Here are just a few points based on what's been said so far.
Digital watermarking doesn't have to cost more than the one-off fee for a watermarking application or plugin. It's true that there are companies who maintain a database of watermarks created with their technology, and demand a fee for this service, but there are also other solutions which simply encode the information into the image and leave it at that. It's then your responsibility to keep a copy of the original image together with the watermarked one for any disputes that may arise.
Simply burning your files to a CD doesn't ensure that you're protected. It's not hard to change the system time and date on your machine to three years previous before burning the CD.
A much better and very inexpensive way of protecting your copyrights would be to post that CD to yourself through the regular postal service of your country. The package will then arrive at your doorstep with a postmarked date which will provide firm legal evidence in the case of the dispute. Just don't open it when it arrives!
It's also worth remembering that these days copyright is implied the moment you create any art, be it physical or digital. Gone are the days when you had to pay to register each and every work of art to protect your intellectual property. It's not even necessary to mark the image anywhere with a copyright notice, although this makes your ownership more obvious to any potential thief.
On the issue of encrypting skins to prevent ripping, there's one important thing that you need to remember - the PrtScn button. It's ridiculously easy for any ripper to simply apply the skin to their system/application and then take a screen grab. In many ways this actually makes it easier for a ripper to create a 'port' than sifting through the individual bitmaps that make up the original skin. All they need to do is cut up the image into whatever form serves their needs.
That's why it's almost impossible to prevent a determined ripper from stealing your work. I say 'almost' because I'm still hopeful that some ingenious developer out there will be able to find a way to stop even this from happening. Is there a way to simply stop the skin graphics from showing up in a screen grab?
Lastly, a couple of you were discussing OS rips and the fact that their existence damages any chance of claiming ownership on original works. I have to say that I disapprove of OS rips completely. I actually see little point in them, aside from appealing to those people who aren't aware that anything different exists.
For a long time I think new WindowBlinds users thought the purpose of the application was to make their desktop look like OSX or Windows XP without actually buying the OS itself. In y opinion, the whole point of skinning is to create something
better than what's already available.
I think that if there were to be that one groundbreaking lawsuit that we all seem to need so desperately, it should come from the likes of Apple or Microsoft. Apple in particular are well known for protecting their intellectual property, and their reach is global. All it would take is for one high-profile case from a well known company, and I think we would be on our way to that education that's needed so much.
Speaking of which, I agree with the 'copyright disclaimer on every page of the site' idea too. It just makes sense.
