porn doesn't make the police investigators guilty by association.

@ Jafo re #55......

Now how did I know you were going to say that!!!

And in an ideal world, politicians would be prosecuted and jailed for breaking election promises (and we're gonna hear a few of those over then next few weeks), but it just ain't gonna happen, is it!!!

Oh, and where else did I see support/endorsement for my argument that nobody else is responsible for pursuing copyright holders rights???.... Um, that's right....

... and when that fails.. he/she engages the services of a copyright lawyer and together they pursue the matter in the civil courts. That way it keeps (otherwise distracted) law enforcement officers on the ground, where they should be... in the service of public safety, otherwise, anarchy reigns.

Oh, and let's not construe this as me not caring about master skinners IP.  I do, and I sincerely hope this matter can satisfactorily be resolved in their favour, real pronto like.  Sure, what I said before was flippant, and perhaps encouraging one to take the law into one's own hands, but sometimes you gotta fight fire with....um,  a stick or three of gelignite.

Um, has anyone given thought to better protection on Windowblinds itself? After all, if they don't have a working copy of Windowblinds then they will not be using any skins at all now will they...

That's only one side of the coin...

Bit like fitting locks on a car.....but not on a petrol bowser.

excuse me, my comment was directed towards windowblinds only and I didn't take into account those other talented people that skin other things.

It's not something that can just be done instantly.  It will need to be discussed and decided upon.

WindowBlinds 7 is pretty well protected.  As someone who hunts down pirates on a weekly basis, I can say with certain that pirates don't like WB7. 

Otherwise it really doesn't matter for master skins, you can have a legit copy of WB and still pirate a master skin.

This is true, however those that are willing to shell out the $$ for Windowblinds are less likely to pirate the master skins.

You're never going to stop it completely. I just see encrypting skins or using a My Colors type solution as a total failure/inconvienience for legit users waiting to happen. If the blinds REQUIRE WB7 to run then it would go a long way in the deterence battle.

Yes...me throwing ideas around doesn't make it happen....just makes it thunk about.

There may be other ways to ultimately handle the issues...

Indeed.  We need to decide if we will implement a system, whats the best way to do so and if we will open it up to other SD apps as well as WindowBlinds such as protecting master video dreams.

There are two sides of this.  Protecting WB is obviously important (as thats how we make money!), but protecting the content is also important.

Putting the content in a new protected format that required a new version of WB (say 7.2) to run would allow us to tighten up both things at once.  Otherwise we can improve WB protection by 100 times and it isn't going to help master skin piracy when the pirates will simply use WB 7.1.

Any system would not require an additional app so it isn't the same as the MyColors solution.  WindowBlinds would just handle it all itself.