kona, I'm probably too young to be telling you this... and I'm sure you already know. Let me remind you...

Everyone has opinions. The only difference is some agree on a subject and others disagree, and there are those who feel indifferent either way and those who don't care and sit on the fence...

We all can be "judged" different ways for what we say and think, that's normal. Don't be afraid to voice your opinions. There's no need to voice it over the msgboard if you don't want a lot of people answering, but I'm sure the admins would not mind you emailing them and talking about it. I'm just more hot-headed and enjoy being flamed... for some odd reason. I like to see my thinking challenged, and I enjoy offering people my views whether they agree or disagree.

Disagreements allow improvements, that's the way I see things

kona...your reference to 'GOD' is duly noted.

It's hardly a clever career move, now, is it?...

Youii....I'll explain this only once.

When a full image is uploaded and accessible on a website for all to download it is called 'distribution', something which falls under the realm of copyright.
When an artist, in this case, Dangeruss creates a work, logically he will wish to display it to others. He does this by [in this case] uploading to his own site, which attracts a certain audience and to others, such as Wincustomize.com and Deviantart.com, where he is certain to receive a wider or more diverse audience. Because he [Dangeruss] has personally uploaded his work to places of HIS CHOICE he knows he can trust the work to remain under his control, he can delete it at will and he can trust the 'standards' and 'reputations' of these sites and their ethics of copyright protection/defense. If, at any time he wishes to withdraw that work he knows he can and has access. His knowledge of those persons controlling these sites will leave him confident in the realization that were he unable to access or 'manage' his works for whatever reason they would be readily withdrawn for him on request.

This site in question has an English speaking Australian Admin who obtained Russ's work from Deviantart.com and redistributed it without permission as an intact full image on his site and without consent or even credit.

It is simple copyright violation, or theft.

No need for a debate about it at all.

Dangeruss is employed in the graphics profession. That, and a 'history' between himself and his friends here at Wincustomize.com was sufficient to predetermine that the wall should NOT have been on that site.
As a professional, it is safe to say that this specific work was not created on pirated software, whatever....a totally off-target, inflammatory statement intended to cloud the issue at best.

If anyone has a problem with the 'Official' handling of this issue, read my thread in the Rip Reporting section on Devart....I'm not repeating myself ad nauseum.

As I've said before, flaming gets no-one nowhere fast.

If you want to 'fix things' a modicum of polite tact helps.

The final insult was [to me] having my IP banned and the suggestion alleged that I had mis-represented the case.
It was more the fact that none there had the bottle to admit their error...

When you've actually created something and shared it with the rest of us, come back and give your opinions on artist's rights Youji. Until that time, I suggest you stop making inflamatory statements and pretending to know what is in the best interest of those of us who contribute to the community.

As Jafo said, the 'warez' issue has absolutely nothing to do with this situation. I'm sure there are quite a few people here who use copied or cracked versions of their software, but for every one who does there are probably four or five honest people who are using legitimate purchased versions. That's all down to personal choice and moral standards. Again, that's not the issue here.

I'm perfectly willing to admit that I use Kazaa to download individual new songs by artists. I then listen to them, much the same as I would listen to them on the radio, and then buy the albums of those artists I like. In the end, the record labels are making more money out of me than if I had to buy music blindly. Again, not the issue.

You can argue the case of free speech and 'screw the man' tactics as much as you like, but you won't get an audience here. We take pride in our work and will fight to the end to see that the integrity of our work, and the work of those we consider to be our friends, is protected. It's got nothing to do with arrogance or having a God-complex, but rather to do with having self-respect and being willing to stand up for ourselves.

I'm not an admin.

Youji....I will explain only one more time, as you appear slow to understand.

I posted a total of three messages, none were abusive or confrontational. They stated fact of law. I contacted the person who uploaded the work also.
That is the sum total of my interaction with that site.
I did not spam.
I requested something be removed.
It was claimed they had rights to display it.
They were wrong.

Clearly you are either deliberately being obtuse or you have a comprehension problem.

The issue we, that is, those of us who DO create, submit and display works publicly is we are forced to defend our lawful legitimate inalienable rights against ignorant people who believe it is all some mild amusement.

