I think there is a misunderstanding here.  Encrypted WB skins can only be used by people who have a license for the skin.  They use activation.

 Order In The House

ELSIUS IS HERE

Vampothika has unintentionally made the matter worst for all Wincustomize master skinners; in fact, she has given the Pirate World a much welcome free publicity. They need thread such as this one. Keep in mind that positive or negative threads about piracy are great publicities for them because it helps other people being aware of them, and eventually make them stronger. If you’re a Curious George, the information she provided to the whole world in her first post make you want to find out about the skins, or better yet, read about the funny comments – not funny, but funny. Get the point!

Skinners such as the mighty great vStyler, Mike Bryant, Treetog have loyal fans that will not download their masterpieces in the pirate’s zone. Now how this thread hurt the great master skinners?. vStyler for example made his latest masterpiece available for sell somewhere else. Many of his fans won’t get it yet because here is where they spend much of their time and they know it’s going to be here soon. But they can’t wait to use it still. Her post easily takes you to that site (and a million more) even if you know little about the internet or if you simply know Google. The quotes she used helped you get there.

Those people waiting for vStyler’ skin here (willing to buy) might be tempted to wanna try it even though they find it worth paying for. “Why not try it" becomes kind of easy as they can’t wait to use it. Sadly only 80% of those willing to buy it in the first place will eventually buy it. The rest…

This is where Jafo failed! I won’t give him a PINK SLIP as we need a Jafo. Usually things such as this are dealt with under secure privacy between the affected players. This thread should have been flushed right away and moved the conversation in Private Message. If I’m not wrong, it’s not the first time Jafo knew about that site and had tried to fight them before.

The idea of encrypting the file won’t work because it did not work for stardock with myColors. I’m surprised they still left that website up. We all know the skinners will not update all the skins they make when it is time to update. The skinners may no longer have interest in those skins, or maybe simply because very little customers care for the update. But as long as one customer care, it is relevant to update. Take cosmos myColor for an example: A great suite which becomes worthless now since Win7 is out.

The myColors encryption has not been cracked simply and mostly because the majority of those works are not in demand. If masterworks from vStyler, Mike Bryant, Treetog, and a rare few ever use the same encryption stardock use in their works, it would be a sweet victory for all the folks who support the piracy. The hackers and crackers will have reason to want to compete against each other for top spot. It will not be about who will be able to crack them, but who will be able to crack them in less than 15 minutes after the latest encryption is out.

The only way to combat piracy is to encourage people to support the hard working skinners. One of the many ways is the “Work In Progress”. It’s very efficient in educating the members about the hard works that are involved. You see a chicken egg hatched, feed that chicken, nursing it, and watch it grow. I bet you would not want to eat that chicken. At least 99.9% of you won't

nontheless, Vampothika still has the right to complain just as anyone else. Best to do so without hurting others in the process.

Ok. I lie. I am taking this personally.

I wasn't aware that there were different classes of Master skinners here. Thanks for enlightening me.

Tell you what, why don't Manni or Natas PM me when I become a true Master skinner and I'll go sit in a corner in the meantime.

Elsius Saint...

There is no law about discussing piracy here...only about promoting it.

There IS nothing wrong with the posting of this thread.  It does NOT harm anyone at all.  The site[s] and the warez are already in the wild...and those who would seek them out will NOT need to be here...OR in this thread.

It is not going to be 'flushed away'.....it's actually refreshing to get an active thread that involves skinning and skinners....and certainly better than those self-promote-my-mates threads we see from a certain individual....

Now that would be great Neil!  I guess I misunderstood, but with all the off topic discussion in the thread I guess I just missed it.

That would be great too Jafo!  I guess I may have missed that for the same reason I stated above.

Actually I don't say much but I believe everyone here know I care about all opinions and respect everyone. Just believe you took this all off course and went into a direction not needed.

Oh for christ's sake...I agree with everyone about the "True Master Skinner" comment.  If you are a Master then you are a Master.  There aren't any True Masters or Half Masters, or Kinda, Sorta Masters.  A Master is a Master based on whatever criteria was established.  My argument is irrelevant here.

You need to start treating master skins as applications and distributing unique serial numbers (built using RSA public/private key encryption so a keygen cannot be made) with each master skin sold.

