I've been on the net since before it was called "the net". For the past 15 years straight I have been on-line since the days of running a network of BBSes back on my C-64.

And the longer I'm on and the more I see, the more I'm convinced that it is having a fundamental change on social behavior of people.

You see, the net is the great equalizer. It's very empowering. Many constraints on human behavior are lifted by it and this can be bad. Very bad. People can say things with relative impunity.

Kids who have grown up with it have never had to really learn about connecting their social behavior with any consequences. A snotty little 15 year old running around annoying people in person would likely suffer physical consequences (i.e. get the crap kicked out of them). This connection between behavior and consequences is actually a pretty useful socializing mechanism. People learn to behave more civily.

But watch out, here comes the net and suddenly kids have found that they cna act out whatever aggressive personality fantasies they may have. There are entire websites where teens behave in ways that are just socially awful. They'd never behave that way in public (I can't imagine some 15 year old speaking to me the way some of these people on the net speak to people).

It makes me wonder how things are going to progress as we become an increasingy virtual society. Adults have always complained that teens "these days" aren't respectful but really and truly there really seems to be a growing problem because of the leveling effect of the Internet.

What do you think?

If you subscribe to WinCustomize for a year, you get access to the beta of the Skin browser immediately. Though the first beta only works on XP/2K (we expect to resolve that in a few days), it's already pretty darn cool.

Here are some screenshots:
https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-2.jpg

https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-3.jpg

https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-4.jpg

I honestly think that after having used the skin browser that it really changes the way you use customization software.

Here's why:

1) It knows how to apply the skins directly. You can literally look at a WinAmp skin or a DesktopX object or a wallpaper and click "Apply" as if it was on yoru hard drive and the browser will literally download and apply it for you (putting the file in the proper directory for you too - even if the file is inside a zip file!)

2) It treats comments like looking at Outlook Express or something. This may greatly increase the amount of comments people see on skins.

3) It is incredibly fast. It's downright freaky.

4) If you don't have the program it needs, it'll download it for you or at least take you to the page (this is not yet fully implemented - works for OUR apps ).

If you want to get it, here's where to go:
https://store.stardock.com/addproduct.asp?PRODUCT_ID=ESD-SDS-W052

The WinCustomize skin browser is now available in beta (though it only works on Win2K/XP right now). It comes as part of your WinCustomize 1-year subscription which for a limited time is only $19.95 for the ENTIRE year (that's less than $2 per month!)

Your WinCustomize subscription won't only provide that. During the course of this year you'll receive premium skin suites, exclusive WinCustomize features, unlimited downloads, and more. Plus, you help support a site that has virtually no advertisements, no pop ups, and is very fast and clean. Our hope is that subscribers will be able to make WinCustomize self-sufficient.

To become a subscriber, here is the link:
https://store.stardock.com/addproduct.asp?PRODUCT_ID=ESD-SDS-W052

Please try to use the email address you used on WinCustomize so that the subscriber email addresses can be cross referenced (not required though).

The Skin Browser even in beta is pretty darn cool. It can apply skins DIRECTLY from the site. Heck, just for changing wallpapers it's really cool let alone changing Windows Media Player, WinAmp, DesktopX, WindowBlinds, etc.

So where are we at in customizing Windows?

When it comes to skinning, nothing even approaches Windows for it. Not Linux, not Mac, nothing. Obviously a big reason for that is tied to the sheer volume of software developers available on Windows. But those software developers can't create the demand for it.

So what created the demand? As Windows has taken over the desktop, refugees have come from other operating systems. I myself am an OS/2 refugee. And the one size fits all thing that is Windows doesn't suit all of us. Most people are fine with the default Windows look and feel as they run their browser, email program and office suite. But a few percent of the Windows using population wants to be able to customize it to suit their needs and 2% of 500 million is 10 million people.

Today, you've got the basics pretty well covered:
You've got your alternative shells like Litestep, Talisman, Hoverdesk, Geoshell. Check.

You've got your desktop shell enhancers like DesktopX, NeXTStart. Check.

