Well....at last some lively skinning talk.....
....much of it very out of step with reality.
Once upon a time anyone who wanted to check the weather accessed a weather website...and checked.
Then one day various entities [not just Stardock] developed little gizmos that could access this info frequently and less invasively [for the user] than re-opening their browser to that same site each time.
These companies/weather sites noticed the increased load on their servers [particularly from users who probably had no idea of the source of the info...no brand recognition/advertising even] so they changed their method of data release....clearly intentionally to re-establish property rights to their data.
Now you have to be a personal 'customer' of the service to obtain their data. That's something ONLY each individual 'Weather Widget' USER [not skinner/coder] can do.
A skinner can change his widget....for himself...for his OWN computer .... but that will not help anyone else....not the way the Terms Of Use are worded.
The ONLY way I can see a logical solution that is also LEGAL is to code a widget that when loaded sits there and asks you to input your user licence info [as the user] into it before it functions. This is clearly what the weather provider is wanting....no more data-mining.
In the past it was not an issue...as it was relatively uncommon. Clearly since the advent of Vista and its adoption of widgets there has been a significant growth [and impact].
Now, it seems that ALL of the widgets that are currently failing are third-party produce....made/coded/altered by skinning community members.
NONE of that is the responsibility of Stardock [other than their DX widget popularity adding to the weather site 'load'] and no-one, including the skinners is responsible for the current failure of their creations' function.
As JCRabbit said, they changed the method of access and broke it for everyone, no matter who.
As also mentioned....the best short-term solution will be to leave weather widgets that use that service OUT of DX Themes so Users can decide whether to take the effort to sign up for the service....or not.
If/When they do they can also look forward to 'enjoying' the weather service's LOGO being properly [permanently] displayed in whatever form the TOU cites.
Coding work-arounds that bypass the user sign-up will all be TOU violations and thus legally suspect.
As and when there is an OFFICIAL STARDOCK determination on what we, here on Wincustomize.com can/will do with dealing with the situation....you'll see it here [on our forums] first.
Hopefully a magical and simple solution will arise...