Aqua-Soft ForumsI have looked around but haven't seen a clear answer to this. Are we allowed to post screenshots with unreleased work in them? ie. posting screenshots with a personal port of a theme.
Unreleased work
I think you should be able too. Although I haven't ported a thing, I am pretty sure it is time consuming, so why shouldn't you be allowed to show it off?
It's not recommended. it has been a hot point around here for many years.
The hard part is this, if the original creator of the theme says it's cool to port it and you have that in writing, no problem.
If you don't have it in writing or the original them creator can't be reached for permissions, it's best to just not post it.
Save yourself the headache.
From who? your´s? Don´see a problem...
ie. posting screenshots with a personal port of a theme.
Since you said it's a "personal port of a theme", I'm assuming it's based on existing theme created by someone else.
Personaly I could care less, but I know some of the theme creators tend to get a bit hot and bothered when someone does this using their material.
i agree with rjohnstone up there. from what i've noticed, it causes resentment in the community in general when people post screens of themes they can't or won't share because it's either an illegal port or personal use only; it seems to be regarded as showing off your connections and whatnot. and yes it is a hotbutton issue, so i'd suggest keeping personal ports to yourself. that being said, it's left up to a moderator's discretion as to whether to remove your post or not: 5.1.4. Staff may edit or remove any posts, images, or content from this thread at their discretion.. but other than this, there are no specific rules regarding personal theme ports listen in the AS rules.
as for my personal opinion on the matter: i really don't care one way or the other, though i do feel that an author's wishes should be respected if he/she doesn't want it to be passed around.
You are allowed to post a screenshot of your desktop as long as it is within the rules posted in the desktop thread. If it happens to contains ripped or unreleased work, that is not our problem. However, we do NOT support ripping by ANY means, and do NOT allow that to be distributed on this site.
I will say this again... If you see a post and have a problem with it. Report it, if it contains work you may have done and have not released it, or have been ripped and feel it needs to be removed from the thread. REPORT it to me. It will get looked at.
There is no discussion on this matter.
Please don't post crap though stating... "I HAVE THIS AWESOME SET OF ICONS AND YOU DON'T"
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Honestly... it does suck seeing your work ripped, its happened to me, and hell we do it here at Aqua-Soft. We do RIP Apple's Aqua UI, everyone here does it. Yet no one stops and says.. hmm this is wrong... blah blah blah
As long as no one is distributing the stuff, they really shouldn't be btching about it. Problem is, there are a few, (what some people call decent themers) who turn into drama queens when they see someone posts an image, that contains work they've not released...
Heres an idea, don't post a teaser/preview image, unless you are willing to take the risk of having your work ripped.
Another question. What happens when a person falsely accuses someone (out of jealousy, etc.) of ripping work and it really wasn't ripped, and the post gets deleted anyway without the other side of the story?
Well, only the author may report it, to where action will be taken. (if its something worth doing it on).
I do get a bit fed up with NFRs...it's just teasing... and wth all the probs with niqu and eternal I don't want to see artists leaving because their work has been ripped.
In fact I HATE all NFR posts.
Just my half a pint. Cheers.
bh2, I know some people hate NFR posts but some people do it to tease people and some people just do it out of true sincerity. But who's fault is it that getting resources from guikits are completely open to the public? It's like saying "Here ya go guys, my new release. And, oh yeah, don't take the resources and port it to Windows."
Like Timan said before, it shouldn't matter as long as you're using it for personal use. I think just showing a screenshot of it isn't bad.
I think this: the authors aren't losing money by having their themes ported to Windows... all they're really doing is getting their themes out to a bigger audience. Themers need to get off their pedastals and share.
NFRs generally leave a very BAD taste in my mouth. right on bh2! just another opinion.
In an ideal society (the cute cuddly all-loving utopia type), everybody shares their work allows ports. However, they are the authors and they have their rights-- agree or disagree, we should respect this. In this case, we want to PERSUADE or ENCOURAGE them to share. This is NOT accomplished by ripping/modding their work.
I don't see this 'situation' changing any time soon. When I get some free time, I'm going to start working on a "style-suites" type site... the goal is a systematic organization of skins, icons, etc. indexed by THEME (only the "good ones"). for each theme, there would be a list of the original author, sanctioned ports, theme elements (skins, icons, etc), and most importantly, the STATUS of ports-- whether it's going to be allowed or if one is in progress. just a thought towards a "solution"..... it's not really a solution to the ripped SS problem, but something I think the community has been lacking for a long long time.
