Luna Element 4

By em3
in Tips, Tweaks & Customization

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Rising Star

driz

Posted
Posted

WTF people!

em3 has worked on Luna Element for a hell of a long time and has been providing US with an AWESOME skin for FREE even though he's spent hours doing it, if he wants to he can take it offline anytime he wants, its his product.

i think its a real shame that when one of the best skinners here at neowin, feels a little insecure about copyright issues he doesnt get the support he should deserve from fellow users, but instead a load of rants and abuse.

also if their are issues it would be em3 who would get the blame not US, so not stop acting so big about telling MS to f**k off, i bet more than half of you would **** yourself if you we;re the one who might get prosecuted.

@ em3:

Awesome work man, i'm with you whatver your decision, and look forward to your return with LE 4.5 ;)

Proficient

Mad_Griffith

Posted
Posted

I just commented the news about KoL. I'm not going to repeat myself here...

About the LE matter, I find the remotion of this piece of art a bit excessive. Nonetheless, I really comprehend em3's reaction, and wish him all the best luck with the skin.

Sad to say, I'm quite sure that LE's development will be less natural and calm with this "psychological terrorism" Microsoft has just created.

Explorer

Arthur

Posted
Posted

Fore the time being I've removed all Luna Element content from DA, because of Microsofts action against KoL. Microsoft have not contacted me, but you never know what will happen. I understand why Microsoft did what they did and I don't want to disrespect KoL (he is truly a great skinner and I've admired his work even before I became a member of Neowin) though the work on VistaXP was not his. So until I've made Luna Element more uniqe it has been removed. Hope you all understand. But don't worry. I'll be back.

If you wish to support my work. Visit this link: http://www.friedwalrus.com/em3/

Cool wallpapers: http://www.socksoff.co.uk

I'm not sure if Kol and EM3 are aware of what has happened here. By admitting that their work is not completely original, they have given up their own intellectual rights on their work. The question is, then, can any skin, other than Microsoft's, be claimed to be an original piece of work? It brings into question the entire idea of Ripping. Is there any any such thing as a "rip" (other than a rip of a Microsoft skin)?

Mentor

NY1

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure if Kol and EM3 are aware of what has happened here. By admitting that their work is not completely original, they have given up their own intellectual rights on their work. The question is, then, can any skin, other than Microsoft's, be claimed to be an original piece of work? It brings into question the entire idea of Ripping. Is there any any such thing as a "rip" (other than a rip of a Microsoft skin)?

So now anyone can use any part of kol's vista theme and EM3's element theme? Is that what your saying?

Explorer

Arthur

Posted
Posted

So now anyone can use any part of kol's vista theme and EM3's element theme? Is that what your saying?

No, what I am saying is that perhaps only Microsoft has the right to say who may use a part of a theme, and that perhaps no skinner has the right to say how his theme may be used or not used.

Mentor

em3

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I just commented the news about KoL. I'm not going to repeat myself here...

About the LE matter, I find the remotion of this piece of art a bit excessive. Nonetheless, I really comprehend em3's reaction, and wish him all the best luck with the skin.

Sad to say, I'm quite sure that LE's development will be less natural and calm with this "psychological terrorism" Microsoft has just created.

Don't worry, things will only get better. :D

Veteran

toadeater

Posted
Posted

And btw em3, Microsoft took no action against Kol. You might want to re-read what he said.

http://www.studiotwentyeight.com

Yes, he said this:

First of all I have to say that Microsoft have all the rights to ask anyone to remove a theme if it?s usinMicrosoft's copyright materialu>.

Unless you're talking about logos, a GUI's appearence isn't copyrightable. If KoL drew everything by hand from scratch, it is not theft of MS property. If he took the bitmaps right out of Vista, then MS has a right to complain.

I hope no one else is discouraged from making more Vista themes, that's all, because MS is bullying people into complying without any legal justification. They are using the same tactics the RIAA/MPAA use to scare people with threats of legal action.

Explorer

Arthur

Posted
Posted

If you take into consideration the following forum threads and Internet finds, it is perhaps a little easier to see why Microsoft might be initiating a skinning issue at this time.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=138510

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=395572&st=0

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=267011

from: http://www.stardock.com/stardock/articles/...primer2002.html -

With the release of Windows XP, Stardock and Microsoft worked together to make skinning more seamless. Microsoft provided new APIs in Windows XP that can accelerate skinning. WindowBlinds 4 makes use of these APIs. Stardock also worked with nVidia and ATI so that WindowBlinds could take advantage of hardware acceleration on those video cards. The result is WindowBlinds visual styles are hardware accelerated.

http://stardock.helpserve.com/index.php?_m...kbarticleid=104

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IconPackager

These few pieces of data along with Stardock's most recent Windowblinds release, with its advanced Windows Vista capabilities all seem to point (at least from my perspective) to a desire by Microsoft to control the future of Windows skinning (Vista). This is a money thing. In my humble opinion Microsoft and Stardock have no intention of letting more of their dollars slip away. Working together, they can control this piece of the skinning market (if not more of it). This is not wrong... This is simply good business.

Mentor

em3

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here is a status report. I haven't been able to work very much on LE lately because I've been employed and working pretty much every day the last 3 months (even weekends :p). But now I'm unemployed again and will spend a little more time on LE. I can't promise the update will be done by next week (christmas) and I won't rush things becuse then it will turn to crap. A lot of mockups have been updated for the next release though but not all that is needed. I know some of you must be frustrated at this point but you'll just have to take a chill-pill and relax. :D

Collaborator

zErO_gdh

Posted
Posted

Here is a status report. I haven't been able to work very much on LE lately because I've been employed and working pretty much every day the last 3 months (even weekends :p). But now I'm unemployed again and will spend a little more time on LE. I can't promise the update will be done by next week (christmas) and I won't rush things becuse then it will turn to crap. A lot of mockups have been updated for the next release though but not all that is needed. I know some of you must be frustrated at this point but you'll just have to take a chill-pill and relax. :D

We'll be waiting! :p

Veteran

toadeater

Posted
Posted

If you take into consideration the following forum threads and Internet finds, it is perhaps a little easier to see why Microsoft might be initiating a skinning issue at this time.

These few pieces of data along with Stardock's most recent Windowblinds release, with its advanced Windows Vista capabilities all seem to point (at least from my perspective) to a desire by Microsoft to control the future of Windows skinning (Vista). This is a money thing. In my humble opinion Microsoft and Stardock have no intention of letting more of their dollars slip away. Working together, they can control this piece of the skinning market (if not more of it). This is not wrong... This is simply good business.

Once again, this is not a copyright issue. You can copyright logos, and you can copyright the actual bitmaps themselves, but you CANNOT copyright the appearance of a GUI or its functionality. Apple went to court over this already and lost, now MS is trying to pull the same thing. Neowin's rules are for those that rip the bitmaps out of Windows themes, or even post the hacked theme itself, not for themes made from scratch.

If you make a clone of the Vista GUI from scratch, MS has no legal right to ban it or control it. They have been using intimidation tactics to scare people into complying.

MS wanting to control Windows skinning is another issue entirely. MS can do whatever it wants with its skinning engine, it can put an end to skinning entirely if there was some real need to. So it's pointless discussing that. But when MS attacks VS artists with *illegal* threats, it is stepping over the line.

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