grayhaze

grayhaze

Joined Member # 5395
1 Posts 9 Replies 1,039 Reputation
Reply to Do you like RIP? ... Here is another one... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I tried starting a thread to discuss a solution to the growing problem of ripping, but I seemed to be the only one willing to consider methods of prevention other than taking action after the event. I've seen the rips of your site graphics before, and they all just show the same disregard for your rights as artists. Hopefully there will come a point where people are willing to put serious thought into the problem, but in the meantime it looks like harassment is our only weapon...

45 Replies 15,664 Views
Reply to Rips - A discussion in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Of course, there's pretty much no way whatsoever of stopping wallpapers from being stolen. They are by definition just basic image files which sit on your hard disk, so no work even needs to be done to redistribute them. I did have an idea for applications like WindowBlinds and IconPackager though. If you have a skin/theme loaded through one of these applications then perhaps that application could intercept any attempt to make a screen grab, and black out the relevant areas in the resu

56 Replies 14,328 Views
Reply to Rips - A discussion in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I hadn't thought of that BoXXi. There was a time when we didn't use full desktop images to show our new skins though. Maybe there's some in-between where it's possible to get a good idea of how a skin looks, whilst not providing enough graphics in the shot to reproduce the skin. For example, a lot of the sites with skins for Kalidoscope (sic), the Mac alternative to WindowBlinds, only show the top-

56 Replies 14,328 Views
Reply to Rips - A discussion in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

That's true paxx, but what we're also seeing is a lot of ripping from screen grabs of desktops posted on the web. In that case, the ripper could claim ignorance. That's why I think finding a way to prevent those screen grabs from being taken is important. I don't want to sound like a complete killjoy though. I understand that people want to show off when they've found an attractive look for their desktop, and that in many cases those grabs are good advertising for the particular skin. S

56 Replies 14,328 Views
Reply to Rips - A discussion in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

That's basically what digital watermarking does @shu. It hides text containing the author name and contact details into an image either visually through an imperceptible 'noise' or through the use of extended tags on certain image formats. So the answer to your question is yes, it can work. If you keep a copy of the original image together with a copy of the image after it has been 'watermarked', then you're at least safeguarding yourself should a dispute over ownership arise. However,

56 Replies 14,328 Views
Reply to Rips - A discussion in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Here are just a few points based on what's been said so far. Digital watermarking doesn't have to cost more than the one-off fee for a watermarking application or plugin. It's true that there are companies who maintain a database of watermarks created with their technology, and demand a fee for this service, but there are also other solutions which simply encode the information into the image and leave it at that. It's then your responsibility to keep a copy of the original image togeth

56 Replies 14,328 Views
Rips - A discussion in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Over recent months, I have noticed an alarming rise in copyright theft amongst the skinning community. It only takes a quick look through this very message board to find numerous reports of unauthorised modification and redistribution of WindowBlinds skins, icons and wallpapers. It's really encouraging to see that skinning is becoming an everyday part of computer use and, as Frogboy tells us time and time again, skinning is constantly on the rise. It seems however that this public expos

56 Replies 14,328 Views
Reply to What does GUI stand for? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

WYSIWYG = 'What You See Is What You Get' An acronym coined around the time of the first 'visual' wordprocessors. Before this, you had to use a scripting language similar to HTML to create documents, and only got an idea of what your finished page would look like once you went to print it.

19 Replies 4,854 Views
Reply to Huston, I think we have a problem!!!!! in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Here's the final list of skins included with 'Skin Builder', although I'm not sure on the authors of several. skin0000.skn: 'XP Corona' by Alexandrie skin0003.skn: 'WinAqua' by Dangeruss skin0004.skn: 'Tiamat' by Alexandrie skin0006.skn: 'Homestead' by ? skin0010.skn: 'seer' by essorant skin0011.skn: 'QuOS' by eme skin0012.skn: 'QNX3' by Alexandrie skin0015.skn: 'OSXP' by Judge skin0016.skn: 'Olympics OS' by treetog skin0018.skn: 'Metallic' by ? s

98 Replies 28,285 Views
Reply to Huston, I think we have a problem!!!!! in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I used to have a friend with the last name Huston. Anyway... I took a look at the download for 'Skin Builder' which is still available on the site, and amongst the 34 skins included I identified the following: skin0000.skn: 'XP Corona' by Alexandrie skin0010.skn: 'seer' by essorant skin0012.skn: 'QNX3' by Alexandrie skin0016.skn: 'Olympics OS' by treetog skin0037.skn: 'XP Platinum' by Alexandrie skin0095.skn: 'Sinter' by essorant skin0103.skn: 'Saphardan

98 Replies 28,285 Views
Reply to Just for how stupid consider people others to be ? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Apparently a while ago a 15 year old boy was brought in by the FBI for following through on the promises of an e-mail along the lines of this one. They are usually a ploy by overseas drug dealers who need to use a legitimate bank account to transfer drug money into the country. The wording changes frequently, and usually plays on the current political climate, but the intention is always the same.

16 Replies 5,024 Views
Reply to Another site redistributing skins etc without permission. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Oh, and in reply to IPlural's comments, the history of a nation does not defend the actions of an individual. We know nothing about the individual concerned, and so we can only take them on face value based on their actions. Of course, they may very well have taken these files out of ignorance and childish wonder, but that doesn't change what they've done. Sure, we should educate them if they have a geniune interest in customisation, but turning a blind eye to immoral actions isn't an e

34 Replies 10,081 Views