Everyone has the right to sell their work/creations. No one has an obligation to buy it.
There are a lot of customs "skins" for many programs and many "themes" for the Object Desktop programs. Some of them are high quality others are 'first attempts' or something the 'artist' threw together. But they all take time. And time is money.
I am new to skinning, OK, not even skinning, I am new to applying someone else's skinning to my desktop. I downloaded a DesktopX theme and applied it to my system. I tweaked it to suit my preferences, and even that has taken up several hours of my time. I believe the creator when he says he has over 300 hours of his time into it. At California's minimum wage @ 300 hours, that would be over $2000. This skin has 60,000 downloads, so, that is a price of 3 and a half cents for each download to break even. Of course grafics artists don't work for minimum wage, and not every skin/theme will get 60,000 downloads.
If I were to create my own theme I would not expect to get paid for my time. If I had made 20-30 themes and have been getting better with each one, and by now other users are requesting features, and my time is becoming more focused on this skin/theme and I am meeting these requests and now producing quality work, it might be time to think about selling my work.
Several problems come to mind....
1)As a "new to the customizing scene" user, I am not going to purchase something that I have no idea what it even is. I might even get turn away from the whole thing if I see that it requires money. Picture someone downloading trial Stardock software and going to the website and seeing that not only will he/she need to purchase the software, they will also have to purchace the skins. This could cost Stardock since that person doesn't want something that is a money vacuum. OK, some will find the free section, but how good of quality is in the free section now that people are wanting to sell their work?
2)Once one person purchases a skin, theoretically, now everyone has access to it. It can be shared via email or other skinning sites. Albeit not legally. Are you, the skinner, going to be able or willing to take further actions in finding the 'leak' and taking them to court siting copyright and DRM laws?
3)I have seen some 'premium' skins that incorporate Trademarked figures. Are there TM laws regarding the unautherized use of those images? I am sure that if you create a Superman theme and use it for personal use DC comics will not mind, but once you use Superman's image and likeness for profit, you could be treading thin water with copyright and trademark laws. Of course, all original content would be fine to sell. But how much is original? Can I download several themes/skins and combine the features that I like to create a single skin/theme and call it mine?
The original question was "Should we make skins for making money?", I say by all means, if you feel you have a product that you can sell, then sell it. I do not, however, suggest someone quit their job to become a skinner. Unless Stardock hires you and pays you to skin, it is not likely to pay the bills. Which is why you are not going to see 'premium' skins/themes from me, I can not afford to spend 8 hours each day on skinning. Time, really is money.
