Possible Rips

He's got two Sputnik skins
A CopperDeck 2 skin
A ToonXP skin
An Orion skin
A few FausX skins

dang, not another one...thanks for the heads up weaksid. I'm sure someone will be on this shortly.

Don't know if there is one but maybe try putting a Warning/Copyright statement on the home page? then you have that to fight with/stand behind when a Rip is found on another site?

Just a suggestion

I wonder if this guy got permission from them? There's an awful lot of work in one of those skins. If they are done illegally how stupid is he to do that. I'll send him and Opera.com an email but I sort of think he must have gotten permission to do something so visible and that takes so much effort.

email to Vladimir:
__________________________

Mr. Tereschenko,

I noticed you are using artwork by treetog, Alexandrie, pixtudio and mormegil in the skins you submit to Opera.com. I did not see any usage rights mentioned in the file or even a copy of a permission email. This is an unauthorized use of copyrighted material. The only legal way for you to post these anywhere is to get written permission from the original artist.

Theft of copyrighted artwork from the web can result in serious difficulties, the loss of your ISP and being banned from sites like Opera.com.

Please remove any artwork that is not your own and contact the original artists to see if they will grant you the right to modify and re-distribute their work... legally - if you have not already done so.

If you do have permission to use these pieces then forgive me but you should include the usage rights with the piece.

Regards,
David Knott
www.wincustomize.com
[email protected]

I will notify Opera.com of this matter as well.
______________________________

contact form at Opera.com:
______________________________

My name is DavidK, I am an admin at www.wincustomize.com

my email address is [email protected]

It has been brought to my attention that you have skins posted by Vladimir Tereschenko that are stolen from various Windowblinds artists. The ones I immediately recognize are Sputnik, Copper DeckII by Treetog - ToonXP by Pixtudio - Faux Icons by Mormegil - plus some others I would have to look up in our database to identify.

I have emailed Mr. Tereschenko and I am notifying you, I believe these works are used without permission and constitute a violation of copyright laws.
__________________________________


we'll see what happens...

Go get em David.

great we have such good admins, its a good feeling our work is save up here

thanks david

Thanks to Weaksid for noticing them and posting the link.

Ah...I was busy with the WinAMP rip.....thanks, Dave...

Why is it always Renato as the target?....must be the quality of his work....

got a quick reply from Vladimir...
_______________________________

Dear David Knott. I sent letters to authors of these iconpack but
have not received the answer. I pay your attention - my skins are made
with use of
freely distributed products! My skins FREELY are distributed! I do not
receive any benefit!
I have specified authorship icons
My skins - excellent advertising of products of these authors!
Excuse my bad English...

Yours faithfully

--
Best regards,
Âëàäèìèð mailto:[email protected]
____________________________

sigh...

so I replied...

____________________________


I understand the skins appear to be freely distributed. In fact, they are
free for use on your own computer ONLY. The artwork is not public domain and
is the copyright-protected property of the original artist. As it says at
our site and in the skins' ini files and everywhere else these skins are
posted, "These skins may not be modified or re-distributed in any way
without the express written permission of the author/copyright holder."

You gave credit to Mormegil for one set of icons and Stardock for the ToonXP
suite but not to any of the others. You list Renato's (treetog) work under
your own name as though you created it with no credit for his brilliant
work.

For your information, ToonXP is a commercial skin project, it is sold as a
premium suite and is not available for free download. It is the property of
Stardock and was created by Pixtudio and Mormegil.

You seem to have put a lot of effort into creating these Opera skins. I
don't know how extensive the skinning engine is, if it skins the entire
browser or just the toolbars and icons. Whatever is the case, I think you
should realize that the artists whose work you have used would be very
upset to see their work posted under your name, and to see their work
converted to skin a program they did not agree to.

I know these artists personally and I can assure you, they are extremely
fair, friendly and willing to let their work be ported to other formats, but
only when the permission is requested and granted beforehand. They have the
right to refuse permission for this use. You say you emailed them but never
got a reply. I doubt none of them would have replied to you.

Take these skins down from public display immediately and contact the
artists for their permission. If you get it, then you can post the work but
you will still need to give the correct credit for the designs. They are not
designed by you.

