Is this ripping?!

Nah. You'll just be ripping the layout

Sooo.. in essence it would be considered a rip.

It would depend. It wouldn't violate copyright but it would possibly violate trade dress. Whether WC would accept it would be a close call.

I guess it would depend on the skin. In some respects isn't that what WindowBlinds does?

hmm... very good point jcg....
And frogboy, as I mentioned: it was just a thought I ain't having no plans of doing it, just "airing" the thought that's all.

I always wondered the same too, Snow.
Personally, I'd let the creator of the original skin know about it, and make sure there's no probs about the skin being uploaded anywhere.

this has happened to me a few weeks ago (although some bitmaps are unchanged).

mine: http://www.deviantart.com/view.php?id=392186
other: http://www.deviantart.com/view.php?id=540663

we cleared this the friendly way. he gave me credits after i noticed him about that.

Obviously a WinAMP 2.x skin...with a fixed format....that's no problem...but if there are transparency regions and they are 'identical' then it'd be a rip of the regions.txt coding...and therefore a rip.
[even the bits you DON'T see are part of the skin]

WB skins....same thing 'could' apply...the cut-out shapes are identical?...then it's a rip...again, if it has a custom 'outline' [abnormal intricate shape]..that's part of the skin design, no matter what pixels are put into that shape.
If it's a standard Luna WB 'shape', namely 'square', then it's not a rip but a standard form.

An example of what I'm getting at....my Blame Maxim WinAMP skin...[You probably know the one....all that trans]...sure, you could put all your own graphics into the skin but if the pos/neg areas of the result are exactly the same shape as mine then it 'must' be a copy because those regions are unique and have no relation to the general WA 'button zones' except for they are obviously somewhere within them for the buttons to function.

Try marketing a pottery port 'flask' molded in the shape of a traditional Coke bottle and see how far you get.....sure, different pixels/material, but same shape.....ain't gonna happen...

Well, no.
If you take an existing UIS file, in the case of Windowblinds, and use the exact same code, but replace the name of the images for yours, adjust the size and position a bit to fit your design better, I would not call that ripping. It's how you learn. The best way to learn actually. And I must admit, I do that all the time. For skins, for web pages, for bits of scripts or code.

Yes, paxx, but it's the contoured outline created by pink transparencies that 'may' not have been changed, and they were the creation of the original artist, so the cut-out shape needs to be changed as well, not 'just' the bitmaps...

As for working off another's skin, I'm in the midst of a new WinAMP skin....working of my old one....in the end I think there'll be about a dozen or so pixels that have remained from the original...and yes, it's the best way to 'do it'...