okay, i was adding up my winamp 2 skin download numbers. (got just over 2M since last march by the way *big fat smile*)

anyhow, i ran into this skin when i did a search for "act2" on winamp.com skin section.....

(you'll find it if u want to...dont have the URL handy. u'll knwo it when u see it)

the author's comments were as follows:


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Reminds you of Act2 Finale? Actually, it barely even looks like that skin by Raj I/O, but you can tell it is based off of it. My staff kept bugging that all of the VGCA Skins had nothing to do with the site, so even, after saying VGCA v2.1 was my final Winamp skin, a week later I started on this. There are no borrowed elements, I copied everything from eye only...
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ummm...sheesh....the skin looks an aweful lot like act2 finale. not just as much as the ones trying to emulate the style (i can respect that. a nessecary step in learning to progress a style often times...ie 'looking for myself' attempts this style to an extent....this is another story and i'm avoiding ranting now...so anyhow....) the skin i'm refering to looks too much like act2 finale. not just mimicing the style but mimicing the exact look etc with one changes to some few images. it looks too much like it to be respected for any design marits really. it's unfortunate. he sez, in the desc, he sez...."i copied everything"....what does that mean to you? he goes on to say "from eye"...okay....does that change anyhting for you kids?...then goes on..."only"...umm...ONLY? what else would he use to "copy everything"? (his arse?) :P okay...i'm getting cheeky.....and ranting....alas....

i dont mean to particularly crucify this bloke but i would like to open a discussion about "copying" and "inspiration". especialy with freeform skinning on the horizon, there will be a lot of skinners taking existing skins apart for use in creating new skins, or simply painting over interfaces scripted by others....similar arangements of buttons, etc. of this i have little doubt.

bleh...i gotta run..i'm late...we'll talk more later....


..ummm...

...talk amungst yourselves....i'll give u a topic...<see above>....

there will be no skinning after winamp3 is up and running on the site

im guessing you havent downloaded winamp 3 yet or havent changed the default skin to .zip format

when i did i was shocked to find about 400 different files all in .png file format. then when i opened skin.xml and saw all the shit in there ... i almost wept a tear

plus the two files sysfunc.bin and sysfunc.was (which tell where the buttons are. i think) are nothing but gobbledygook! there damn well better be a new version of winamp thats skinner friendly. And if there isnt...then i shall be saying my final farewells to yal in here at skin love...and i guarantee that i wont be the only one to pack their bags. sorry for ruining your topic Raj but i had to say something...i think ill head over to bitchlist and post my great dislike for the suck ass job winamp.com did on version 3

Does a thief who admits he's a thief still garner the thief status? Hmmm ... uh ... YES! If this dude made money off it, Raj, I'd seek him out and ask what up?!

Before digital technology, before photocopiers, there was still intellectual theft.

If I were to sit down at my typewriter (yeah, I still have one in the back of the closet and it still works ;)) and type in the words from a novel I have open on my desk, "from eye only", would you call that plagiarism? Damn straight you would.

If it looks like Act2, if it walks and talks like Act2, then it is Act2 Finale. It's a rip using outdated technology. :mad:

there's an incredibly fine line between inspiration and ripping

i think he crossed it.

like cappy17 says. just cos he didn't copy and paste it, doesn't mean he didn't rip it.....

from sunny north london
Marc

ears on: Paul van Dyk - Words

See now im confused, I thought i knew what skin you were talking of , till i re-read your first post, so I searched for act2 as you suggested and found the skin you talked of, this one i presume...
http://www.winamp.com/customize/comp...GCA_Finale.jpg

But then while browsing the skin categories i found this skin.....
http://www.winamp.com/customize/comp...DIO_251078.jpg
located HERE

The second one is even more a rip than the first one, congrats Mr Raj, ripped on two fronts, pincer attack...

I'd add them both to the Rip Report thread Raj. Unless you're too flattered.... :D

hmmm...see this is quite interesting for lots and lots of reasons. amung them:

these arent the only rips. someone emailed me one day about a rip of act2 finale on deviantart.com.....i shut that guy down......but these two interest me more. the first one, i already mentioned why it interests me (because of the comments associated with it) but then there is this other one now, (thanks mr. jones)....it is a more intertesting case study;

it is in many ways less of a rip and more of an attempt at mimicing a style. (while still a rip ofcourse).

some thing i see sugest he/she looked closely at act2 finale but other things contradict that observation. it's weird. mimicing some of the subtle things i did but messing up others (ie the pos bar is missaligned with no point to the missalighnment...perhaps just author inexperience).

and picked up on my using "skin" layered through act2 finale...but this skin is more towards pornographic. the original was subtle and cut off stuff...but here i definately see bush and nipple. not eactly subtle. ofcourse it's a rip...too many things poitning to that (ie attempt at the Cbuttons, the numbers, the font mimicing etc etc) but atleast this one seems to SEEMS to attempt at less ripping and more mimicing a style.

on the other hand (there are different fingers)

isn't mimicry (spelling?) the sincerest form of admiration

nah...

didn't think so.

from sunny north london
Marc

ears on: Bunker - Decent (Original mix)

Of the two skins in question:

I'd call them both derivative works (very derivative). Lower the star count based on lack of originality.

The both have elements ripped from Act2, but enough to call the whole skin a rip? Raj does have the right to shut down a skin with any of his intellectual content in it, that's up to him.

There was an earlier thread about how ripping off is acceptable before the skin became a rip. A conundrum that was never really answered.


And Raj, the second skin certainly puts you a some rarified class of skinner. I'm reminded of those porn films very loosely based on popular movies... :) (You, of course, being the popular move part of it)

Not only is the second skin pretty much copied and unoriginal, it's against the site's submission policies.

It was there somewhere!

doesnt the seconf skin prove that skins arent really being reviewed to a sense...there is no way a reviewer couldnt see the pornography. if a porno skin can be reviewed and posted on the site doesnt that make you believe that the skins are just being quickly glanced at (if even that) and then posted on the site with a 3 star (4 in this case) rating?

Excellent point, 'Quita
 

And since nudity tends to jump out at you (well, it grabs *my* attention) I'm not sure they're even glancing at it. :confused:

LOL, *listening intently to the anti porn on winamp argument*

I'll tell you how observant the reviewers are on winamp at present :D I submitted a skin a few weeks back, one I was asked to do for a particular adult web site,nothing fancy about it, just a plain simple advert skin if you like, mind you it paid well I might add, anyhow, while the skin didnt include any full on nudity, just some substantial ammounts of *cheesecake* it did include in the description a comment about it being created for, I forget the words now, something like "No1 Adult web site" etc etc.

So from that you can quite confidently say that the skins aint even being blinked at , never mind glanced at :D.

Now lets see if they now publish the two variations on the skin that I have currently sat in my developers accounts :)

Shiny sixpence to the first person who finds the skin I'm talking of :D

On a seperate note, it's doing a fairly good download rate for an average skin :D, wonder why that could be !!!!

And by the way it wasn't at the request of Jeffrey C I might add :D

Back to the day job :)