i didnt sent them any love letter yet ..... but lemme know guys if they get affected by your love stories .....

got my reply, but i did sent more of a honey letter than a vinegar one........

Hello,

          We were unable to contact you, because we didn't find an email address. It's company policy to inform all producers when we publish their work in order to avoid misunderstandings such as this one. Anyway, would you like to completely remove your listings or just the links from our servers?

Sorry for any inconvenience
Have a good day!

Best regards,
Stefan Fintea
mailto:stefan@softpedia.com
Softpedia Senior IT Manager
http://www.softpedia.com
Join the Softpedia group on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2366085

hello,
 
I am the author Vampothika at wincustomize, and it has been brought to my attention that your site has most of my curors for download.
I did not upload my cursors at your site, nor did I give permission for you to host them there. Please remove them from your site,
thankyou.
 
Kitty. (vampothika)

Hello everybody

Let me start by explaining a few things and if you still have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them:

Softpedia does not exploit anyone's work. We respect our producers, we give them credit for their work, links to their homepage/websites and we award the ones who deserve it.

We don't like the idea of going around their/your back, that's why we search for each producer's email. If we do find it, they receive a notification message. The idea behind this email is simple: the producer gets notified each time his worked goes online at Softpedia, he can see if the listing meets his requirements and acknowledges his wish to have that item on Softpedia.

On the other hand, if he thinks that listing is not in his benefit, all he has to do is reply to that email (as Jim did) and we remove his work asap. There are cases (like Vampothika's) when we're unable to find a contact email, but in these cases the author can easily contact us through the forms found on our website and send us his requests: whether he asks for an update or a removal, we strive to do our best in order to have satisfied producers and users.

So, if anyone feels that having their work published and awarded on one of the biggest and most respected download portals is not in their benefit or puts them in a bad light, an email we'll easily solve the problem, as Jim and Vampothika proved it already. As I said before, we're not trying to take advantage of your work and we do respect your decision, whichever it may be.

Thank you!

Stefan Fintea, Softpedia Senior IT Manager

What a load of crap!

It's one thing when you contact the person..but when you claim you can find no way to contact them..or posting their work before they respond...where the fuck do you get off posting the work ANYWAY?!?!?! Pretty fucking convenient for you if  that person never finds out about it.

I'd like to see you do that with a Stephen King Novel or maybe some Green Day mp3's.

As for 'respect'.... sorry, you don't have mine. I'm sure a lot of other folks feel the same way. You're 'big' because you you take and post so much stuff without permission, buttmunch! Any fucking body could do that. In your case, portal is just another word for toilet. You're all about accumulating the most shit.

edit* Does Stardock support these folks? They should force them to follow the same rules we have to here as artists and get the fucking permission first! If they don't, then pull all Stardock stuff/permissions from their site!

Stefan,

Proper conduct when dealing with others' intellectual copyright is to seek permission FIRST.

It is not appropriate to require feedback/responses [if available] in order to opt-out of your choice to exploit artists' property.

I am sure that many, if not all artists, if approached first would be quite willing to give consent, as it is with that approach that they [the artists] will see a willingness on the part of your site to respect their property rights.

The situation we have here at Wincustomize.com [and other similar skinning/art sites] is that the author/owner of the work uploads his/her content to the site and retains physical access and control of that work when or if it is his/her decision to remove or alter it.  Such is not the case with Softpedia as the occasion clearly has arisen where owners are actually oblivious to the unauthorised redistribution.

The only correct approach would be to remove any and all works which have [yet] no legitimate consent until such time as it/they are obtained....

You forgot ther part that says "If we can't find a way to contact them, we fucking post it anyway because we fucking can! In fact, we don't even wait for a response, because we don't fucking care and we fucking post it anyway!"

Please add that so I can post the entire piece of crap on every skinning site I belong to and then some.

Gotta love Twitter.

If you follow Sam or me, be sure to retweet.

*edit

Nozavi, Senior IT Manager Softpedia has been a member here since Feb 2008 and CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CONTACT THE SKINNERS WHOSE ART THEY POST!?!?!?!!?!!? IS THIS RIGHT? If so, you're worse than a Troll or a lurker. How many other softpedia trolls are scouting for art to steal? YOU'RE the one that PERSONALLY responded to Vampothikas letter, YOU'RE a 'member' of this site for over a year...but you can't figure out how to contact the artists!!!!!  

I'm so freakin' steamed...I'd kiss skinhits ass if it would get you permantly banned from the site.

Very interesting, might be nice to hear the explaination, or not. 

1. You have been a member here for some time.

2. Anyone enjoying that status (and even posting here about Desktop X) should have seen how sensitive the Artists are about their work, and it's accreditation.

3. You could have notified the members/Artist's involved using the email/pm system in place here at Wincustomize, so your explanation does not hold water.

4. In essence, therefore you have violated the TOS of Wincustomize, by taking Art and putting it on your site without contacting the Artist who were easily within reach.

I figure since everyone else is ragging on about content,
and I have none here on WC, only my Overlays and a couple of small things on the site I Admin,
I'd set the record straight on the above mentioned term.
The "over and out" crap came from some Hollywood creampuff who figured it sounded more dramatic for the movies.
It is however technically incorrect.
So there.

M-203 out...

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Er, no... You should contact the artist before displaying their work.

Your flagrant disregard for people's intellectual property is astonishing.