Actually I was playing on the word penal and referring to him as a dick. I'm sorry if I offended you.

Hm, okay, explanation failed. Now he tries to discredit v. Nice.

http://comments.deviantart.com/4/10510014/1677477650

The original is the best, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This imitation was without permission, for ego aggrandizement (the "contest") and profit (the sale of the stolen property).

All of his self serving, egotistical statements are nothing but feeble defenses for his brittle, narcissistic Poisonality. Even the name he chose for his port was a synonym for "Venom". He is but John's pale shadow.

What his claims remind me of is the following:

GRiM's (my substitution) but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5.

Here's a link to another site of his- http://virtualcustoms.net/viewforum.php?f=75&sid=cc07739e072bff808df5d0972c342ef5

                                           Poisen- http://virtualcustoms.net/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=4334

So yeah, I've been following this whole thing since it started and I support John entirely. I'm the one who sent messages to the groups MrGrim was in and those group founders on dA took it upon themselves to remove him. Well, most of them.

One of them decided to send me a note back, he was friends with MrGrim. Okay, that's cool. He said he would try to discuss it with him and he would get back to me. Thinking nothing more of it, I didn't respond. Today, I had a note in my PM box on Deviant Art from him which said...

Hi again
The skin has now been removed from deviantART, even though there was clear proof this was not an art theft as MrGrim provided the full psd files public which shows he had created every single detail himself.
Anyway, even with that proof, vStyler and his "supporters" would not stop complaining and kept sending offensive comments and spamming group walls (including my groups) which lead me to ban a few people from commenting in my group. Also, vStyler has created a thread at windowscustomize only with the purpose of getting more people against mrgrim, more of his "supporters" to help spamming mrgrim here and on mrgrim's site.

Thought i would keep you updated as promised

- SG

I wouldn't have even posted this if it wasn't for the pseudo-mockery of Wincustomize and John's "supporters" as it were.

I don't understand people sometimes.

Analogy incoming.... this was my response to the above...

This has been coming for a long time. Instead of posting a skin to some torrent or file-share site, someone with a decent knowledge of WB was going to start making copies.

The disturbing things about this is

• Somewhere, someone, originally purchased the skin and then illegally redistributed it
• They could even be a member of the site. This is very likely because you would have to really be into this shit to go to such great lengths.

Maybe this is science-fictional-wishing, but is there no way to mark the purchases so they can be tracked back to the purchaser? Perhaps making the user have to register the skin????? Yeah, a whole lot of trouble for everyone, but this has been going on since before Master Skins existed and it ain't gonna go away or get any better.  And this yo-yo has probably found new and even greater inspiration to keep his little corner of the shit-pile active and growing.

Perhaps someone with an amazing vocabulary and astounding use of the English language could write an article and submit it to a site like Lifehacker where the attention wouldn't be limited to just this community or DA's. Lifehacker is very much into desktop customization and intellectual copyright. They may find such a well written article worth posting and supporting even if it did come from 'Down Under'...ahem...as it were.

This sucks that it happened to you, John. I for one, am more than aware of the time you put into your work and what a prick of a perfectionist you really are.

In the meantime, I would reccomend backing off on DA, the thief through DA, and his cronies on THIS matter. They may not listen the next time or listen as quickly if the assault goes on with such vigor over work that has been removed. You've all won this battle.

We do get a registration code with each purchase on here, but I haven't had to input it anywhere in regards to Masterskins.

I gotta agree with Po here.

Grimmy has been figuratively tarred and feathered. Making some of the remarks of what should be literally done to him, was kind of...

he obviously doesn't get it however as this skin was sold as a master skin wouldn't lose of income be a letigious possibility?

I know I've been away for a long time now.... special thanks to Tim for updating me on this group of rippers

link:

http://mrgrim01.deviantart.com/gallery/?26188400&loggedin=1#/d2apbxl

Comment left:

wow, those folder icons look a whole lot like my own dude.... if anyone is interested in the ''original'' icon package (and in my personal opinion a world better looking) from 2 freaking years ago and get IT for free then go here... [link]

"The greatest Windows 7 Themes, desktop gadgets, wallpapers and Icon packs etc from our talented Artists and WSB Tutorials." -- more like the greatest no talent rippers

and reported ofcourse

Good seeing you Shawn!!   Sorry it's under these circumstances.

yeah, well life is busy. nice to see the rippers roaming deep into some archives though  lol

I agree! How could someone possibly know the how's or why's when John created Venom without ever looking at the original...as this grim claims he didn;t do. He's have to be psychic to have them come out looking...from what I could see...exactly the same in most of what he had posted there. I "see" John's stuff all the time and I couldn't re-create them even after seeing them...hell...even while seeing them for that matter. To get the colors and effects exactly the same you'd have to have the psds or the skin itself.

And you see what I mean...here's a guy pretending to be SKOriginals! Hi Shawn! I mean really...how could someone know how SK would talk and type his sentences unless he was actually SK and the guy even has his avatar! The nerve of some people! Oh...hi Shawn. Now as I was saying...you...uh...Shawn? Oh hey dude...long time no see!

Oh and by the way...keep an eye out for my new skin Strident!

GRiM forgot to mention how he "just got a peek. once." at Shawn's icons, didn't he...hmmmm....and gmc2, you're right. Hope Bebi didn't hear you.

I agree with all of you on this, this is poor taste.  Totally wrong.  While I may disagree with most of the logic behind charging for skins, simply not supporting the business model and even moving away from Windowblinds is how it appears most in the community have handled things.  Diminishing user base, fewer skins created, etc. is proof of what is happening to the community. 

The cost of ownership, using Wincustomize and it's branded "Master Skinners" products, has more than double, triple, etc the cost of windowblinds.  Honestly it shouldn't surprise anyone considering where the roots of this community originated....   hacking away at Window's 95 code.

Is there a way to place encrypted watermarks inserted into the skin code upon purchase so you can trace the origin?