All master skinners are true master skinners.

Some Master Skinners / Skins are better than others.  It would be nice to say that ALL Master Skinners are on the same level, but that is a false statement.  There is NO denying that.

Look at Mannis Member No and You know where that comes from. We still live in a world of Alexandrie, Treetog and Mike B. and even no more active skinners like Thredz, Hippy and Dangeruss. So bare with him.

We have had that discussion with Audio CDs and Games and at least with audio copy protection disappeared quite fast as it was a pain even for legal consumers. Stardock itself is quite proud of having no copy protection in its games. So now there should be copy protected WBs just to be cracked on a constant base ?

And : If Stardock even hasn't enough manpower to get their normal business done, how should they get a whole new copy-protection going ?

It is  good to hunt for pirate sites to get them down, but I am very sceptical about software-protection in skins.

No.  It's fact.  Yes, they have all earned the title of Master.  But you can't say that all Masters are equal.  That's fanboy talk right there.

When I'm finished what I'm saying here I done talking on this thread so reply all you want but I won't respond as it's been hijacked enough and your not worth continuing with.  You have been here since 2001 and am entitled to have your favorite skinners. If you choose not to expand your capabilities into future years and new skinners so be it. A statement and a question was made by Kitty to start this thread after things were tossed about there was a reply on I believe page 6 that she replied back with a thank you and it appears she is sitting back and going to wait to see what happens. I have no idea how you could call her starting an avalanche and what you mean about "I don't like the way vampothika is looking for" have no idea what that pertains to. There is also no way for you to know if any Masters are actually selling skins, but you appear to know Kitty is frustrated because she isn't selling skins. I have never said a mean think in the forums about anyone, so congrads to you as you are a total ass and have no respect for any skinners except for your few. So I'll finish by saying there are many different skinners and types of skinners and they are all of great value to this community and have taught me a lot. Where would this place be if only the skinners around were from 2001. So show some respect for all "manni" or the the hell up.

I think the whole point has been missed in all this discussion.  The original point was to stop pirate sites from distributing files illegally.  I do not believe encrypting files to disallow editing of the graphics would do any good at all, they could still be distributed illegally and the scum that downloads them from those sites could still use it, just not edit it.

We need something that only allows the file to be used by the original purchaser. 

Only if you missed my 'suggestion', lad...

Read it again...it's more than 'just' preventing a skin from being altered...it's specifically about the skin being tracable if pirated.

 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.

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....

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.

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.

Nailed it, you did!