However, I may help administer a site [this one], but I am otherwise not my brother's keeper, to be banned for the alleged transgressions of others, but nor am I an idiot savant standing idly by while another's rights are raped and abused.

On many occasions it is because I have a greater 'handle' on the English language than some whose works are systematically [and often] stolen, and some at significant financial loss.

We, as artists ARE the International Police of this graphic community. We protect our own, and maintain good relations with other similar sites for mutual support andassistance in keeping Artist's rights as well protected as humanly possible.

If I MUST re-post thse messages posted on that site to verify their content and prove my case I can, and am certain others read them and can verify their authenticity, though I believe the thread was deleted.

Listen Youji, we are not cops, as you said yourself. We are just artists, and we are friends. As such, when we notice that some of us has some works of his distributed without his consent, we stand up for him. That's what friends who care do. If you ever walked into a room and noticed that some people are causing harm to a friend of yours - whatever way - would you not step up and speak for him?

Anyway, the fact is that most people do not understand copyright laws. Most of the time, when we notice copyright infrigements of works by friends of ours, we only need to inform the people how things work.
If you download a wallpaper and want upload it to your site to show it off to your friends, the right and legal way to do it is ask the author first if he agrees. Simple as that. If he says yes, then good for you, and if he says no, it just proves that you shouldn't have posted it in the first place.

Author like to have control over the distribution of their works. It's their priviledge. If they make modifications to a piece of work, they need to know who to contact to send the new version to, if they want to stop distributing a particular peice of work, they also need to know where to go to remove it.

It is not exageration, it is the right thing to do.
Because something is too common, is that a reason to stop trying to stop it or better inform people? No. If half the men hit their wives and girlfriends, would that make it ok? Would you try to do something to defend a female friend of yours if she was beeing beat, or would just shrug and say everybody does it anyway?

Careful paxx. You're only allowed to make a comment like that if you've got a 'title' before your name...

let me rephrase a sentence.. "I will not deny he did commit a crime."

Again....posting anothers property, without consent is copyright theft. It is unfortunate that the word 'rip' is often used to make things seem kewl and trendy.
They are not.
All that results is a battle of semantics about the word and meaning of 'rip', when the issue is in fact unauthorised posting of another's property.

Nothing to do with credits or claiming ownership....that only arose when someone tried to be clever and claim Deviantart.com's copyright disclaimer covered them as well.

If you have been through all this so much before, why is it you appear to have never clearly understood it?

What really gets me is the lack of ethics shown daily by all these kids...

c242,

then you have a new mission. You are to teach all these kids what ethics mean

I hope you've watched the movie "Election"

If you really want to be pedantic about the car example, they effectively took the car from the car park where the owner had it and put it in their own car park for their friends to look at, and where the owner would have no idea of its location. In that case you could still say the car didn't leave the planet, just as you have said the wallpaper didn't leave the internet.

Going in with screams of rip which weren't true were unfair. He did not rip, he only posted a piece of artwork by another author without consent.

Rip: Posting a piece of artwork without the authors consent.

You are laughable!

Hey grayhaze, cut me some slack. I did say I didn't believe that far-fetched twisted thing

Boxxi,
I know all that. No, it's not right, and no one should stop fighting. I think I mentioned that in one of my posts. Thing is, there're too many factors that play into too many things. Should capital punishment have been used on a child who killed? Capital punishment is used on adults who killed.

Same crime, murder, but different results/punishment.

However, I believe every indivdual is different, and you treat all situations differently with one common goal: to bring this person to an understanding that once may be forgivable, but the second time may cause him/her to gain a bit of pain.

I'm not trying to cut Dangeruss's credit in half, oh no... I would never have thought of it. I, however, see it as a piece of work admired/liked by many others... and it adds to Dangeruss's accomplishments, however wrongly the appreciation was carried out.

Good work wouldn't be stolen, but stealing isn't right either. How many good artists do you know face up against stolen work all the time? I'm sure all of you who have shared your opinions have. Now, you're good enough people want to copy you. That to me is a small compliment, but a wrong way to present a compliment.

In this case, I prefer to have people go gentle. If they're just morons who steal for fun, hey, be my guest, unleash the wrath of all artists out there on them. Skin them alive, boil them in oil, I'm sure the Chinese have some books out there describing the ways of torture you can perform.