MS comes down on Kol and his Vista visual style

[golazo]

yeh just keep it there for people who still want it, ms probably wont find it there lol

[+vlsi0n Subscriber¹]

Oh comon... someone copying a COPYRIGTED work is not allowed... for it to be legal you do have to do a certain amount of changes that distinquish it from the original work to claim artistic freedom to make a copy of something... Apple cracked down on people making OSX theme copies originally... They screamed at Stardock and a bunch of themers back when the pinstripe aqua theme came out... MS should be allowed to protect stuff they put a lot of money into also... if someone copied something you worked hard on and devalued you work, you'd be screaming too if it took money away from you.

Thank you, while KoL was doing great work - it was not unique and was clearly trying to emulating Vista's visual theme. Don't act like this is the only company that would do this.. :rolleyes:

This is bull. Starock emulated the whole goddamn Windows Vista engine (visual). KoL emultated the theme, and just that.

Copyright dont matter as he made the images himself.

If I made a computer company and called it Epple, and made a logo of a apple with a bit out of the left side guess how long it would take Apple to close that down.. same thing with the 'Mike Row' Soft(ware) company. Even though I made that apple with a bite in the left side it'd still be juct like copying.

Another example - Google emulating the Apple's dock on their website, didnt take long for that to vanish offically.

[mattmatik]

not really, kol copied the vista theme, if the guy from ms never made the theme then kol would have never come up with it. and im my oppionion the way microsoft has the vista theme looks better than the one kol copied off them.

i'm not bagging out kol, i like his theme, but you can't expect to copy someone with out them getting ****ed off

Well, I see your point, however, we all have seen many releases of XP look-alikes for use on 2000 or 98.

I still stand by my reasoning. KoL is known, he made an impact on themes for Windows. If someone unknown released the same work, I highly doubt Microsoft would make notice.

Personally, I haven't used Vista nor have I meticulously gone through screenshots to compare them, so I will trust you on that one. Is KoL's work an EXACT copy or something? Or did he take liberties to make it a bit different? I don't know, either way, I think it's weak. I'm not going to buy Vista for the damn theme and I doubt anyone else will. If that is what Microsoft is worried about, they better go back and re-think their marketing techniques (you know, learn from the Xbox team about what NOT to do) :devil:

[»X«]

My arse kinda looks like bill gates. I wonder who would sue who first?!

[JK1150]

They asked him to remove it, they aren't suing him. Who cares.

[CptMalSG1]

It's an image thing. KoL, Bant...those guys make Microsoft's theme design team look like freakin pre-schoolers. If I'm Microsoft I don't want somebody showing up my company either.

i agree, whoever made luna should be shot. kol and bant should be hired by microsoft

[Jeremy1]

alot fo the new thing's that Vista was suposed to incorperate, isnt in it

Oh, really? Can you name all of these things?

[P.M.K]

Kol is a genius in my opinion and he should be employed my Microsoft :-)

[n30w1n]

I cheer and applaud Microsoft for having the balls to do this. Why the hell should he be allowed to rip off their artwork? He is copying Microsoft's work pixel per pixel. Maybe they feel like the Vsita GUI is a user experience that should only be available to those who purchased Vista. Maybe they don't want anyone to think he is asociated with them. Maybe their graphic artists are just plain prudes. But regardless of the reason, who the hell is anyone here to question this?

It's their copyrighted material. And if I was Apple, I would sue Stardock so bad for ObjectDock that the company wouldn't have any pockets to burn holes in. This isn't some God damn open source, GNU GPL, SourceForge hosted piece of freely distributable code and graphics. This is a copyrighted, patented, closed source, commercial product. And if you're going to create software trying to mimic it, prepare to have to take it down the second they feel you're bad for business, at their discretion.

To the original poster: good luck trying to stop using Microsoft products...

[Binary]

Just goes to show MS is now aware of the skinning community. To my knowledge none of the watercolor themes got a cease and desist email.

[sn00pie]

That's horrible.

But it's not like the visual style was harming them, they should be happy that people are interested in there Vista GUI, they come down on someone like KoL, but they forget about all the other crack/warez websites for Windows. (N)

Not good news to the customizing/visual styles community.

[golazo]

i agree, whoever made luna should be shot. kol and bant should be hired by microsoft

kol could be good at microsoft, the guys there already do a good job though.

it's not like luna came out with a ton of bugs and stuff, it was just the idea and design of the vs that wasn't so good if you know what i mean.

[Litespeed]

Well, I'm officially at the point where I will not purchase anything else from Microsoft. It's a sad day when they come down on this community and great visual style creators like Kol.