DavidK
www.wincustomize.com
[email protected]
____________________________


still haven't heard from Opera.com

we'll see what happens... maybe Vladimir will pull the skins, or Opera will, or his ISP will pull everything on him. I give him a chance to respond with the right action first...

They are just a plain old rip!!! That old excuse that "If they don't reply they must not care if I steal their work". It really annoys me! > I hope Renato sues his ass!

The ToonXP rip is of particular concern, being a commercial product, but all are inappropriate.

If he's feigning 'no-speakie English', as so many try on, then perhaps it's better to approach Opera direct and have them deal with it...

every single one of his skins has artwork that's not his... from other artists in other places like Fooood... and I noticed other icons I have seen before but I can't place them... they are all rips... he's a thief... and I don't care how much work he put into them... he obiously knew about Toon XP... and there's no way he couldn't know about the copyright issue... this bugs me.. GRRRRR >

oh I just saw another one... Orion Too... grrr... that's money he's taking from stardock... by reproducing this... grrr...

thank you so much, David

today, this guy wrote me an email asking for the permissions, I didn't granted them, as I never do, when people post things first and asks after.

I've actually emailed Mr. Tereschenko about a month ago. He's not faking not speaking english. He lives in Russia so I don't think he's to worried about copyrights. But, thats my opinion he didn't say anything like that to me. You'll probably have better luck getting Opera to remove the skins from their site but they're based in the Netherlands so..... who knows. You know windowblinds only affects the frame of Opera even though he ripped off the skins he did it real good. I have the copperdeck skin and it looks better then IE looks under windowblinds.

RuderThanYou...there is no such thing as "though he ripped off the skins he did it real good". Theft is theft.

Oh, it's OK...it was an artistic murder done with aplomb....stylish blood-spatters...

My communication to Opera.com...

Copyright theft of digital graphic art.

http://my.opera.com/customize/skins/index.pl?author=433

All of these icons/graphics were Created by authors other than the person submitting them.

You are displaying numerous images and icons on your site originally created by authors other than this person Vladimir Tereschenko.
Although images are freely available for download on the Internet, they are EXPRESSLY for personal use, which does not include the reproduction and redistribution of them via another site such as yours.
The modification, and/or re-distribution of an artist's images without his/her express permission is in violation of the Artist's Copyright, and is pursuable in law.

The original artists include Pixtudio.com which is a commercial enterprise, and one of their skins/works 'taken' is NOT a free release but is charged-for, therefore Pixtudio.com would be suffering financial loss and degradation of product/property requiring recompense.

Whether these images link to the original artist's site or not, or whether the Original artist is credited or not, without prior permission to display such, you are in violation of inherent and/or expressed copyright.

I strongly suggest you remove any such images for which you do not have permission to display via verification of author, and minimize the potential for litigation against you and subsequent claims for loss.

I await your favourable response.

Paul Martin
Jafo
[Admin...Wincustomize.com]
[Admin...Pixtudio.com]
[Senior Member...Deviantart.com]

Speaking of possible rips Jafo, does www.deskmod.com have permission to have some of the skins you find here available for download? I have also found alot of other things there.

kona0197 : Deskmod is a skinning site just as Wincustomize. You will find many authors that submit here and on sites like Deskmod or Deviantart.

Victor Vasnetsov
A.I. Ivanov
K.P. Brullov
N.I. Ge
I.E. Repin
V.I. Surikov
V.I. Surikov
Pavel Fedotov
N.K. Roerich
B.M. Kustodiev

Alexander Scriabin
Modest Mussorgsky
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Peter Tchaikovsky
Sergei Rachmaninov

A very short list of immensely talented and creative Russians. None of these great people ever needed to steal their ideas. So, Mr. Tereschenko, why do you feel you need to?

kona0197...
Have a look on the table at right....'Community'....you'll see many of the links to other skinning sites...

sorry my mistake. One question. Why dosn't wincustomize offer StyleXP Skins?

Because they are an unauthorised dll hack designed to bypass Microsoft's copyright protection....therefore unsupported/unendorsed by the OS manufacturer....hardly the thing you'd want to be messing with...

yet stardock dosen't have a program that installs and runs ALL of the stardock programs. Top that off with the fact if you want to change one thing with your theme on objectbar you have to go through endless dialog boxes. What about litestep skins?