Part of the serial would be a code that identified the skin and thus that serial would only work with that particular skin.

Since serials are unique to each user and each purchase, a leaked serial can be tracked down to the user who purchased it in the first place.

As for the end user editing a master skin, I already explained how this could be accomplished. WB and Skin Studio (?) would necessarily need to know when the source of a skin is an encrypted master skin in order to be able to open it. The edited skin would then itself be encrypted when saved and the encryption would be associated to that user's unique serial number (possibly using a different method from the one used for original master skins so as not to compromise the security of the master skin algorithm). That particular edited skin would thus work on that user's computer but nowhere else because nobody else has that particular serial number (unless the user gives it to someone else, of course).

There are two important issues to keep in mind, of course:

First, you would need a new version of WB and Skin Studio (good for Stardock, people would need to upgrade before they could use protected master skins).

Second, only Stardock would have the resources to protect master skins and issue unique serial numbers per each skin sold. Master skinners wanting to benefit from this protection would be forced to sell through Stardock/Wincustomize (Again good for Stardock, but not so good for master skinners. Apple store, anyone?)

As for whether it is worth to invest in anti-piracty measures or not, seeing that nothing is un-crackable, of course it is! A lock on your door will not stop everyone from breaking into your house, but it will stop MOST people. And that is what really matters.

On the other hand, leave your door fully open and watch what happens. So yes, most people will buy your software/skins - but only IF they cannot get them easily for free first.

As opposed to what other kind of Masterskinner?

I may be late to this party, but I want to go on record as agreeing that all Master Skinners are equal. Each has his/her own style that, in the eyes of their fans, might make one seem more of a Master than the others, but this is fan opinion ONLY.

We all have favorites, but as a skinner, one who aspires to be a Master someday, I can relate to all the work and time and effort for constant improvement that a skinner strives for in order to gain the status. My hat goes off to all Masters, I aspire to be as great as you.

Nailed it, you did!

I just spent the last two hours posting derogatory comments on this site on ever skin I could recognize, free or for sale elsewhere, and sent yet another email to their abuse section!

Basically I said: "Remove this copyrighted intellectual property from this site immediately you scum sucking son of a bitch's!  This is copyrighted work, and it must be paid for on MY PERSONAL OR ASSOCIATE SITE, not this f'ing poor excuse for a web site!  Absolutely everything submitted by this user on this site is COPYRIGHTED and not theirs to distribute! Why don't you answer my emails! I report abuse and you ignore it! Bastards all of you!".

I even changed the wording a bit for a couple of Kitty's works that I recognized and gave 'em hell on those too!

To hell with the DCMA letter and being civil, I am pissed and they don't care anyway!

Phew!  At least I got that off my chest for today!  Maybe we all should!

This is all a big joke now anyways...we have an obvious theft right here on our own site and its being swept under the rug in typical Winc style.

This case is even more insidious than just giving away something to people who havnt bought it.They copied parts of the skin and called it their own.

And Wincustomize is letting them get away with it.(featured it even).I dont feel like our IP is being protected very well.

Like my skins or not...I AM a photoshop expert...this is no 'coincidence',to call it such is an insult.

I'm thru,I suddenly have zero interest in this topic.

Really, natas2. Let me guess who the judge is.... you! lol.

And just what objective standard did you use to judge?

Really... sorry, mate.

[quote who="I.R. Brainiac" reply="177" id="2691499"]This is all a big joke now anyways...we have an obvious theft right here on our own site and its being swept under the rug in typical Winc style.

This case is even more insidious than just giving away something to people who havnt bought it.They copied parts of the skin and called it their own.

And Wincustomize is letting them get away with it.(featured it even).I dont feel like our IP is being protected very well.

 

Like my skins or not...I AM a photoshop expert...this is no 'coincidence',to call it such is an insult.

I'm thru,I suddenly have zero interest in this topic.
[/quote]

Have you notified a mod about it?

Tom, although the only thing I can skin is my knee (and even that by accident), I thank you for doing that thankless task. In a world where it's easier to just give up and say "It's futile.", you, Jafo, Vamps and the ones who care, shine!

and ....I only wish I had more special k to give you.