I'm not trying to be an ass here, really. Grasshopper and all, yes, dearly (this for the few reminding me being anti-Stardock and all...), but don't wanna go that road, tiring and useless...
..but when desumu found this rip from Scrow in the IconPackager section (removed), and someone spread some concerns about using some of his glyphs here on the site (hey, he's a friendly guy, could well have given permission, it's not about that), me being an icon addict and all, I started browsing the library here (and yes, I need to get a life)... which leaves me with a lot of questions, vague ideas, concerns (and yes, a couple of what you could call "rips", but I'm not here to make anybody black, really).
In general, it has all to be called "clean". Authors are credited, period. When I first went through the library, two years back or so (before wincustomize), it wasn't. Not gonna held that up to anyone, my impression is someone took a tremendous effort, tracked all original iconists, decent job!
Also, in general, I guess latest 50/60 sets represent the somewhat recent stuff. Original work, ports (some edited) with permission, matching skin suites and such, uploaded to wincustomize (with user accounts, after that it's mostly accountid=0, which is because old IP library didn't work with accounts, right ?).
It's after page 15 or so (browsing per 5) I start wondering. Lots of authors I "know", someway. Lots of people on a Mac, sets originally done to accompany a Kaleidoscope scheme (I've inherited a skins library with 50% ports, for an obsolete app, still busy with permissions, lots of matching names). Or just the classic iconists. Getting somewhere now:
- found some sets by Scott Naness. Properly credited, but I never could get any permission from him, told me he'd like his stuff to stay his stuff,
- set(s) by Pierre Cavanna, no readme (he's got a site: http://www.iconstreet.com/ ),
- sets by Hideaki Kamada. Alive and well, but ever tried to contact him (?). Got two translated (Japanese) messages sent to him, never a response,
- the sets by Tal Sella/Scrow, did he really approve that ?
- a couple of profound and known "MacHeads" (Ilona Melis, Iron Devil) with sets. Made me think, hey, even they approved, cool ?!
- other people on the Mac that I know require you to put up decent credit (Albie Wong it's done with, but that accountid=0 could be improved, Takashi Izawa has got a site, I'm assuming there's more (don't know all these Japanese authors, can tell there's a lot of sets originating on the Mac (Kaleidoscope ?))).
- sets by Gedeon Maheux, no .url in readme. He's friendly and willing to permit anything, but does ask something in return: http://www.iconfactory.com/ !! One of the best/major Mac customization sites (!).
- sets by E2 DESKTOPmill (careful, plastic). I'm definitely NOT sure, and I can't really track down the icons, but I'm aware of at least one iconist disgruntled because his sets appeared on that site uncredited (deleted url...), there were wallpapers by Misery without credit too, are those checked ?
- sets by Enis. Once again, can't track down all icons, but there's some I know (and darn, those are just collections of "cool stuff I found on the web"...), not by him.
Done (?) - guess so. Pixelfucking, you say, yeah... prove me wrong, please, but this leaves me with the impression a good job was done at tracking/crediting the original authors, but no permission was asked. Even understand that, morals changed last years, we didn't really consider this kinda things years back. But if we're gonna be conscientious about skins, please don't leave the icons out, it's an art apart. If at least some of my concerns are not majorly exaggerated, consider drawing a line somewhere (?), maybe lose some of the old sets... I dunno, just felt someone had to say something.
