Before I say anything else, let me get this out of the way: treetog, you should seriouslly consider legal action. The fact that you've made your work available for free does not in any way lessen your right to control over your work.

This is unbelievable... I registered a WC account just so I could reply to this.

Whoever this ripper is, he/she/it is the proverbial net troll. Let's look at the signs:

- When confronted, his first insult will invariably be directed towards his opponent's sexual orientation.

- When popular opinion turns against him, he'll try to save face by deeming the whole affair "boring" and/or "amusing".

- He'll also belittle the community that's confronted him.

treetog, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that Nullsoft do indeed honor their promise to remove the skin by Thursday.

You think this person is in England Jafo?
Just get me an address and this person won't have a computer within 1 day! I know some REALLY naughty people who would take pleasure in removing EVERYTHING from this persons abode, and I mean EVERYTHING.
My job brings me in contact with some of the biggest low-lifes around, but sometimes they can be useful...........

I too am dismayed at all this, it's just the total lack of respect and good manners that annoys me the most. I blame their parents, my children will NOT grow up with this kind of attitude.
This person also mentioned work colleauges, which means she is probably abusing her employers time and equipment too. I'm sure they would be interested to find out about this.

Just get me an address......

BoXXi gets out book of low-lifes and begins to dial........

craeonics passes jafo the beer

Actually, it does have legal hooks. Any work you make (with some restrictions ofcourse, but not in this case) is automatically copyrighted. Treetog _owns_ this piece. This means that it can only be modified or distributed (in public) if Treetog gives permission for it.

And this is not just my opinion, it is the law.

This weekly database thing is just ridiculous. Nullsoft's only motivation is that they don't want their newsletter to send readers to an error page. Oh would it look bad for such a big serious corporation like AOL to send readers on a 404 page.

Winamp didn't become what it is because it would be the best player ever: it just became the major player thanks to skinners. And now that they're so big, they don't care anymore and don't feel the need to respect the community.

I seriously think that:

- skinners should stop uploading any winamp skins anywhere

- nobody should consider skinning winamp 3

- skinning sites should either close their winamp sections, or put big signs all over them stating how nullsoft treats skinners

And if Nullsoft does remove the skin Thursday, or even earlier, shouldn't change the reaction. They have clearly shown that they don't care at all for skinners.

Before the skin is removed, it will have been downloaded tens of thousands of times, and Nullsoft doesn't mind - oh, they do mind, they are just so happy it gets so much traffic.

So I say boycott, and I say definitive boycott. This is just _not_ forgivable.

HEY!!!!!!!!!

why is everybody acting like being an american faggot is an insult?

i am an american faggot, and damn proud!


(here is wisdom: beware any woman who hates gay men)

Kenray...we can love American faggots like you, but to be called anything that we are not, is the problem....she could have said tree-hugging hippy crap and got the same response.
Now, if she'd called you an American faggot, you could have responded...'why, ma'am, have we met before? You seem to know me so well'....hehe....

ROFL - you'd never guess the schools had broken up for the summer (well they have over here in the gloriously damp UK) - every 6 year old's out to play. It's idiots like you that make using the Internet a real drag sometimes.

*Sings Karma Chamelion*

Okay, I'm going to regret saying this but I think it needs to be said even if it upsets some people.

Sometimes the way skinning community handles ripping is so heavy handed that it is very counter productive.

Sometimes it's important to take a step back and decide whether the action you're taking is designed to make you feel better or to accomplish something.

To a non-skinner, seeing people get very upset to what amounts to (in their eyes) a few pixels of graphics can appear melodramatic and hysterical.

I am not saying that is how I feel. I am a skinner too and a software developer to boot, I definitely am disgusted at someone taking Treetog's skin, renaming it, and uploading it to some other site.

I had this same discussion with the Kaleidoscope people who were threatening Mercury because one of his skins was inspired (key word, inspired, not ripped) by some Kaleidoscope author. They were calling him names, flaming him, threatening him with lawsuits, etc.

Now, here's the issue that is hard to accept for any of us: There's not a lot that skin authors can do. That is, skin authors have very very little leverage outside of ethics and morality being on their side. Thus their best route is to use persuassion based on the argument of "doing the right thing". Antagonizing, insulting, putting people down, threatening, flaming, etc. these things may make one feel better but they don't usually accomplish the goal.

In my view, the best way to handle a solution is largley what Treetog has done. Send a gentle email to the author asking them to remove the skin voluntarily, explaining how many hours he spent working on the skin and that he really should be the one who decides where his skin is uploaded to. If the ripper doesn't do that, then email the admin of the site with a similar gentle email explaining the situation.

Just my 2 cents. Please don't flame me.

Listen to Frogboy

I know you are right, Brad....I've been around in this game long enough to know. But sometimes you get really frustrated.

I don't have much time for idiots at the best of times, and this one really got under my skin....

Seems I missed some posts which were deleted....pity, I would have been interested in those.....just to see how our ripper behaved...

Sigh.....
The annoying thing is, she got her entertainment as she wanted....