Attention Neowin members:
I am writing to you as a member of the Counter-Strike Skinning community (CSS) in order to inform the Counter-Strike playing public of a great injustice that has been occurring over the last several months. The proprietor(s) of Games-Fusion (https://www.games-fusion.net) have repeatedly used unauthorized content in their skin packs. Games-Fusion charges a membership fee for those who want to download these skin packs. This is content that was intended to be free. Games-Fusion profits from content that they have no permission to use, and worst of all, no credit has been given to the original authors.
In the past, Games-Fusion has used the excuse that the membership fee is to pay for their bandwidth costs, and that they would give credit to the original authors if they were given a list of the authors' names. We at CSS tried to cooperate, but to no avail. Our work continues to be used without any credit given. The fact that Games-Fusion charges people for our work enrages us further.
Every time we've tried to take action, Games-Fusion has shot us down. Recently, an incident occurred where an artist explicitly stated that their skin was not to be used by Games-Fusion. The readme file that was included with the skin stated: "GAMES-FUSION is not permitted to use this replacement in [...] any way, shape, or form." Of course, not only did Games-Fusion use the replacement skin, but they didn't even give credit to any of the authors. Understandably, many of us in the skinning community were outraged and protested in their forums (https://forums.games-fusion.net). Shortly after, they closed the forums down for "improvements."
Unfortunately, since we are hobbyists that do this for free, we don't have the resources to take legal action (and from my understanding of copyright law, legal action wouldn't be a far-fetched possibility). This is a sad situation indeed. Due to Games-Fusion's blatant disregard for the Counter-Strike skinning community, many CSS member have been suggesting that we keep our work inside the community and not release them to the public. If this were to happen, the amount and quality of skins available to the public would plummet.
We urge you to support our cause in boycotting the Games-Fusion skin packs. ALL of the skins in these packs can be downloaded for free from honest skin sites (such as CS nation and Counter Strike Center). Our attempts to stop Games-Fusion on our own have been unsuccessful; we must have massive support from the entire community, otherwise the only option we have is to keep our work exclusive to members of the CSS community. If you enjoy using replacement skins for Counter-Strike and want new skins to be available to you, please spread the word (feel free to post this message on your site, or email it to friends).
Thanks for your consideration,
The Counter-Strike skinning community
FBI, CS Compiler and DLCSS forums member
Letter by Hostage Killer
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