this style hacked...

[GoTTi]

according to the U.S. Copyright Office, this actually cannot be copyrighted, unless I am reading it incorrectly.

U.S. Copyright Office

It says:

WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?

Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)

@

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp

There is other key elements there mentioning designs and/or slogans, ideas, and so on...

From what it looks like, it doesn't appear there is any legal grounds of Copyright infringment pertaining to online forums sold out of Jelsoft using designs and ideas already made.

[GoTTi]

infact, it appears that all hacks created here and distributed are not actually, as the footer here says:

All hacks are copyright their respective owners.

they aren't copyright material, since they are all ideas and discoveries, also explained int hat Copyright site.

[Dean C]

I'm not liking this thread...

- miSt

[ArunanS]

Designs are not common property. Nor are all made available as a free source. The one you have listed there, refers to common issues.

For example: The Hacks are copyright to the owner, but the idea cannot be, unless it is registered, trademarked legally etc.

Therefore, Layouts, and styles are definatly an issure that is arguable in court, if the rightful owner of the layouts/styles (not the person who purchased it) can provide full proof, in this case (psds, and other formats) then they have a full ownership and copyrights to the style. Which include the images in it. Though the images are copyright. Not all images can be copyrighted. For example: Common smilies, icons etc

Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright.

but if a person was contracted to do a custom design for example, then person who the style was made for has full ownership

In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author. Section 101 of the copyright law defines a "work made for hire" as: