i didnt sent them any love letter yet ..... but lemme know guys if they get affected by your love stories .....

The right way to go. I figure they just exist to make money from traffic. Even their name is a rip in a way...

If it doesn't work Vamps, there's a certain DudeFromDownUnder who'll link them to dogturdsRus.com and they'll get the message right quick.

got my reply, but i did sent more of a honey letter than a vinegar one........

Hello,

          We were unable to contact you, because we didn't find an email address. It's company policy to inform all producers when we publish their work in order to avoid misunderstandings such as this one. Anyway, would you like to completely remove your listings or just the links from our servers?

Sorry for any inconvenience
Have a good day!

Best regards,
Stefan Fintea
mailto:[email protected]
Softpedia Senior IT Manager
http://www.softpedia.com
Join the Softpedia group on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2366085

hello,
 
I am the author Vampothika at wincustomize, and it has been brought to my attention that your site has most of my curors for download.
I did not upload my cursors at your site, nor did I give permission for you to host them there. Please remove them from your site,
thankyou.
 
Kitty. (vampothika)

In my experience that is the only one that will work reliably.

If anyone wishes an action to be taken by a wrong-doer to undo the wrong....yelling and demanding often goes unheeded....;)

Hello everybody

Let me start by explaining a few things and if you still have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them:

Softpedia does not exploit anyone's work. We respect our producers, we give them credit for their work, links to their homepage/websites and we award the ones who deserve it.

We don't like the idea of going around their/your back, that's why we search for each producer's email. If we do find it, they receive a notification message. The idea behind this email is simple: the producer gets notified each time his worked goes online at Softpedia, he can see if the listing meets his requirements and acknowledges his wish to have that item on Softpedia.

On the other hand, if he thinks that listing is not in his benefit, all he has to do is reply to that email (as Jim did) and we remove his work asap. There are cases (like Vampothika's) when we're unable to find a contact email, but in these cases the author can easily contact us through the forms found on our website and send us his requests: whether he asks for an update or a removal, we strive to do our best in order to have satisfied producers and users.

So, if anyone feels that having their work published and awarded on one of the biggest and most respected download portals is not in their benefit or puts them in a bad light, an email we'll easily solve the problem, as Jim and Vampothika proved it already. As I said before, we're not trying to take advantage of your work and we do respect your decision, whichever it may be.

Thank you!

Stefan Fintea, Softpedia Senior IT Manager

I really didn't mind you posting my VOX sound package, however.. supposedly sending an email and then putting up somesones work whether you get an answer or not does not go far towards your self proclaimed 'most respected download portals' status

My email is publicly and clearly available and I never receieved anything from you regarding permissions so it appears that you didn't look very hard or didn't at all.

What a load of crap!

It's one thing when you contact the person..but when you claim you can find no way to contact them..or posting their work before they respond...where the fuck do you get off posting the work ANYWAY?!?!?! Pretty fucking convenient for you if  that person never finds out about it.

I'd like to see you do that with a Stephen King Novel or maybe some Green Day mp3's.

As for 'respect'.... sorry, you don't have mine. I'm sure a lot of other folks feel the same way. You're 'big' because you you take and post so much stuff without permission, buttmunch! Any fucking body could do that. In your case, portal is just another word for toilet. You're all about accumulating the most shit.

edit* Does Stardock support these folks? They should force them to follow the same rules we have to here as artists and get the fucking permission first! If they don't, then pull all Stardock stuff/permissions from their site!

Strange, problem fixed, email address associated with your account. Sorry about that.

@PoSmedley: That's your opinion and I respect it. But if you think we're the bad guys, we're the worst download portal in the world, I think there are hunderds of download websites out there that never notify producers when they pubish their work, they don't check those programs for viruses, they don't install them and take screenshots, they never answer your emails and sure as hell don't care about what you want, not to mention replying on a third-party forum like I'm doing right now... But hey... it's your opinion

Stefan,

Proper conduct when dealing with others' intellectual copyright is to seek permission FIRST.

It is not appropriate to require feedback/responses [if available] in order to opt-out of your choice to exploit artists' property.

I am sure that many, if not all artists, if approached first would be quite willing to give consent, as it is with that approach that they [the artists] will see a willingness on the part of your site to respect their property rights.

The situation we have here at Wincustomize.com [and other similar skinning/art sites] is that the author/owner of the work uploads his/her content to the site and retains physical access and control of that work when or if it is his/her decision to remove or alter it.  Such is not the case with Softpedia as the occasion clearly has arisen where owners are actually oblivious to the unauthorised redistribution.

The only correct approach would be to remove any and all works which have [yet] no legitimate consent until such time as it/they are obtained....;)

Should I be saddened that they didn't take any of my stuff? 

You forgot ther part that says "If we can't find a way to contact them, we fucking post it anyway because we fucking can! In fact, we don't even wait for a response, because we don't fucking care and we fucking post it anyway!"

Please add that so I can post the entire piece of crap on every skinning site I belong to and then some.

Like the ones you claim you can't find emails for?!?!?!?!?

You want respect, you gotta give it. You wait for a response. THAT shows you respect the artist. You can't contact them. you DON'T post it. THAT shows respect for the artist.

Calling yourself the lesser of two evils doesn't make it right.

Gotta love Twitter.

If you follow Sam or me, be sure to retweet.

*edit

Nozavi, Senior IT Manager Softpedia has been a member here since Feb 2008 and CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CONTACT THE SKINNERS WHOSE ART THEY POST!?!?!?!!?!!? IS THIS RIGHT? If so, you're worse than a Troll or a lurker. How many other softpedia trolls are scouting for art to steal? YOU'RE the one that PERSONALLY responded to Vampothikas letter, YOU'RE a 'member' of this site for over a year...but you can't figure out how to contact the artists!!!!!  

I'm so freakin' steamed...I'd kiss skinhits ass if it would get you permantly banned from the site.

Very interesting, might be nice to hear the explaination, or not. 

Misinterpretation 1: I'm a member because a while back I had a question to ask and needed an account to post it. Haven't used this account since then, because I'm not a frequent user of WC.
Misinterpretation 2: The content on Softpedia was not posted by me, as you can see I'm not an editor, so my membership is, once again, not relevant.
Misinterpretation 3: I've answered to her letter because I'm one of the people who offer users feedback when they have a problem, not WC users in particular.

Anyway... I don't intend to 'fuel' this flame, so... As I've said before, if anyone feels that having their work posted on Softpedia is not their benefit, they can have it removed with a single email. Any further details can also be politely discussed there. Thank you! Over and out.

1. You have been a member here for some time.

2. Anyone enjoying that status (and even posting here about Desktop X) should have seen how sensitive the Artists are about their work, and it's accreditation.

3. You could have notified the members/Artist's involved using the email/pm system in place here at Wincustomize, so your explanation does not hold water.

4. In essence, therefore you have violated the TOS of Wincustomize, by taking Art and putting it on your site without contacting the Artist who were easily within reach.

You KNOW where the art being posted is coming from on the site YOU work for.

Bullshit. See above.

And you would have to check with the editor before responding so you could respond properly unless that was just a form letter you dorkwads spit out for just such an occassion. It's obviously not the FIRST one you have ever issued.. so knowing where some of the graphics that you post  are coming from ......a site YOU are a member of...at the very least 'familiar' with...you could have opened your cakehole and spoke the fuck up, lacky.

I take it back. It's an insult to skinhit.

I would kiss the fattest part of Glenn Becks big white ass if it would get you permantly banned.

Since you're so fucking nonchalant about the whole thing and feel no responsibility to the community, you should go away.

Fuckin eh! As the drone responsible for dealing with 'user feedback' (BTW, she probably wasn't a user until you stole her fucking work and posted it without her permission at which point she was forced to contact you) you don't even offer to speak on behalf of the artists here to see if policy could be changed or anything.

I don't think I have ever said this in a thread and it may cost me, but Fuck You!

Skinhit might differ....not to banning him, butt.....

I figure since everyone else is ragging on about content,
and I have none here on WC, only my Overlays and a couple of small things on the site I Admin,
I'd set the record straight on the above mentioned term.
The "over and out" crap came from some Hollywood creampuff who figured it sounded more dramatic for the movies.
It is however technically incorrect.
So there.

/me out...

Something tells me that softpedia has made the "list"

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

   /me thought Po's wife was the keeper of the list

Go Po'

Something tells me Po's pain killers arn't working like they should. He seems a bit tense lately. 

Er, no... You should contact the artist before displaying their work.

Your flagrant disregard for people's intellectual property is astonishing.