RIP RIP RIP

I think a flood of not-so-polite e-mails should be for starters, Alex

There is also a rip of Nuvems wall in the LogonUI section..... >

The site seems to be down right now.

Who is the auteur of the rip this time?

well it seems on wincustomize no alot of people cares of rip anymore

Where can I contact the site to let them know they're hosting a ripped skin?

I think if you look back at the Rip Patrol thread you'll see that people here do care about rips...what has been done so far in regards to this site in particular? Have you contacted jafo alex? He seems to be one of the better members of the community to deal with these issues, or at least advise you on what steps to take.

I think you are right I will ask Jafo

Alex give me that guys e-mail address, I will help you! who is it?

this is the email for complaints on the web site

[email protected]

I have also written, respectfully and politely, to the moderator of their forums. Because of the work of the Rip Patrol and others in the community, many sites have taken down their rips. As I said before, this is a process of education. Many of these people have never skinned before and don't know the rules. We need to contact them and explain how our community works.
Alexandrie, my friend, so many of your skins are coveted because of their beauty. It is a compliment that I know you wish not to receive, but it is a compliment nonetheless.

yes listen to Larry

Alex can you open up icq if you get this msg w/i the next 30 mins?
Thanks

Grrr....time to flex some muscles....

I have spent many an hour on the net since stylesxp and logonui rippers have been at it....getting headaches from knocking sense into these twits....with a little success....but obviously not a lot of success...

Remember, people, don't get nasty....flaming them doesn't sort the problem, it aggravates it.
What is needed is polite clarification that what they are doing is actually illegal, and can lead to their site's closure, therefore it is in their best interest to react quickly to remove any suspect copyright infringements....

OK....first email sent...

This is it....

Jay....
I have just visited your site, where you have posted a logon screen named 'Lost Souls' supposedly by 'slowfirez'.
He is NOT the owner of the artwork [the original wallpaper], nor does he have permission to reproduce it and allow it for download by a third party.
This is a breach of artist's copyright and is an Internationally enforcable law of property rights.
The original author of the wall is Nuvem [Helder Oliveira], and he did not give his consent for his work to be reproduced.
This same logon screen was displayed on another site recently, but following email communication with the Admin, was removed.

Although you may have disclaimers about responsibility of ownership is on the heads of the uploaders, just as with Napster it is the facilitation of distribution that exposes you and your site to legal action. The disclaimers do not absolve you from culpability.

On formal notification of a breach of copyright, you are obliged to remove the work from view.

Please remove this immediately.
If you wish further clarification, I can have the Author contact you personally.

There is no point questioning the validity of my claims....I know Helder [Nuvem] and saw the Lost Souls wall as he was creating it.

In the StylesXP section there are a number of ported skins originally made for Windowblinds by Alexandrie [Johanne Chaine], which are also ALL without permission.
This use of what 'appears' to be freely accessible 'skins' from the net, is, in fact, copyrighted artwork, which can ONLY be used and/or communicated in any way [other than personal private use] with the Author's express consent.
If and when these transgressions are noted and you are made aware of them, you are obliged to have them removed.
Failure to do so can lead to complaints of copyright infringement being forwarded to your ISP which can lead to your site's closure.

I have forwarded this to you personally, as it's your name on the posting, giving you first opportunity to resolve the problem.
If you are unable to, or do not have access to the removal of these works, I can forward this email to other site members for their response.


Sincerely,
Paul Martin
Jafo.
Admin Wincustomize.com Pixtudio.com

WOW!

Superb Paul - you are the man when it comes to ripping issues.
Spell-Checker/Rip-Officer extraordinaire!

PS - E-Mail despatched!!!

Lets refrain from all sending an email at thsi point. It could actually have a negative effect.

Jafo: excellent mail; but if I may correct you slightly. In the Napster case, the distributed files were on the users computers, and that is why Napster got trialed as a "facilitator", but in a web site'S case, it much more strightforward: the files are on the site's server, and therefore the site owner is directly responsible for its content.

