Inspired or ripped?

[Kim]

(Emphasis mine.)

Hence why you can't do a stick drawing of a black cat and say "okay, that's copyrighted - nobody else gets to do a stick drawing of a black cat."

Actually you're wrong.. the law says YOUR stick drawing of a cat is yours, and you have the right to protect it... it makes absolutely no difference the quality of the work involved, it is automatic on any and all original creative works. It doesn't mean I can't do a stick drawing of a cat, but it does mean I cannot EXACTLY reproduce yours.

Were I to take your exact rather cute cat drawing, and turn it into a multi million $ syndicated cartoon called CatCat - I am sure you would have a slightly different take on copyright

 

[CyberAP]

My dear, I have no interest in debating with you something I completely agree is bogus... please stop trying to infer that I support the trademarking of colours.

I do not.

Get back to the copyright issues please.

Sorry but that was a joke

 

[Kim]

Sorry but that was a joke

Ahh well sorry it didn't come across that way

 

[anotheralias]

Actually you're wrong.. the law says YOUR stick drawing of a cat is yours, and you have the right to protect it... it makes absolutely no difference the quality of the work involved, it is automatic on any and all original creative works. It doesn't mean I can't do a stick drawing of a cat, but it does mean I cannot EXACTLY reproduce yours.

Were I to take your exact rather cute cat drawing, and turn it into a multi million $ syndicated cartoon called CatCat - I am sure you would have a slightly different take on copyright

I didn't say, everyone can draw that exact stick drawing of a cat, pixel by pixel, I said, everyone can continue to draw stick cats.

Also, I'm not sure you've correctly inferred my take on copyright law. Which is: law is not public opinion - and before someone files a suit they ought to read the actual copyright laws, rather than going by the opinions of random people on a message board as to whether they have a case - unless of course the random people on the message board are copyright lawyers handing out free advice.

 

[Kim]

I didn't say, everyone can draw that exact stick drawing of a cat, pixel by pixel, I said, everyone can continue to draw stick cats.

Also, I'm not sure you've correctly inferred my take on copyright law. Which is: law is not public opinion - and before someone files a suit they ought to read the actual copyright laws, rather than going by the opinions of random people on a message board as to whether they have a case - unless of course the random people on the message board are copyright lawyers handing out free advice.

Well my apologies for misreading or interpreting your original point.

And I couldn't agree more If one was taking action against another for copyright violation.. one should seek the counsel of a IP specialist.

However the chances of that happening at this level are next to none.. believe me I have sought such advice............ the costs of pursuing such action far outweigh the value of the claims.

Fortunately here on Xenforo forums, I understand that managment will not tolerate copyright violating Styles/Skins to be posted, so in that regard they are significantly better than other companies, in that they will go out of their way to protect their 3rd party resource providers... and I for one say BRAVO!!! to that

 

[anotheralias]

... believe me I have sought such advice............ the costs of pursuing such action far outweigh the value of the claims.

So have I, which is exactly why I was telling people to read the actual laws, not go by the opinions on a board. There is no point in spending $3000 to get Scotty to take your logo off his Tripod site (or whatever). You=plural.

 

[Kim]

So have I, which is exactly why I was telling people to read the actual laws, not go by the opinions on a board. There is no point in spending $3000 to get Scotty to take your logo off his Tripod site (or whatever). You=plural.

Agreed

Kids.. don't copy.

Designers... if your work has been copied, or you believe someone here has violated your copyrights, approach management with full details.

 

[Miko]

I think is very simple,

Legally CyberAP skin (the one that he resubmitted without the original images from forum themes) is not violating anything.
Is quite different, images are different and only resemble the original style.
The original was indeed in violation of copyrighted images and it was immediately removed from these forums.

Does is it make it morally right in a small community of forum style designers? NO.

If you ask me you are coming across as a little Kid and you are shooting yourself in foot every time you post something.
If you had any chance to redeem yourself and make it right, you lost it several posts up.

The forum designing community is to small for people like you to get unnoticed.

Unfortunately is people like you that makes designing on the internet a painful task

Luckily also people like you normally are like flies, annoying and they come and go.

You are not the first and most definitely you are not going to be the last.

I think if you didn't get it by now, you are not going to get it at all....

Not much more that we can all say to make you realize what people like you do to the industry.

 

[John]

Perfectly said Miko.

 

[D.O.A.]

If it's line for line code theft and my designed images, it's copyright. If it looks similar and uses similar functions, then spread it around I say.

end of story and thread solved in one post.

 

[Andrew]

Can't we all just get along.

 

[Kier]

Have you ever tried dealing with a certain "team" site? I can send you the URL via if you're curious. Many have tried, all to no avail.

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases of hosting in an unfriendly location.

 

[onthefly]

After reading this thread I wish the negative feedback option available on this board! Thanks for providing us with the freebie xenforo skin!

 

[Dean]

Personally I would find it hard to define it. It may be like some other things in life - "I know it when I see it". Comparing style A & B visually, and I can usually get a reasonable idea if it was inspired or copied.

 

[Dean]

fyi - I communicated via PC, and the authors of some posts requested that I remove them. So I did.

I really don't like removing content... but did as requested - just letting you know rather than have people think 'what happened'?

 

[Sador]

It makes me wonder though, when Coca Cola released their drink, companies like Pepsi and Dr. Pepper tried copying it, without actually using the same ingredients. (they couldn't, for it was unknown what was used). It's obviously copying, might even come down to stealing, but yet it creates a different drink which is well tolerated.

Anyway, I don't think CyberAP meant to hurt / steal / annoy anyone on purpose.

 

[Xarcell]

General rule, if it's not a difference of 60% of code/color/images, it's stealing. That's how the courts look at it, 60% difference to call it your own. Everything creative is inspired by something. It's impossiable for the human brain to come up with stuff from nothing.

I do understand what your saying about making themes look like some of the popular themes from vb. But that's part of the process of people wanting to convert from vb to xF. As long as they don't take full credit and at least say "inspired by", I see no problem with it...

If the same images are used, then it's definitely stealing if you don't have the original authors WRITTEN permission.

 

[Peggy]

It's impossiable for the human brain to come up with stuff from nothing.

Oh I don't agree with this statement at all. Someone had to come up with something from nothing at some point, in order for there to be something to copy, or to be inspired by.

The human brain is smarter than people give it credit for.

 

[Ryan McAdams]

I think you should read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property

Design/art fall under intellectual property, and you've basically stolen and 'converted' someone else's property, which is the definition of theft.

Because Wikipedia is a REAL source.... :rolls eyes:

 

[Forsaken]

Because Wikipedia is a REAL source.... :rolls eyes:

No one ever said its a real source, however something like IP is unlikely to be made up on there, right?

But you can go believe that everything on Wikipedia is made up of fairies and unicorns if thats what you like .