In this case it isnt so much whether or not the fight is worth fighting,its can you go the distance and NOT get a bloody nose.

And an added thought...if you have ever bought a skin..Thank you!If you havnt ever bought one...I have only made 34$ this month in skin sales...just sayin' you know...hint hint.

ouch

It's not about NOT wanting to fight back.  But if you're boxing against Floyd Mayweather and you get knocked down would you throw in the towel or get back up knowing there is 100% chance of it happening over and over again?  Me personally i would throw in the towel and call it a day because there is no way i can win.  Same thing in this situation, you're up against something you just can't defeat, something software developers spend millions of dollars to beat but can't, its a losing battle.  Sucks, but it's true.

Also, just for the record i know what this situation is like, I was selling visual styles (msstyles) years ago for XP before windowblinds was really big, and I was upset when my stuff got pirated and people were trying to recreate the theme from screenshots etc.. I understand what it's like on that end, just so you know, but it doesn't change the fact that no matter how upset i got or how much i wanted things to change, it was still gonna happen.

It may be futile from your point of view, but if it stops 10 people from pirating a skin, at least for while, then it was worth fighting. The point is that if you can do something to discourage rampant piracy and it doesn't hurt your target audience, there's really no reason not to do it. Otherwise, you may as well just make the product available on your own website for free and hand out CD-ROMs on the street corner. With its games, Stardock addresses this by providing a lot of free support and updates to its products that you can only use if you have a key tied to your account. Is it perfect? No. But clearly it strikes the balance that the company wants to achieve between providing a baseline level of IP protection and not inconveniencing legitimate users in any major way. Why shouldn't master skinners look for some similar solution?

I think Jafo's ideas are pretty solid and as a person who occasionally buys a master skin but rarely tinkers with any, I think it'd be just fine to encode the downloads. I understand that some people want the option to play with the art or tweak a few things but I suspect that's a small percentage of the customer base--and really there are plenty of free skins that you can use to learn skinning, if that's the objective.

im sorry it happened to you too.

i also no the feeling of its not going to make a difference.

maybe we can't stop them. but it sure will be nice to at least put a dent in them.

my daughter does her own art so i know how hurt she was when someone tried to claim her work as their own.

There are a ton of sites hosting Master Skins along with lots of other stuff. So stopping a few sites will not make any difference cause it is not them it is ALL the different file hosting companies ( Rapidshare, Hotfile, Megaupload etc ). All people have to do is search those file servers and download. The internet is full of evilness and always will be. You might be able to put a Tiny indention in it but not enough to make that much of a difference! More Power to you! Holla

Someone needs anger management!  Are you seriously comparing living to trying to stop piracy? Are you crazy?

Well if that's how you see things then have it Batman.. go fight crime and take down the bad guys one site at a time, you'll be a hero!  You're argument is ridiculous, not only for the crazy off the wall comparisons you've made, but because this topic has obviously gotten to you and is driving you mad.  Sure it's a loss of more than just money, but regardless of what you want to believe in your made up world, all people that download things from the internet, legal or not aren't looking for a profit.  Nobody is dying to get their hands on some black market master skin so that they can ship cd's out to all the kiddies around the neighborhood and profit from it and grow to have all the money and girls a person could ever want.  While you're at it, let's compare peodophiles to people pirating master skins.. are you hearing yourself, good lord.

I don't care for your threats of kicking me in the head or out the door, you're tough guy bs isn't gonna work with me, i'm entitled to my opinion as are you and if that's what it's come to on wincustomize, then by all means kick me out, so i can go pirate some skins and launder money for my organized crime and whatnot... who knows maybe i'll start the worlds first peodophile skinning club, you know with all the money i've made from pirating "master" skins. /sarcasm

Good lord, back away from the keyboard for a while.. please.

In my 'made up world' getting something for nothing - when there is supposed to be fee payment...is called making a 'profit'.

I dont think thats what some of us are saying.

I said little is lost from non sales to pirates.I didnt condone piracy.I just have to guage whether the time I could potentially WASTE by even attempting to protect my property is worth more than my time  spent making more and better product.I can guarantee you which is more satisfactory.

I also have to be concerned about the customers satisfaction.If protecting myself vigorously, hurts them then what have I gained?

I can spend my time creating or spend it righteous and pissed off...my health allows for little of either.

That being said,if it really bothers the individual skinner,by all means,give em' hell!I did at first...even had some small victories.Sadly the stress of trying to keep up with it was too much.So I try to ignore it.

I even signed up at one of the sites and singled out one of the bastards that was giving them away.The other forum people recognized my name and were actually pretty nice to me.I only went after this guy because he was claiming to pay for all the skins and then giving them away to impress all his forum buddies.

I went there to let them all know he also disputed the charges on the skins he bought so he got them for free...he wasnt including that part.He was a truly nasty piece of work.He even followed me here and said he wished I would die.

My point Jafo is your post sounded somewhat judgemental if the IP holder wasnt going all vigilante on these assholes...I just dont have the health,will or time.I do thank Stardock for going after some of these sites because I benefit from that.

Heck,just typing all that made me tired...later Jafonator.

oh yeah,...I was banned from the pirate site...

It's not biased at all. It's simple reality.

Prior to the uxtheme hack and XP [and since]...Windowblinds has always been MORE capable of altering the GUI than its alternatives.  It is why it is popular now/still, particularly with skinners....the ones who who know what it can and can't do.

It's almost 'fun' reviving that old FUD [if it wasn't borderline libel] but it has no bearing on this thread/topic....and is tangential at best.

It is worth pointing out that some people who pirate WILL purchase sometimes.

When the cracked copies of WindowBlinds 5 broke years ago we had a serious spike in sales.

First off, I was being sarcastic about downloading the skin.. perhaps they don't have sarcasm in your world.

Also, so i'm being trivial by referencing gold and diamonds, yet you're the man for comparing pirates to pedophiles and organized crime??  Am i right?

Oh one more thing.. if people RELY as you put it, on skin sales, why then does stardock take 50% of the profits?  That's sound more like organized crime to me. I mean i don't have exact numbers but i'm sure stardocks yearly profit is a VERY high number, yet there are skinners getting under $100 a month?  These are the profits they RELY upon, does stardock RELY on that other $100 to put food on the table?