Just to throw in my share of stirring, the mIRC icon in the Mac Icon pack linked to at the top is from my mIRC DesktopX Zoomer, which was original work. Not that I really care that much, just thought I'd give myself credit where credit was due, since nobody else seems too concerned about doing it

AJ

Port without permission == rip, therefore, all OS ports are rips.

The difference is that hell will freeze over before an OS-giant will give you permission. Besides, no-one will deny that they are ports of that OS, so it's all good, right?

Now the fun starts when those ports are ripped (again). Then what do you do?

And where do you draw the line? So it's okay to rob big corps. Is it also okay to rob smaller corps? Say I steal that WinCustomize lizard, modify it and upload it without permission. Is it still cool then?

Not trying to nag here, but my point is clarity. Ban rips or don't ban them, but don't take no middle stand.

Okay, I am nagging. Ports are the spawn of Satan!

Well, I must be the anti-christ himself then with all the OS ports I do... However, I also see a subtle difference between ports and 'normal' rips in most cases.

In the case of porting the 'look' of an OS to WindowBlinds or whatever, it's not a matter of directly stealing the graphic files used on the OS in question, simply copying them to your skin folder and -bam- you have a theme using them unmodified. In many cases it takes hours of time and work to recreate something that fits within the framework of the skinnable app and still make it resemble the original OS. There's also usually no attempt to hide credit where the original inspiration comes from, either.

OTOH, I've seen several instances where someone comes along and rips one of my themes. They don't modify the graphics, they simply change the author name in the UIS file and readme...no thought goes into it, no real time, and no real work. They've stolen the image files and the way it is constructed entirely.

If someone rips one of my OS ports then it gets reported and removed, which I had to do just recently in fact... So there's not much of a question as to what happens there.

Crae....more accurately, hell will freeze over before an OS giant will request a port be removed...
[Not counting certain issues with Apple in the past, that is].
Also, is my creation of a LiteSTEP theme emulating the 'appearance' of a Commodore 64 a 'rip', a 'port', or just an 'inspired theme'?
To be a rip, it would have to be a new OS, the same as the original one....[it isn't an OS]
To be a port, it would have to at least use graphics from the original...[there are no graphics as such in the C64 OS..and the fonts are free-ware]
Inspired theme?....I thought so...

Hell...
I'm not all that up-to-speed with Icons, and icon makers....[I use LiteSTEP, which needs none]...but if there are reproduced icons belonging to one auther uploaded by another without permission then they should/will be removed....

Too late, I've already copyrighted the minimise, maximise and close buttons. Bill owns me money big time now!!

You've copyrighted the window control buttons? Wow, you must be owed quite a bit of money, a fair amount of which is mine since you seem to like using vowels(tm) which are copyrighted by me.