Smoothblue Style :)

[Corriewf]

Originally Posted by infantrymen

Yep, you're right I've missed the point and that's why you're claiming credit for the design at the bottom of your site "SmoothBlue v2 Style By Injektilo."

So what if you rebuilt it from scratch. You rebuilt it to look exactly like thiers. you COPIED it.

Copied, Rebuilt, Stole, Borrowed call it what you want.

So what if someone made a style that looked XP?

[EricaJoy]

Originally Posted by Corriewf

So what if someone made a style that looked XP?

or better yet, what if someone made an OS that looks like OS X? :speechless:

[Corriewf]

Originally Posted by princessfrozen

or better yet, what if someone made an OS that looks like OS X? :speechless:

At the end of the day, there are thousands on thousands of styles out there that look much like each other in someway......Heck I know of a couple of style for other softwares like IPB and PHPBB that were converted to vB. No one is complaining about that.....

[DirectPixel]

Originally Posted by Injektilo

Try to read...and understand.... What you said is already been said...but saying it 20 times, thats annoying.

Okay, want to hear my official stance about this? I personally think you should not be making this style in the first place.

If anybody were to release the SkyBlue skin to the public in conjunction with the admins at vB.org, it'd be me.

You mean well with all the time and effort you've put into your project, but at the end of the day, like infantrymen mentioned, you're seeking to obtain permission after the fact. Which, by the way, is completely illegal.

Creating an existing skin from scratch is painstakingly easy. There is no creativity involved and everything becomes so much easier to do when you can simply use the eye-droplet tool to obtain an exact color scheme. Whether you created the skin from scratch or not, I simply don't care. The fact of the matter is: your end-result intentionally looks almost exactly like vBulletin.org's skin. And have you obtained permission yet? No. Therefore, you are currently in violation of US and international copyright laws. Which means, if I wanted to, I can easily mail off a templated DMCA violation letter to your host and ISP and get you shut down. Luckily for you, I wont.

At the end of the day, it seems to me as if you're going to be going ahead with this either way. It sounds to me as if you are simply trying to seek official permission to justify what you plan on doing anyways. Why else would you spend all the time and effort up-front?

Me, along with quite a few other members of the forums, have expressed our opinions against your stated intentions. Whether or not you go through with this is ultimately your choice--but at least have some respect for the original author. You come in here showing off this skin with barely any prior notice to either me nor the vB.org staff, and worse yet, you don't even mention vBulletin.org nor my name in the footer. That's just not nice.

Originally Posted by Corriewf

At the end of the day, there are thousands on thousands of styles out there that look much like each other in someway......Heck I know of a couple of style for other softwares like IPB and PHPBB that were converted to vB. No one is complaining about that.....

Just because there are a lot, does not in any way make the act of doing it legal.

[Trigunflame]

Im not brushed up on copyright laws, but Im pretty sure its not illegal to create something that "looks" like "something" as long as its not a trademark, logo etc..

The bulk of vbulletin styles are nothing more than color codes in the first place; and im pretty sure you cant copyright that

What is this style if you want to get specific.. blue with transparent clouds and some line work; this is not the first of its nature and its not unique.. ive seen many like it and actually have got an opinion from many graphics artist saying the design of this theme was copied from another site..

Now im not liberty to say whether it is or not, I dont care.. im not a graphics person but Im pretty sure it would not be against the law for this guy to create a theme based off his original work with inspiration from another work.

Regardless if you or vbulletin.org give him permission or not.

[Roms]

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

Okay, want to hear my official stance about this? I personally think you should not be making this style in the first place.

If anybody were to release the SkyBlue skin to the public in conjunction with the admins at vB.org, it'd be me.

You mean well with all the time and effort you've put into your project, but at the end of the day, like infantrymen mentioned, you're seeking to obtain permission after the fact. Which, by the way, is completely illegal.

Creating an existing skin from scratch is painstakingly easy. There is no creativity involved and everything becomes so much easier to do when you can simply use the eye-droplet tool to obtain an exact color scheme. Whether you created the skin from scratch or not, I simply don't care. The fact of the matter is: your end-result intentionally looks almost exactly like vBulletin.org's skin. And have you obtained permission yet? No. Therefore, you are currently in violation of US and international copyright laws. Which means, if I wanted to, I can easily mail off a templated DMCA violation letter to your host and ISP and get you shut down. Luckily for you, I wont.

At the end of the day, it seems to me as if you're going to be going ahead with this either way. It sounds to me as if you are simply trying to seek official permission to justify what you plan on doing anyways. Why else would you spend all the time and effort up-front?

Me, along with quite a few other members of the forums, have expressed our opinions against your stated intentions. Whether or not you go through with this is ultimately your choice--but at least have some respect for the original author. You come in here showing off this skin with barely any prior notice to either me nor the vB.org staff, and worse yet, you don't even mention vBulletin.org nor my name in the footer. That's just not nice.


Just because there are a lot, does not in any way make the act of doing it legal.

I could not agree more.