I think Skinz.org has a "rip report" board. Maybe we should post rips there, too, so that as many people as possible see that there is a rip out there.

The rip is still there this morning....

Paxxy how much more negative could it be?

I say bomb them w/ polite e-mails!

Doreen, sometimes, some people don't know its wrong, or don't know anybody would notice. Most of the time, a polite, explicative email will do the work. But 99.9999% of the time, when insults, agression, harassment is used, people respond with yet more agressivity. Not only would they most likely refuse to take down the rips, but they could actually respond by making yet more rips. Only if the ripper has responded unpolitely or agressively is a flame war appropriate.

Here is some info on the site:


Registrant:
BoomGames
1912 Gardengrove Court
Plano, TX 75075
US

Registrar: Dotster (http://www.dotster.com)
Domain Name: BOOMGAMES.COM
Created on: 19-AUG-98
Expires on: 18-AUG-02
Last Updated on: 03-AUG-01

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Venters, Chase [email protected]
1912 Gardengrove Ct
Plano, Tx 75075
US
972-509-0881


Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DETONATE.NET
NS2.DETONATE.NET

Register a domain name at www.dotster.com

End of Whois Information


-- ARIN WHOIS QUERY RESULTS --

AT&T ITS (NET-ATT)
200 Laurel Avenue South
Middletown, NJ 07748
US

Netname: ATT
Netblock: 12.0.0.0 - 12.255.255.255
Maintainer: ATTW

Coordinator:
Kostick, Deirdre (DK71-ARIN) [email protected]
(888)613-6330

Domain System inverse mapping provided by:

DBRU.BR.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET 199.191.128.106
DMTU.MT.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET 12.127.16.70
CBRU.BR.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET 199.191.128.105
CMTU.MT.NS.ELS-GMS.ATT.NET 12.127.16.69

Record last updated on 06-Nov-2000.
Database last updated on 16-Nov-2001 19:55:33 EDT.

----------

Inflow (NETBLK-ATT137321831-160)
1333 NORTH STEMMONS FREEWAY

DALLAS, TX 75207

US

Netname: ATT137321831-160
Netblock: 12.96.160.0 - 12.96.167.255
Maintainer: NFLO

Coordinator:
Deatherage, Travis (TD255-ARIN) [email protected]
303-942-2832

Record last updated on 06-Jun-2001.
Database last updated on 16-Nov-2001 19:55:33 EDT.

----------

Playnet (NETBLK-INFLOW-16414-4813)
1333 N Stemmons Freeway Suite 110
Dallas, TX 75207
US

Netname: INFLOW-16414-4813
Netblock: 12.96.164.0 - 12.96.164.255

Coordinator:
Inflow, Joe (JI133-ARIN) [email protected]
(303) 942-2800

Domain System inverse mapping provided by:

NS1.INFLOW.NET 209.119.36.3
NS2.INFLOW.NET 208.169.16.115

From one point of view it is a compliment, because only the best are ripped, but from another point, those works are needing a lot of work and you can not accepting very easily the rips from some kind of people.
The only solution is what Jafo did and paxx said to Doreen

of course when they don't know what they've done you need to inform them, but when they continue on, they need alittle more of a push to take notice, several e-mails from different ppl, (polite ones of course) usually get their attention...

I got a quick response from the guy this morning in regards to Alex...

Alex check your e-mail, I'm forwarding it to you now...

Holy cow.. I just E Mailed this moron about the Logonui section ! BEFORE Coming here. Not only does this site as well as neowin.net contain links for Ripped Art Work by Alexandrie, but their Site Policy is in question too.

They have a number of 'Questionable' Pornographic Logonui screens too, which I contacted him about advising him to remove them, due to the questionable nature of the Logonui's. It is their interests to protect their members from such material..

He actually wrote back and said they would be moved to another section. So I replied with another E mail asking him that these questionable Logons should be prevented from certain members of the Community from being able to download them. Of course he never replied to this.

It seems to me that it could well be a struggle to get things like Rips and the Questionable Logonui's removed.

I sent an email too, lets see what will happend