Ok a question for admin, if I make a theme(WB) with Final Fantasy graphics on it(characters, ff logo...) Do I need to ask their permission? and A Corvette WB skin? I'm all confused about these copyright stuff, so please help me out here

Ok a question for admin, if I make a theme(WB) with Final Fantasy graphics on it(characters, ff logo...) Do I need to ask their permission? and A Corvette WB skin? I'm all confused about these copyright stuff, so please help me out here

My understanding is you need permission to upload it, but not for personal use.

Sorry Geoffrey Montgomery, since admins on this site decides whether permission is needed or not I will wait for their reply.

The final fantasy theme would be included in the category of 'fan art' which ideally would still 'need' permission/consent but in public site common-use would be accepted provided there was a clear indication as to the source of the 'fan' images [that they were indeed such and not original creations].

Fan art that is derived from another's interpretation of 'fan art' , rather than from the source game image would be considered not 'OK'.

Example....

A site has a blue game image in right-hand orientation.

'Fan #1' mods it by making it red and reversing it.

You borrow Fan #1's image and use it instead of the source game image.

Then there's a problem.

It all sounds iffy and tenuous....and in an ideal world absolutely NOTHING not your own would be uploaded anywhere for any reason, no matter what.

In that case, however, it would follow that ALL screenshots were unlawful as they ALL contain portions of graphics or even fonts that are not yours to 'duplicate' or 'distribute'.

And THAT is exactly why there needs to be a reality check with common sense.

Without that nasty 'grey area' there would be no skinning of any form what-so-ever.

No EULA specifically states permission to distribute through screenshot the Iexplore.exe icon, for example [yet it shows up on many screenshots].  No EULA states specifically that you may actually alter and/or create ANY variation of a launch icon to be associated with that program.

Surely each and every alternate shell to Explorer.exe is in violation of some rule and/or regulation somewhere in the bowels of MS copyright as these shells interface with the MS kernel without specific formal consent to do so.

Lots of validation for grey areas when you think about it...

"No EULA specifically states permission to distribute through screenshot the Iexplore.exe icon, for example [yet it shows up on many screenshots]."

Thankfully, though, copyright law allows for 'incidental use', like a copyrighted image happening to be in a news report, or an image of an icon being incidentally included in an screenshot of someone's desktop. If I take a picture of my car and upload it to Ebay to sell, the image of the automaker's logo is incidental, and if I upload an image of my desktop and there is an IE icon, it is the same.

If, however, I extract the actual .ico file, glass it over, and upload it in my name with no credit to the original author, it is a very different proposition. I think that if one of us took some original icons from a local WC artist, glassed them over and uploaded them to Devart, the reaction would be much, much less 'grey'.

RE: Fords and GMs, I don't think I'll bugger off this time, thanks. The topic of the site is skinning, not fan art and icon 'porting', so the analogy isn't spot on. I have have ceased to care about Wincusto's policy, actually. When you try and justify the fairness of it, though, you inspire debate. Why bother? You don't have to justify it.

The best thing to do is just to state the policy and leave it at that. Then there can be no argument.


[Message Edited]

OK, Baker...consider it stated....

rather than from the source game image would be considered not 'OK'.

So If I take ss and wp from the source game then use it in my wb skin without permission, will my skin be accepted in WC?

"gonna go round in circles, gonna fly high like a bird up in the sky"

#59

And the wax on your wings will melt in the sun, Icarus!
Oh dear, oh dear...

Z06....probably, but indicate clearly in the description where such images were sourced....

Thanks Paul