So, for those that know me, My name is Mark and I own TalkvBulletin.com, which has been releasing some new skins lately for free. I'm going through my stats this evening, and I come accross a website which has taken a free skin I offer, and changed the link back / designed by Talkvb in the footer to read "Skin designed by: Ultimate Internet Resources".

My question is, is there anything I can do about this and should I continue to release free skins / graphics if people are going to steal them or claim them as thier own works?

Here is the skin I offer: http://www.talkvbulletin.com/vbullet...reen-skin.html

Here is the offending site: http://forum.kahiye.com/index.php

I also noticed they have removed the vbulletin copywrite, they are a Pakistani website, and chances are, there isn't much I can do about this. The host for the site I believe is a friend of the owner, and is a reseller of hosting, which may or may not be based in the us.

Any help you could offer would be great.

Thanks.

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I don't think you can really do anything about that. At least they are not redistributing it. That's your only consolance atm.

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If we jump to conclusion they have warez vb and they obviously really don't care about peoples work even if they get it for free

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You could report them to jelsoft for suspicious activity.

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I went to Vegas, and all I got was this Blister. - true story!

That is what I would do.

Also I don't know if you can do much about them using your skin. Just for the heck of it maybe send them an e-mail and see what they say. They not reply, but maybe the might think about it.

Then if you follow up with Jelsoft it might make it very uncomfortable for them.

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Well, as a update, I had reported them to Jelsoft to verify thier license. Additionally I registered and contacted the admins and asked them to comply with my copyright so I could continue to release new skins. I checked this morning and guess what.... they fixed it... well half They gave my credit back in the footer, but still have not kept the link back. Maybe with a little more communication, I can get that fixed as well. I am truely supprised that they actually fixed it. I simply explained that I could not continue to offer free vbulletin skins if the public was going to take advantage of me, and they complied.

Guess I got lucky this time around!

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This is great to hear ... and please don't stop making skins.... it would be very bad for vb community since yours are one of the best ! and that kind of people will pop out from time to time ... but all of us rest appreciate your work !

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Yes very good to hear. Maybe they do know what they are doing. I am glad it is starting to work out for you.

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Sorry I missed this thread...but the good news is that it sounds like things are working out here

I have experience with this in the past, and have found something that does seem to work more often than not. First of all, there is nothing that you can do to them legally, within reason. Because of this, you must resort to your good ole fear tactics

First, contact the owner of those forums via email. Tell them that you've noticed that they are using your skin but have removed the credit. You own exclusive rights to that skin and once downloading and installing that skin, the user agrees that you dictate what can and cannot be done to the skin without express permission. Part of this agreement was to leave the footer copyright/credit in tact. Because the link has been removed, you lose traffic, search engine rankings, and thus potential for financial harm. Ask them to please replace the link within 24 hours before you are forced to take this any further.

If no link in 24 hours, then take it further. Do a whois on their domain and track down the host. Contact the host with the same information...it helps to include full names (of the site owners) and a link to your proof of ownership. Be sure to mention financial harm in the email to the host. Also, I forgot the exact law, but it wouldn't hurt to do some research...I know there is some law out there (US) regarding copyright violations that includes hosts. Tell the host that they are responsible for their clients' websites and if they do not take action when alerted of a copyright violation, they are liable and will be held to the fullets extent of the law.

One of these two emails should definitely solve the problem...the second will usually result in the host either forcing them to add the link or shutting them down.

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Thats a great idea Ryan. if you do that Mark, that should really put the preausre on them to put your link back, if they choose not to in the first place.

Glad you got half of your credit back hehe and good luck with the other half!

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