You've got your Start bar replacementments/extenders like ObjectBar. Check.

You've got GUI changes like WindowBlinds. Check.

You've got programs that can change your icons like IconPackager, Microangelo, and various others. Check.

And you've got plenty of individual skinnable programs (MP3 players, IRC clients, editors, etc.). Check.

And now you even have a program that lets you put together all this stuff as a suite to change it all together at once with WinStyles (http://www.winstyles.com). Check.

So now what? What are some things we hope to see done next? Lest we end up with the inevitable "Is innovation in customization dying?" we'll need to do more than just improve on these programs.

That's where the video card makers come into play. With Windows XP, Microsoft has started to care about 3rd generation customization a bit more (or more possibly, Apple's Aqua interface has made Microsoft care more). The result is that XP is full of cool little APIs that make customization of new things quite cool.

WindowFX 2 shows some of the things that are possible and it's just the tip of the ice berg. 3D interfaces, morphing windows, context sensitive displays of partial windows, all these things are useful but presently are left to the world of "pretty but useless screenshotware". That's because without hardware acceleration - SERIOUS hardware acceleration this stuff is too slow. WindowBlinds, for instance, only made it into the truly big leagues with version 3 because it finally reached the point that it was fast enough where using it didn't have any downsides anymore for most people. 3rd generation customization will require the same thing, that the hardware accelerate this sort of thing so that you get the eye candy and productivity gains without any of the pain.

So assuming assuming you have hardware acceleration, what sorts of things do you imagine seeing with 3rd generation Windows customization?

Mozilla RC2 is out and it's pretty darn impressive. It's really got the goods:

1) Fully skinnable (especially if you use WindowBlinds with it)
2) Can block pop up ads
3) Fast
4) Clean UI.

So can it make a dent or is it too late? What do you think?

Not a day goes by where we don't get an email that goes like this: "I downloaded WindowBlinds but how do I create my own skins for it?" Or "I downloaded SkinStudio but how do I get it to apply my skins?"

So we decided to create a single package for Windows XP users (which cuts the size down - it's only 4 megabytes in the combined package and it includes several WB visual styles too).

Now users can download and install it and be all ready to add any of the thousands of WindowBlinds skins/visual styles as well as well as create them.

The full version is only $29.95 and the full version of SkinStudio XP not only has all the features of the full version of WindowBlinds but also the not so well known features of SkinStudio Pro such as the ability to create your own personal visual style by mixing and matching pieces from other visual styles as well as using GUI widgets created by Treetog, Alexandrie, and others.

The new site should hopefully be much faster and has some great new features. Click on the edit account feature at top to play around with some of the new customization features. We're still ironing out kinks here and there of course.

On Wednesday we will be opening things up for subscribers. Subscribers will get the new WinCustomize browser (https://www.stardock.com/products/skinbrowser/sb-may02.jpg) which has all sorts of cool features. Subscribers will also get a host of other goodies such as premium skin suites and more over the course of their year.

Special thanks to Alexandrie and T-man who literally worked day and night over the past 2 months to rewrite WinCustomize. Also thanks to Pixtudio who created this cool new default look for the site and a cool WindowBlinds visual style to go with it.

All modesty aside, I consider myself pretty familiar with intellectual property law. I didn't mean to become so well acquainted but having been sued over trademark and dealing with Apple, Microsoft, and going through the patent process have taught me what is what.

Unfortunately, most people on the Internet know very little on these issues. That doesn't seem to stop them from writing highly charged opinionated articles that make broad claims of intellectual property.

First off, forget what you think you know about IP law in theory. Theory and practice are two different things:
http://www.avault.com/developer/getarticle.asp?name=bwardell8

In real life, intellectual property protection goes as far as your money will take you. So forget the "Oh well Microsoft couldn't do anything about it because they'd be in the wrong on issue X, Y, Z." Wrong. If someone has money and you don't, they can grind you into the dust. You tick off a company and they can squash you like a bug no matter how righteous you think. And if you're a company, a bigger company can do the same to you.