What's wrong with modifying a theme? It's boring just having the same exact theme as the everyone else (for example, having the same Truth theme.) The last time I checked, this was a customization forum, but again it's considered "bad".
And as for rips, we all do it, we're ripping the OS X style.
I just want to say one more thing by way of beating a dead horse: there is a difference between modding, ripping, and posting a SS of a theme you are beta testing.
Modding would be like (to use a current example), making a green Samui 2.0. The current Samui is a complete piece of work, now available in original OSX and Windows flavors. Anyone should be able to go and alter the color, or change a gradient or something and use their modded version. Since it's been released, people know who the legitimate author is and it's highly unlikely that someone would post a Samui Green and say, "I made this from scratch."
Ripping is cutting apart preview screenshots of a WIP theme and hacking together a lame piece of work. I don't even see the point of doing this. To me the results never look that great, and the resources shown in a preview shot are so limited that I don't see how you can even piece together a complete theme. The only way to fix this really is to either not post a preview at all, or to put a nice texture over it so that the process of editing would be so irksome that a ripper wouldn't want to bother.
And finally there is the common practice of posting shots of themes you are beta testing. I believe that this enables the beta tester to show off his or her "connections", which only causes resentment. Especially if the author of the theme is notoriously slow in churning out a finished product. I have beta tested themes, and though I've never been asked I would never post a SS of a WIP theme i was trusted to test because I don't think it's fair to anyone who is anticipating the theme.
And as far as copying the OSX aqua look goes, I don't think it's such a bad thing. Evaryone in this community knows that it belongs to Apple. No one is claiming that they invented it. Besides you can't really match the crisp beauty of the real OSX gui on a Windows machine... though I do have to admit that you can come pretty close with WB5 
. I have talked way too much... have a good night.
:: picks up the dead horse :: It isn't dead enough! We need more kerosene!
As I've said in the past, ripping is inevitable when a piece of work is released to the public. Examples being, themes released in one format are subject to any personal use as long as the person doesn't run around saying "hey I made this, give me ten dollars for it." They can copy it for themself, they can save it to a disc and run over it with a car, whatever.
With skins or icons? It's the artist's fault for posting previews, previews are open to the public and can be modified or cut up in any way, they just can't be released as their own work. I've had a set in the works for awhile, but you haven't seen me throwing a preview up everytime I make one icon do you? If you don't see it before hand, you can't rip it off, it's common sense.
So conclusively, I've released stuff too, but I don't set myself up to be stolen from before hand by previewing it.
So be prepared people, my set is pretty neat, and nobody's seen it yet. Mwuahahaha. 
Yeah... It would be terrible is we showed respect to the people who make our desktops the way they are by respecting their wishes. Why should we respect anyone for that matter?
It's funny how (with few exceptions) most of the rip/NFR supporters are people who never made anything original in their life.
It's easy to look down on people's work when you have no talent at all and have no idea how hard is to make something from scratch.
Oh and saying "They asked for rips when they posted a preview" is the same thing as saying "That woman asked to be raped when she chose to wear a skirt". In one word - idiotic.
Other thing ... Some people here who say "we hate rips" ask for rip/nfs themes or icons.... in other words .. it's so warm in someones ass 
..no offence.
I just gues .. all you who are "in the bright side" have some rip/NFR stuff in your hdd's and still speak about someones right and respect ... lets say Apple tiger theme or osx icons... it is rip as well ...
No talent, eh? I'll remember that.
I'm not condoning ripping people off (or rape for that matter). Using that as a metaphor doesn't really fit this context; and going into a deeper analogy would only be vulgar. However, I'm simply stating copyright fact, most people aren't going to be kind enough respect the removal of their work when the person doing it isn't violating anything other than board guidelines. I respect moderators for cracking down around here but there isn't much we can do if it were to happen elsewhere.
Most artists around here just need to be more flattered by it than anal, when proper respects are payed and the person using it isn't getting monetary or creative reputation for using the resources. I don't think it's going to give anyone sleepless nights anytime soon.
Did you notice i said "with few exceptions" Link?
Again, i disagree with your stance but i respect the way you put it.
I suppose it's left to the artists to contact Timan if they want something removed. I know i don't need to get psychos and stalkers on my back for trying to defend other people's rights. :slant:
And bastar, please get off your high horse since you obviously miss the point.
::nudges unbe:: hugs?
I'm closing this for discussion, read my post on the first page for the response to the original question.