Master skins, and their sharing.
Friday, March 20, 2015 by Jafo | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Copyright is an interesting creature....worthwhile for all to educate oneself.
Intellectual property has an owner.
That owner owns the right to determine exactly how his property is distributed to one and all.
When a skinner has reached the status/level of MASTER he has the opportunity to release his works as Master skins on Wincustomize for commercial sale.
That means there is a simple commercial contract between the supplier [Master] aka vendor and the recipient aka purchaser.
A fee is involved in that transaction. Under International Copyright Law that means the purchaser has obtained rights to use the product purchased.
It DOES NOT MEAN he also has purchased the right to distribute that product [freely or otherwise] to others.
THAT is an actual breach of copyright.
Stardock and Wincustomize will not tolerate any such transgressions of copyright law.
If you think ANY works here are great...tell the author....tell the world...but please remember you do not have legal authority to distribute them. Only their author can give you such permission.
Reply #2 Friday, March 20, 2015 11:19 AM
Thanks for posting that Jafo, but unfortunately it's not going to make any difference at all. People are still going to do it. I had a skin that only had one purchase on my site for instance, and next thing I know it's on some WAREZ site in China. The person who purchased the skin only lives 20 miles from me too! It just doesn't matter, some people just don't give a crap about your copyright. Really strange though that someone would pay out their money for something, and then give it away for free. 
Reply #3 Friday, March 20, 2015 1:59 PM
Kudos on posting this, but Tom is right. Pirates won't be stopped.
That fact has the music industry changing the way they do things. Or at least I read that somewhere.
I don't know how it could be stopped.
I think back to when CDs first became commonplace. It was no big deal to ask my brother to let me make a copy of his Bob Seger CD. It seemed commonplace and not hurting anything and totally acceptable. No thought whatsoever was given to it.
Now, thinking about it, I guess Bob Seger may not agree.
I guess that attitude was and is wrong all along.
Reply #4 Friday, March 20, 2015 2:33 PM
Hi,
that
Really strange though that someone would pay out their money for something, and then give it away for free.
Sadly not really Lightstar1. Some strange persons do use referrers, warez sites ( i do personally fear everything with warez related.) .They'll get the incomes they want for posting other artworks , with viruses and really nasty and nasty advertising sites popups flash popunders. Expecting/Hoping pc will be infected by viruses and adware. -> more profit, possibility to sell antivirus software . That creates not much money.And it will be money that is nearly clean. Its also not clear if they really distribute the content.... Hope that justice do follow people who do upload computer software/addons that costs money.
Its more than clearly forbidden to distribute copyrighted content that costs money. Hope that times will arrive where all companies do sell their products for reasonable prices like stardock does.
People can always use free skins and support the theme creators with helpful comments if they don`t want to buy master skins.
Don`t get why to share master skins.
regards bluedxca93
Reply #5 Friday, March 20, 2015 3:58 PM
Russian and China sites and warez users shit on your copyright it will continue without of course that you can't understand it and it does not stop ever I have personally seen on Russia and China websites
Reply #6 Friday, March 20, 2015 5:09 PM
Thanks for posting that Jafo, but unfortunately it's not going to make any difference at all. People are still going to do it. I had a skin that only had one purchase on my site for instance, and next thing I know it's on some WAREZ site in China. The person who purchased the skin only lives 20 miles from me too! It just doesn't matter, some people just don't give a crap about your copyright. Really strange though that someone would pay out their money for something, and then give it away for free.
20 miles? i'm in logan now. it wasn't me, tom. i swear it wasn't.
Reply #7 Friday, March 20, 2015 6:56 PM
Thanks for posting that Jafo, but unfortunately it's not going to make any difference at all. People are still going to do it. I had a skin that only had one purchase on my site for instance, and next thing I know it's on some WAREZ site in China. The person who purchased the skin only lives 20 miles from me too! It just doesn't matter, some people just don't give a crap about your copyright. Really strange though that someone would pay out their money for something, and then give it away for free.
20 miles? i'm in logan now. it wasn't me, tom. i swear it wasn't.
You're fine John, it was someone in Kokomo. 
Reply #8 Friday, March 20, 2015 7:01 PM
Its more than clearly forbidden to distribute copyrighted content that costs money.
"money" actually does not factor into it at all, not when it comes to copyright.
Even if a work was free it is still not free to distribute...UNLESS the copyright holder expressly allows third party distribution.
Reply #10 Saturday, March 21, 2015 7:17 AM
Thanks for posting that Jafo, but unfortunately it's not going to make any difference at all. People are still going to do it. I had a skin that only had one purchase on my site for instance, and next thing I know it's on some WAREZ site in China. The person who purchased the skin only lives 20 miles from me too! It just doesn't matter, some people just don't give a crap about your copyright. Really strange though that someone would pay out their money for something, and then give it away for free.
20 miles? i'm in logan now. it wasn't me, tom. i swear it wasn't.
You're fine John, it was someone in Kokomo.
i was in kokomo yesterday. i would've broken his kneecap for ya, tom.
ok, now i'm going to be serious ......... you folks who make master skins, and the guys who make free skins, put A LOT of work into your product and deserve the accolades you get. someone who posts the skins elsewhere without your permission is a scumbag in my opinion. even tho i no longer use wb, i support you guys in your battle against warez.
Reply #14 Saturday, March 21, 2015 5:54 PM
It happens on this site. I have had a few PM wanting to know if I'd like to trade skins. Not something to be done but how do you stop it.
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Reply #1 Friday, March 20, 2015 9:11 AM