I don't know why everyone is making a big deal about it, "Open source skins?" NO!

Should have been the answer in the beginning. 

The End 

I feel everyone here is doing their darndest to alienate people.

Opinions are like arseholes....everyone has one.

I think there are pretty ordinary skins on our site too....[namely mine].

Open source [creative commons] and GNU was a very big part of the origins of skinning, though primarily with the 'skinnables', not so much the skins.  There would have been no alternate shell movement without 'GNU' - think Litestep.

People who have been around a while might remember what was called 'Community Skins'.  They were essentially what is now referred to as 'creative commons', probably before that was even a 'thing'.

Any of those would essentially qualify as 'for public use/abuse' provided their original rules re credit were followed.

However...

Much of the 'creative commons' ideology is an insidious attempt to undermine actual 'copyright' which DOES AND ALWAYS SHOULD apply to created works by an individual [or group].

Back to specifics....you all should heed Zubaz's comments....more on the button than most...;)

I have always been ok with someone wanting to "port" my work into one of their own, provided that they ask, and credit.

I can understand a skinner here not being ok with someone taking a WB, change a few things, then share as their own work.  Which seems to be what the OP was getting at.  I could have misinterpreted.

Don't ever criticize master skins and realized that people relying on sale of them to make ends meet..........................  

Perhaps a little tact can go a long way but people often respond accordingly to the spirit or what is being said more than the actual words that are typed or spoken.
Sometimes the dos and don'ts of skinning can be confusing, correct me if I am wrong but I always understood that open source applied more to the program, not peoples skins of an open source program. For example, you can take rainmeter and modify it but you cannot take someones rainmeter skin and change a few things and then call it your own creation.

Correct.

The skins/themes don't carry over the GNU/open source properties of their relative programs.  They are the property of the artist/skinner unless he/she states otherwise...;)

THE END

.....or ?   

I myself being a skinner i would be offended if somebody just made a small change to one of my skins and distribute as theirs. Hours go into making a skin. Sometimes weeks. Lots of my skins have started from works of RND that a i have created all new graphics and arrangements. I do own all the graphics but scripts and things of that nature are others works. When i submit i make sure i give the authors of such the proper credit. Also RND does testing on all my skins. 

The guy had a bad attitude. I don't care about the details of open source in this case because the dude had a chip on his shoulder and that's what bothered me the most. That's what I see and I am done.

or am I?   

People who complain a lot often complain about qualities they themselves possess.

Mikali,

Just let it go,you aren't gonna win. I think you got the answer already,there is no open source skins per se.  

I don't think the question or attitude was out of line at all until he was attacked for even asking it.

If someone doesn't think that the master skins are up to his/her standards of willingness to pay, that is their right as well! No reason to get butt-hurt because someone doesn't like your work.

Bloated ego has caused many members to just go to the shadows and driven potential new ones away.

Disgusting.

I went back over this and I feel that the op might have been misunderstood, I don't believe his intentions was to take someones skin and make subtle changes and reupload it as his own, perhaps a better explanation of intent would have prevented hard feelings.
I am not going to get into the attidude thing but to say that we all can have an attidude at times when we are misunderstood and attacked, at least I can so perhaps I should only speak for myself. Cooler heads need to prefail here and we should allow this thread to be used for learning purposes for any future new member that has the same question as the op. I think we assume that everyone knows or understands the skinning system when infact many don't (not newbies who do not have your experience and knowledge). 

Just drop it already

Why? if the thread is kept civil and people can learn something from it then why drop it? I guess that is not up to me though and there are mods here that can decide that.

That's the problem JC, no one will learn anything from this. This thread needs to be locked, or better yet deleted, NOW!

Example of said Ego right there.

Have you all read the wallpaper Desktop Screenshot thread yet?? Full of compliments,none of negativity. It's a nice thread,right?? We should tell people doing the same thing,I mean that's what people wanted,I supposed. 

Edit:correction made.

Oh,sorry,my bad,it's the Desktop Screenshot thread I am talking about. Thanks for pointing out.....   

Ditto, mikali, I apologize as well, sorry.