'Ripping' is merely a trendy term to refer to 'copyright theft'.
The publication, or re-distribution of another's artwork in part, or in whole, without the original author's express permission.
It most commonly refers to people who deliberately plagiarize, copy, steal another's work to claim credit for themselves.
Some people mistakenly assume that posting a credit to the original author will suffice.
It does not.
When an artist publishes a work, in this case, uploads a skin, wall, or theme to a web site such as this, he/she does so with the intention that his/her work will be downloaded and used [even altered for use] PRIVATELY by the downloaders.
At no time is permission implied or granted to the downloader to adapt or modify AND SUBSEQUENTLY re-distribute their work in a different form and/or under a different name.
Permission to do that must be specifically requested on an individual basis, and received PRIOR to any further distribution of derived/modified works.

Having works displayed for download on a site such as Wincustomize.com does not legitimize or allow for the work to be downloaded by a third party and placed on other sites even under the original author's name. The author, and he alone, has authority to determine if and where his works are to be published/displayed.

If all that sounds too complicated, refer to jark's post...[it's short and sweet]...

REST IN PEACE

No, it's not "OK."

You obviously have never published any type of media. Being ripped off is insulting, not flattering. It doesn't matter if they make money off of it or not.

ooh wow orange. i'm just saying it ain't a big deal if someone takes your idea. it's not like the world is going to end because of it. i have had numerous ideas stolen from me. you don't see me making a big deal about it. that's life.

FIrestorm: "Life is what you make of it. If you have no problem letting leeches rip you off, that's your business. I prefer not to let my work be taken advantge of."

Well said.

oh, and i may as well address another point while i'm at it.

in looking around wc, you'll see many ports of operating system interfaces, such as win xp, mac os 7/9, be, next, etc. are these rips? this has been debated many times, but here's my reasonably firm take on it:

technically, yes they are. however, they were originally produced by a team of gui designers for a large scale commercial distribution. therefore, the whole dynamic is different. the majority of these os producers benefit greatly, both in reputation and often monetarily, by having their interface advertised for free.

that said, if berndt writes in and asks "please remove the be stuff" then they go.

conversely, all one generally has to do is write the original author and talk with them about what you want to do. many will quite readily give permission to use or modify some of their stuff to create something new. they usually end up being pretty interesting and cool to talk with too

Conquest, the really “special” person.

First off you have mentioned you come up with many ideas... wow, how amazing, everyone comes up with many ideas, but have you ever actually made something out of them? OK, so an artist comes up with an idea, let's say a chrome skin, but never makes anything from it. Then someone else who heard this artist’s chrome skin idea makes a chrome skin. It is true that, yes, this is no big deal. This is what has happened to you, or so you say.

What we're talking about is someone who came up with this chrome skin idea, made the skin, and then someone else comes along, takes the skin, and posts it as their own work. You say that you’ve come up with ideas but have you ever taken the time and effort to make one of these ideas reality, and then have the whole thing, or a lot of it, stolen from you and another person given credit for the work? If you have and haven’t done anything about it you’re plain stupid. And just to let you know there are many people from other countries and rural areas that are a lot smarter than you, this is quite obvious.

obviously yall ain't ever been to places like chicago. i have had people break into my house and actually take my shit. and have also had my car stolen. you say i don't do anything about it. what can i do? call their mommy and tell them that their child stole my things. can't call the police. they just come over, ask you if you saw anything, then just leave and you never hear from them again. just a waste of time.
copyright doesn't mean anything here. if you walk down the street you can see stands out in a busy street selling bootleg tapes and cds. i do that too. the police don't do anything.
what i'm trying to say is that life is more than just your little skins. yall should get out and live your life to the fullest.

Oh, I've had a car stolen...I've had a bike stolen...I've been assaulted and had my jaw broken in 2 places...difference is, I wouldn't bother chatting to their 'mommy', I'd just kick their teeth in.
Some people have a higher standard of social justice and indignation regarding criminal acts. So, you consider there is something insignificant about 'just your little skins', well you'd be bemused to discover that most graphic artists consider the theft of their artwork, and degradation of their reputation to be equally as significant as some poxy old car getting nicked...

What is a rip?

A rip is another term for warez. The term is used generally to describe warezing of visual media (just as warezing is the term to describe stealing of software). But it all comes down to theft. In this case, the theft of intellectual property.

Ideas are not copyrightable. And rips have nothing to do with stealing ideas. They have to do with stealing the actual files made by someone else.

When someone is said to have "ripped" a skin, it means they literally took the materials made by someone else and used it without permission. Giving credit is not enough. Giving credit would be akin to taking Windows XP, adding some other software you made or gathered from elsewhere and started distributing it on your own giving "Credit" to Microsoft. Needless to say, the police wouldn't consider "giving credit" sufficient.

The argument that something being free means it has no protection is also irrelevant. The GNU GPL license governs how open source programs can be handled for instance. Those who create intellectual property are legally and morally able to control what happens to their property.

I don't mean to sound nearly as militant as this post sounds, I'm really not that militant and have come a long way personally on this issue over the years as I've "grown up". That's why I don't jump all over people who rip, I try to explain the issue to them because I think most people are good and it's merely an issue of not understanding the issue as opposed to some form of dishonesty.

*claps* Frogboy

...crae is right about the warez, but you make a very good point about the concept of 'ripping'!!!

Come off it. I don't really care if you're saying "oh, this is in fact someone else's stuff, I'm just using it", or you're claiming it's your own work. It's *still* theft. It's using someone's work in a way they may not have intended. I'd certainly get really pissed if someone took my skins and ported them to, say, .msstyles, without asking. If anyone gets to do that, it's me. That's one of the conditions under which I released it in the first place.

Honestly, this seems so obvious to me it's hard to explain - the person who made it gets to say what other people do with it. If someone does something with it that I, personally, have not agreed to, it is a rip and illegal. Is it that hard a concept to understand, that people have certain rights, and just because they give it away, they don't lose those rights?