(Originally Posted by Corriewf) At the end of the day, there are thousands on thousands of styles out there that look much like each other in someway......Heck I know of a couple of style for other softwares like IPB and PHPBB that were converted to vB. No one is complaining about that.....

Just because people aren't complaining doesn't make it right.

(Trigunflame) Im not brushed up on copyright laws, but Im pretty sure its not illegal to create something that "looks" like "something" as long as its not a trademark, logo etc..

The bulk of vbulletin styles are nothing more than color codes in the first place; and im pretty sure you cant copyright that

What is this style if you want to get specific.. blue with transparent clouds and some line work; this is not the first of its nature and its not unique.. ive seen many like it and actually have got an opinion from many graphics artist saying the design of this theme was copied from another site..

Now im not liberty to say whether it is or not, I dont care.. im not a graphics person but Im pretty sure it would not be against the law for this guy to create a theme based off his original work with inspiration from another work.

Regardless if you or vbulletin.org give him permission or not.

Similar or not the fact is he did copy this style pixel for pixel. It's exact and that's what he intended, there was no "inspiration" what so ever. Now he wants everyone to validate him and say it's okay. It's already been copied, why is he asking permission now???

[Erwin]

Originally Posted by Injektilo

I've just made a style 100% identical to vb.org smooth blue style. ALL images are made from me! (Did not copy them from vb.org) and i have the .psd for 'em.

My question is it illegal or ... not cool to use it? And if so, will it be ok to use it with different colors etc?

Please don't go against me now, i just had a lot of time in my hands and did this style since i couldnt think one of my own :P

Peace!

If your style is 100% identical to vb.org smooth blue style, as your first post admits, then you are stealing our copyright which belongs to vB.org as donated by DirectPixel, and you need to cease using that style immediately.

You admit copying the style because you "couldnt think one of my own". How you copied it doesn't matter - it makes no difference that you made the images yourself - so what? If it's 100% the same, it's copyright infringement and illegal.

If the style is substantially different however, then it would be okay.

[DirectPixel]

Originally Posted by Trigunflame

Im not brushed up on copyright laws, but Im pretty sure its not illegal to create something that "looks" like "something" as long as its not a trademark, logo etc..

The bulk of vbulletin styles are nothing more than color codes in the first place; and im pretty sure you cant copyright that

What is this style if you want to get specific.. blue with transparent clouds and some line work; this is not the first of its nature and its not unique.. ive seen many like it and actually have got an opinion from many graphics artist saying the design of this theme was copied from another site..

Now im not liberty to say whether it is or not, I dont care.. im not a graphics person but Im pretty sure it would not be against the law for this guy to create a theme based off his original work with inspiration from another work.

Regardless if you or vbulletin.org give him permission or not.

His style can be either classified as a copy or as a derivative work. In either case, it is illegal for him to use this without obtaining consent first. The owner of the copyright has exclusive rights to: reproduce, distribute, perform publicly (a web page on a server, in this case), prepare derivatives. (Section 106)

I can assure you that this style is 100% original. If you could PM me the URL of the site which you believe this style to be copied from, I will be more than happy to clarify any details with you.

US district and federal courts have ruled time and time again in cases concerning artistic expression and intellectual property that it is not the individual elements of a piece that is copyrightable, but the entirety of the work and the coming together of the pieces.

When you to take your logic of "What is this style if you want to get specific.. blue with transparent clouds and some line work" to its logical conclusion, you will realize that with a break-down definition like that, not a single digital work would be able to be copyrighted. This is certainly not the case.

[smacklan]

Well, I'd say the answer has been given. DP has a problem with it as well as Erwin. You may be completely innocent in your intent (and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt in that), but a policy of asking for forgiveness rather than permission will not serve you well. If you are serious about doing design work with vB and being involved in this site, you would be well advised to say, "yep, everyone is right and I was wrong...I will delete it all and learn from it". That would be the wise approach to take at this point.

Just my 2 cents

[Trigunflame]

US district and federal courts have ruled time and time again in cases concerning artistic expression and intellectual property that it is not the individual elements of a piece that is copyrightable, but the entirety of the work and the coming together of the pieces.

And you think any court would waste its time on upholding the copyright law of a vbulletin style?

That is laughable.

When you to take your logic of "What is this style if you want to get specific.. blue with transparent clouds and some line work" to its logical conclusion, you will realize that with a break-down definition like that, not a single digital work would be able to be copyrighted. This is certainly not the case.

No, I think the work would have to show a lot of creativity unqiue to the design; as I said earlier this particular design is not something "Unique"; ive seen many similiar type of site layouts.

Something unique to me.. would be like worldofwarcraft.com etc; something not like any other site layout you have seen.

---------------

In any case, if he copied your layout pixel for pixel as erwin said I would consider that an infringement and breaking the law.

However if as I stated earlier he created his own work inspired from what hes seen ie. your style I dont believe there would be anything anyone could do about it; not they really could anyway...

ps. I do like the style however and am using it now on Vbulletin.org; am not punning your work.