By the way, I hate always sounding like the bitter hardass when it comes to Copyright, but I guess someone has to keep people informed. As someone who has had to deal with copyright infringment in the past, I tend to feel a responsibility to others to keep them from making mistakes.

So I hope people can at least appreciate that what I say is out of friendly concern rather than an attempt to throw my weight around.

p.s. this is a good site to start from:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

and when they say things like "How much of another person's work can I use..." they are referring to ditributed derivative works, NOT for personal use. You can take every appliance in your kitchen apart, put them together to form an evil, man-killing robot, and then even post an image of it on Slashdot. You can't sell them though. Skins are no different.

Just to clarify, according to section 107 of the US copyright law:

"...activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."

and according to the US copyright office circular 21:

"For a work to be reproduced, its fixation in tangible form must be “sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, re-produced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration. Thus, the showing of images on a screen or tube would not be a violation of clause."

(while I understand that you can save a screenshot, and thereby reproduce it, you are not able through a screenshot to save the skin, i.e. the actual work, only an image of the work, which according to the first quotation would be allowable as "for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations" among others. Transfering the skin FILE, on the other hand is duplication of the product itself, and not kosher.)

again, not brow beating, jsut stating what I had assumed to be obvious.

The distinction I was making was between posting a screenshot of your desktop using an unmodified skin, and posting a screenshot of a skin which contains modified parts of another's work.

I'm not going to swing back and forth with bakerstreet on who is and isn't right about copyright law, but I'm perfectly happy to take appropriate action against anyone who distributes screenshots of 'modified' versions of any of my skins. I have succeeded in that very situation in the past, and pretty much guarantee that I would do so in any future breach of my copyright.

Finally, you can site 6th Amendment this and 2nd Amendment that to me, but be aware that it's not US copyright law that applies to any work I produce. It's UK law. We don't have all these strange swings and roundabouts in our version of copyright law. It's short and to the point.

A good place to start for info on our laws: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/law(01).htm

Greyhaze:

The only way to protect yourself to the fullest extent of UK law would be to upload only to servers within your own country, where all the enforcement would take place under the control of the UK government. There is no way you can enforce UK law on servers outside the UK, unless you feel this is a situation where extradition or government intervention is necessary, like in the recent EU-US cheap wool and stinky cheese debate.

That is why the music industry is suing ISPs for not blocking music sharing sites in China, instead of suing the Chinese people who are sharing the music. I discussed this troubling fact on another rip thread by pointing out that many of our skins are ending up on servers in mainland asia and other, unenforcable places, and there is *nothing* we can do about it.

As an aside, the US and the UK have long-standing copyright agreements, so all the laws should be completely compatable. I'm not aware of a case where they weren't.

The whole debate rose around digital manipulated art...particularly of photographs [chick-walls being a prime example].

Some 'degrees of distinction'...

1. You paint a picture in oils from eye-balling a seascape.
[no problem there, unless you think 'God' my get uptight]

2. You paint a picture in oils from eye-balling a photograph.
[concerns of photographer's composition of subject, but it's a different medium in particular, so less of an intrusion of 'copy']

3. You paint in Photoshop/whatever...digitally from a photograph.
[same issues as with '2'].

4. You paint in Photoshop/whatever...digitally from a 'digital' photograph - scanned in.
[now things are getting 'hazy', as both the source and the product are the identical medium...both bitmaps, say. Now we are in the realm of 'reproductions', more akin than the $20 print of the Picasso you buy at the market.]

5. You cut and paste in Photoshop/whatever parts of the scanned photograph, adding clever [] lens-flares and such as your personal artistic 'interpretation'.
[now we are specifically at the level of 'plagiarizing' that is endemic in Digital art and skinning, requiring lots of effort to argue and eradicate.]

6. You simply grab that scanned photograph and, using Photoshop/whatever, plonk your name on the bottom and post the 'work'.
[NOW you are a straight, fair-dinkum RIPPER].

Level '5' is where we tend to regard 'borrowed' similarities in skins....[you used MY buttons!!!]....but that is only an issue if the product is uploaded for public dispersal...in other words, the actual 'altered' skin is uploaded.
A screenshot is not an 'actual skin'.
If someone were to DL the screen and reverse-engineer a skin from the shot then THAT subsequent product, if publicly distributed would be in violation of both parties...the ORIGINAL skin artist, AND the poster of the screenshot.

I'll duck over to Devart, catch up with RealitySquared....he's got all the relevant links to Copyrights and their use Net-wise...

Let me ask this. Pixtudio's (Pixtudio_WB) didn't come with XP. I have updated it, (Added all the XP stuff). So this is my question. Can I upload it to show people my new desktop or do I need the original authors permission?

As a point of interest, I've just completed a LiteSTEP theme using Misery's 'Nijikon Fetchi' wall as both background, and, cut up, as ALL of the other graphics, etc [popups and such].
Now, the 'coding' is all mine...the 'realisation' is all mine, but the actual digital pixels are ALL Misery's.

Not a problem. I CAN make it. I CANNOT distribute it, and, considering that the ENTIRE subject-matter is Misery's, and not 'mine', I even refrain from showing even 'bits' of it.

I have his permission to use the wall...but I still do not display the theme, as he said he'd like to see it...[not 'first', but I'm giving him the option to see it and perhaps withdraw consent].
If and when he responds, I'll upload it, with credits, as the art is all his [only its implementation is mine]...

But again, this is somewhat of a more 'extreme' case than the 'usual' screenshot, and is common practice in LiteSTEP themeing.
Screw up on the 'appropriate' protocol and it could be the last time someone 'lets' you use his work.


All that aside, if an individual Artist has specific complaint about one of his works/skins being displayed in whatever form via a screenshot posted here on Wincustomize, let me know, and it will be dealt-with.

We are here to protect your 'Work', so if you believe you have an instance of its 'use' at odds with your preference then it can be removed.

Calm down Bill. You know we go thru this every week or so.

From here to > to here all in one day

afaiak... k should be C, i don't spell concerned with a 'k'... lol.

Jafo just ignores my spelling and grammar these days... I think he has given up.

Yair...and I gave up on Baker years ago....back when he was only 221'a'...

~ My thanks to everyone for answering my question...

~~ Yes, a screenshot can be posted and credit should be given to the original artists out of respect for him/her and as common courtesy.

~ My thanks again...