[snip]

EX-Microsoft user and supporter.

Have a great day.

I hate to burst your bubble but I don't think Microsoft will be too worried about losing a small smattering of business from small operators who have the luxury of changing platforms at a whim. I think I'm correct in guessing that Microsoft makes most of it's money from corporate licensing - and corporates aren't going to miraculously change their entire MS infrastructure in a show of solidarity with Kol.

[Chad]

Apple had all Aqua-like themes removed from the internet a few years ago prior to OS X being released. Now they really don't care. I would expect MS to do nothing less than protect an unreleased product.

[TheDogsBed]

I am actually stunned that they let it ride for as long as they did. I hope this sends a message out to all modders and skinners who's talent seems to start and end at simply emulating the work of others, that they now need to start really creating. I know that sounds harsh and won't win me friends but I've never been too concerned about that.

If it means that we may now see some originality put back into design, that's a good thing.

[IceBrewedBeer]

Don't see the reason for the uproar. KoL himself said he really didn't care taking it down. If anything i'm sure he had a huge smile after receiving that email. I mean a big corperation like Microsoft actually took the time to send KoL an email about his theme, I say that's pretty cool. I'm not taken sides, but them's the brakes. Just a theme guys. KoL is a imaginative fellow, he'll come up with something better, he always has then.

As for not buying MS. Hey, there is always OSX on the 86x platform next year.

[d4t4b0mb]

I am actually stunned that they let it ride for as long as they did. I hope this sends a message out to all modders and skinners who's talent seems to start and end at simply emulating the work of others. I know that sounds harsh and won't win me friends but I've never been too concerned about that.

If it means that we may now see some originality put back into design, that's a good thing.

Agreed, it would be nice to see a theme that doesn't look like a half-a** version of OS X or Vista every twenty minutes. Most real "artists" don't spend their waking lives doing copies of the Mona Lisa.

[Chad]

KoL wasn't prosecuted. Microsoft e-mailed him and ask him nicely (Kols words) to remove it. So KoL has removed it and won't be updating it and asked everyone to not distribute it anymore. Meanwhile, another person is taking a Vista theme he said KoL helped him on and updating it and plans on releasing it soon. Which I think is bullcrap. This person said Microsoft e-mailed them also to not distribute the 1.0 version. But he says "they didn't say anything about 1.1" It has work done by Kol and he'll call it his own. BULL

He won't be releasing it here.

so...if I host Kols VS on my site will Kol get in trouble or me? If its me and not him I'll gladly host it for people still.

I suggest you heed Kol's request and not distribute the theme at all.

[Chris Allen Veteran]

Flyakite is in slightly the same predicament with his website (thankfully not his OSX transformation pack) for using 'copywrite material' and presuming to the public that he was affiliated with 'Apple' in some sort of way.

Sucks though for both parties :(

We all know they've got new ideas and designs up their sleeves ;)

[Doli]

Agreed, it would be nice to see a theme that doesn't look like a half-a** version of OS X or Vista every twenty minutes. Most real "artists" don't spend their waking lives doing copies of the Mona Lisa.

Bingo...

You know it getting bad when a new skin starts off with "Yet Another [insert what they are trying to copy here] "

[TheDogsBed]

You can't help but understand Micrsosoft's perspective here (as much as I otherwise detest them). It must take the shine off a product launch. Hell Vista isn't released yet and, in part thanks to Kol and others who jump on the bandwagon, I'm already sick to death of seeing it. I can't believe I'm the only one.

[sachleen]

They might have done this, but that doesnt mean the VS cant be obtained :D

I never really liked MS's decisions about some things, and this would be one of them...

[Nexus-]

They should not have allowed Stardock to add the functionality to WB5 its microsofts fault for letting stardock do it when stardock perposely did it to emulate the vista look. Not Kols fault and i will continue to distribute the theme regardless of his or microsofts wishes.

BTW for all you that dont know stardock has an extremely close releationship with microsoft, so much in fact that stardock is helping microsoft design the gui for windows vista (they also partialy helped with xp but not as much as they are now. They aperantly got the "ok" to include the glass effects in eb5 from microsoft who should and would have stoped them by now if it was not ok. So microsoft needs to target the company which is enabling the skinner. not the skinner himself.

[macmax]

I just wonder what if WB5 had Kol's VistaXP included as an official theme (along with the 4-5 themes that came pre-installed )when WB5 came out. That would have been interesting

[aggrophobik]

as you type this from a Windows based machine?

:p