That said, let's talk about the issue as it relates to skinning:

There are 3 issues that crop up:

1) Copyright violations
2) Trademark violations
3) Tradedress violations

1) Copyright violations are what are known as rips. People who aren't familiar with IP law think everything is a copyright violation. They're wrong. Copyright law is very specific. And it has a lot of gray areas. It has to do with taking someone elses material and using it without authorization and reproducing it. There is a lot of gray area on derivative works (hence where the lawyers come in). This is particularly true in digital art. If I take your wallpaper, apply tons of filters to it, and resubmit it, am I violating your copyright? It's a gray area that only the moderators of a given site or the court system can really decide, typically on a case by case basis.

Here at WinCustomize, we throw out copyright violations. Rips are copyright violations. You take someone's wallpaper and upload it here, that's a copyright violation and it's history. You take someone's skin and upload it here, same deal. You take someone's Hoverdesk theme and port it to Litestep without permission that's a copyright violation and it's gone.

The gray area comes up when you've made significant changes to it. Let's say you've taken a Kaleidoscope theme and ported it to WindowBlinds but doing so changed the actual graphics quite a bit but the final skin looks pretty much the same. Does that violate copyright? That's a harder case but it DOES violate trade dress which we'll talk about in a minute and we'd delete such a skin here. Having a gray copyright issue is one thing, add tradedress and that puts it over the top.

2) Trademark. This is where you take something that is designed to be associated with something else and use it for your own purposes.

There are two types of trademark issues:
a) Unauthorized use of trademark
Trademark violations.

You start up a fan site for Episode 2 and have Star Wars logo and other things on there from the movies and you hvae unauthorized use of trademark. Some companies work hard to enforce their trademark and stop fan sites. The X-box and Lord of the Ring skins here are unauthorized uses of trademark. We let skins like that here because they fall in the same category as fan websites.

Trademark violations are a different matter. That's where you're using someone else's trademark and re-defining it. This creates confusion which is why trademarks were created in the first place. If I took that X-box logo and used it to create "X-box Computers" which aren't affiliated with the game machine at all or are using it to sell a product designed to give users a false association then that can be a serious problem.

The two are quite similar and sometimes they decide that the former falls into the latter. Hence, if I start up a Coca-cola fan site they may be okay with that until I start selling Coca-Cola T-shirts. Then they may shut me down for giving a false association with their trademark.

3) Trade dress
This is fairly specific to skinning actually. When Apple demands people get rid of Aqua skins, they refer to Trade DRESS violations unless the skin actually uses the Aqua images and then they can bring in copyright violations as well (yes, icons ARE protected by copyright).

Tradedress is similar in enforcement to trademarks. Many many sites use the XP look. This is an unauthorized use of trade dress. The same is true of Luna skins. Microsoft is well aware of these and thus far has not objected.

So why do sits like Wincustomize allow OS skins? Aren't they rips? Nope. They do not violate copyright (unless they literally stole the bitmap resources which is possible but hard to tell). But they are unauthorized use of trade dress.

So when people argue that skin sites have double standards on ripping, the fact is, no, they don't.

Skins Sites police copyright violations. Rips are copyright violations. We find them, we eliminate them.

We trade the latter two issues (trade dress and trade mark) much like the equivalent of fan sites.

Geocities and Yahoo have zillions of Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire slayer, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc. fan sites on them. There are fan sites for most popular games, etc. WinCustomize treats this in the same way as Geocities and Yahoo handle the fan sites they host - if the trade dress/trademark holder objects, we'll help them enforce their rights. Otherwise we'll work on the assumption that they're sane companies that want positive expressions by fans to exist.

I for one would love to see an Episode II theme. And I suspect if George Lucas were into skinning he'd want one too.

We have merged the WindowBlinds, WinXP, and GUI Olympics visual styles all into the WindowBlinds section to clean up the site a little bit.

If you are looking for WB visual styles, just look in the WindowBlinds section.

Here's another sneak peek for those of you who plan on supporting WinCustomize by becoming a premium subscriber. The skin browser - WinCustomize.exe ties directly into the WinCustomize database.